Garden Notes: Late Spring

 We're in that time of year where temps can swing quite a bit over the days and nights, with the trend gradually pushing toward warmer and drier weather as spring gives way to summer. I'm not looking forward to the heat.

This year's garden is not an ambitious one. Dan had a knee replacement in early March, so we adjusted our expectations to allow for recovery time. Most of the planting is done for now, so garden chores revolve around watering as needed, mulching as plants get tall enough, and weeding until we get to that point. I work in the garden most mornings until going on 10, when it's getting too warm in the sun.

Here are my late spring garden photos:

These early peppers are a treat. This is one of the 3 surviving pepper plants I overwintered
in the greenhouse. One of the others is flowering, but the last one probably won't make it.

Another greenhouse survivor, a volunteer cherry tomato
plant. We'll have tomatoes on our salads early this year!

My red raspberries are doing abundantly well. 

EXCEPT!

A groundhog has taken up residence under the raspberry bed!
So far, it has eluded attempts to be captured and re-homed.

Said groundhog has done quite a bit of damage in the pea and lettuce bed.

All my pea plants have been pulled down and the ends eaten off. The last of the spring lettuce has been eaten as well. It will soon be too hot for lettuce, so I haven't replanted. I've sprayed the peas with a critter be-gone product, but I'm not hopeful. We usually eat peas abundantly through June, but not this year.

Even so, I've had a few peas to pick. But we're missing our customary pea salads.

Raspberries and kefir for breakfast, with a sprinkle of ginger and cloves

Cantaloupe in the African keyhole garden

Slicing tomato flower

Volunteer lambs quarter

 The photo above was taken in the old Buff Orpington yard. They had pretty much scratched and eaten everything down to the dirt by the time we moved them into the large chicken yard. Everything in there now is volunteers. We have tons of lambs quarter and black oil sunflowers! Those are from the chicken scratch. We also have a few elderberry trees and kudzu, which I feed to the goats.

We eat lambs quarter fresh in salad and steamed or sauteed as a green. 

The clusters of leaves can be harvested all summer.

This year instead of canning some, I've been dehydrating it.

Dried and chopped lambs quarter leaves.

It's a great addition to soups, stews, or to make lambs quarter lasagna or quiche.

And here's some living art. The Egyptian walking onions grow in the most interesting ways. 

Red raspberries and horse radish leaves in the background

Corn, cucumbers, beans, and okra are all coming up. Slicing tomatoes and sweet potatoes are coming along too. And so are the weeds! Why are there always so many weeds to tame? 

So that's my garden at the end of May. Care to share yours?

Garden Notes: Late Spring © May 2026

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

The Cheese Cave Is No More

The cheese cave is now gone.

So what happened? It started to leak. After I'd had it about two weeks, I found a puddle of water seeping out from beneath it. I thought at first that perhaps it was because I was using the floor duct to vent it. So I pulled it away from the wall, mopped up the water, and kept and eye on it. But it still kept leaking. Clearly something was wrong. 

I contacted customer support with the idea of replacing it, but they would only refund me for this one after it was returned. Then I was to buy another one. Except the special buy price was gone and a new one was higher, so I said I'd rather shop around. 

I rearranged my solar powered chest fridge, which is working out just fine. I can keep it at the required cheese curing temperature, and it has the advantage of higher humidity—needed for curing cheese anyway. The beverage cooler maintained a low humidity. 

UPS picked it up yesterday, and I'm back to trying to figure out my pantry arrangements. That corner currently looks like this . . . 

So I had an idea, and now I have to re-envision it. I've about decided the rolling cart will stay, as I like to have access to the window. I open the windows to let the night air help cool the pantry, which helps with storage longevity. 

So my pantry project has been temporarily slowed down. But I think I'll make some progress this afternoon. I'd really like to get everything back in place. 

The Cheese Cave Is No More © 2026

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Of Proper Cheesemaking Equipment

I have to say that I feel I am pretty good at making do. There is a satisfaction in finding a workaround to a problem, especially when it involves not having to buy something. In my Tons of Milk post, I showed you my making-do way of pressing cheese with my rigged cheese press. Unfortunately, the precarious stacking of jars to weight the curds eventually could prove disastrous at times, such as when they toppled over. When I broke a large jar containing my arrowroot powder, I decided it was time to invest in a proper cheese press. 

This is the one I showed you in my Tons of Milk post.

Now that I've had a chance to use it, I can tell you that I like it better than anything I've tried previously. It's very heavy-duty. I like the crank and the way it applies even pressure to press the cheese. I admit I was skeptical that it would hold a two-gallon cheese, but it does.

Freshly pressed cheese from two gallons of milk. It weighs 2 pounds, 2 ounces.

The mold for this one has no bottom so whey can't collect in its bottom.

It sits on a base which has a spout for draining the whey.

I set the press in a baking sheet to catch the excess whey.

I'm still learning how to use it, as in how much to turn the crank and how to best wrap the curds in cheesecloth. For some reason my cheeses always have indentations of the folds of the cheesecloth. 

My other hesitation for making hard cheeses has been my climate. During milk season, it can get much too hot for proper aging of cheese, including in my pantry. Many cheese makers have a small fridge or "cheese cave," in which a consistent temp of between 45 and 55°F (7 to 13°C) can be maintained. I just didn't think I had room for one. But I did figure out that I can maintain 45°F (7°C) in the containers in the top of my solar powered chest fridge. 

Trouble is, it can't hold more than four cheese. So I started looking around for something with which I could make a cheese cave. The best option was a beverage cooler. It can be set to the required temps and is much cheaper than a wine cooler. I found one on special buy at Home Depot for half the price of a similar size at Lowes. 

But where would I put it? I have no room for it in the kitchen, so the pantry seemed the best place.

Potential home for a cheese cave?

My concern was the compressor putting out heat and heating the pantry more than it already gets during summer. When I kept my freezer and second fridge in the pantry, they added quite a bit of heat. This little fridge is smaller, but still, I had an idea.

The vent cover for the unused ductwork under the house is the same width as the cooler.

I had seen previously, where someone vented their fridge this way. Could I do it too? 

Dan made a styrofoam seal the same size as the blower opening in the back of the cooler. It fit perfectly and will hopefully help exhaust heat from the fridge compressor out of the pantry.

Cheese sizes from the old press will only fit 3 cheeses
per shelf. But the shelves will hold 4 from the new press.

The challenge now is keeping up the proper humidity for the cheeses. Cheese likes something like 90% humidity, so to maintain that, I'm experimenting.

At the moment, I'm contemplating what to do with that corner in the pantry. I can't put back the old shelf unit back because they are now too wide. The cheese cave takes up part of the space needed for their depth, so I'll need something narrower. That's my next project. 

Making do is great, but sometimes there's a greater need for proper equipment. "Food First" is one of our homestead mottos, and if this helps preserve our milk better, I've made a wise investment. 

Of Proper Cheesemaking Equipment © 2026

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Riley Is Gone

A couple of days after my Miracle Cat blog post, Riley slipped out the back door and never came back. Considering his age and mobility issues, we didn't think he could have gotten far. We searched everywhere. Every day for days we looked for him in all the places he used to go. We daily retraced our steps as we hunted again. We called and called, but never found him. Considering his health problems, we didn't think he could survive long on his own. After several weeks we can only assume he passed over the Rainbow Bridge, even though there is no trace of his remains. 

It's been about a month now, but I still look for him when I'm outdoors, especially when I pass one of the favorite napping spots of his old age. I can't help it. It's hard not knowing for sure what happened; not being able to bury his body properly. Even so, I feel it's my sad duty to pay tribute to his life.

May 2010

Riley (right) & his sister Katy 1 (2010-2011)

June 2010

July 2010

July 2010

August 2010

December 2010

February 2014

April 2012

October 2013

September 2013

August 2022

April 2011

He was a part of our family for 16 years. He is still a part of our hearts.

Riley Is Gone © 2026 by Leigh at

https://www.5acresandadream.com

Heads-Up On Great Deal

I just wanted to pass on this excellent deal for Permies.com's Permaculture Adventure Bundle. It was originally promoted in 2023, and has been selling for $65 for several years. This week it's on sale for $35. The lowest price ever!

It contains over 43 resources worth $514. 

• John Bush & Paul Wheaton - Simple and Affordable Permaculture: Growing Your Own Food on a Budget
• Nicole Sauce SMART homesteading webinar
• Teri Capshaw of the Homestead Larder, Homestead Building Plans Bundle
• Mortise & Tenon Apprenticeship Series - The Foundations
• Permaculture Design Magazine (2 issues)
• Grow Fruit Trees with Ease: Fruit Tree Fundamentals e-course by Susan Poizner
• Stockman Grass Farmer complete 2022 (12 issues)
• Handmade Natural Soaps ebook + Natural Facial Soaps ebooks from Jan Berry, Nerdy Farm Wife
• Simple Mead Making by Colleen Codekas of Grow Forage Cook Ferment
• Robin Clayfield, You Can Have Your Permaculture and Eat It Too ebook
• Weedy Gardener Down the Carrot Hole film featuring Geoff Lawton
• Harold Thornbro, Working Together: The Homestead Tree Handbook ebook
• Michael Judd, Mushroom chapter from Edible Landscaping
• Kate Downham - How to Create a Resilient Off-grid home ebook
• Tiny House Magazine (3 issues)
• Lynn Gillespie of Living Farm Preserving Fruit & Veg guide
• Leigh Tate, Goat Lovers eBook Duo: How To Get Cream From Goats' Milk & How To Make Goats' Milk Mozzarella
• Amazing elderberry presentation with John Moody
• Garden Master Course companion guide by Andres Bernal
• Tim Barker's Ram Pumps PDC presentation
• Rocket mass heater risers ebook
• Carbon Negative mass heaters webinar with Alan Booker
• Paul Wheaton Podcast gob
• Paul Wheaton's SKIP ebook
• Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop - Building a Better World in your Backyard audio book
• Hugelkultur and Terracing movie from World Domination Gardening
• Microdoc: Building the Easy Bake Coffin

I'm not sure how long it will be on sale, at least this week, maybe longer (???)

You can see pictures of what's included, purchase it, or find more information here . . .

Permaculture Adventure Bundle

Tons of Milk

"Tons," of course, is a hyperbole, i.e. a figure of speech using exaggeration for emphasis. I don't actually have tons of milk, but I'm getting more at this time of year than I usually get! Between River and Saluda, I'm getting close to a gallon per day. This may not seem like much to milk producers, but for our little homestead it's a lot! The fridge fills up fast so I'm having to do something with milk about every other day.

The reason it's more than usual is because I usually share the milk with the kids. But with River's being stillborn, I'm getting all of her milk. Between the two goats I have more than enough for my regular cheeses and have started making hard, aged cheeses again. 

Straining the morning's milk and my rigged cheese press in the background.

I haven't made hard cheeses in years. 

I pretty much gave up on aged cheeses because of my cheesemaking conditions. Curing cheese requires consistent temps of between 45 and 55. In our climate, my kitchen and pantry are usually too warm, and that doesn't make for good aged cheese. I've fed more cheeses to the chickens than I care to recall. Eventually, I settled on making fresh and Mediterranean cheeses, such as mozzarella, feta, halloumi, domati, farmers, paneer, and ricotta. These aren't aged, but are typically stored in brine, olive oil, or the fridge. Some of them, like the mozzarella and halloumi, can be frozen.

With so much milk, however, I started thinking how lovely it would be to have cheese for slicing all winter. I decided maybe it was time to invest in some proper equipment for this. 

freshly pressed cheese, ready for aging

I bought a new cheese press. 

my new cheese press

It's a Roots & Harvest Cheese Press that I purchased from Pleasant Hill Grain. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know what I think after I give it a try. 

Besides cheese I continue to make kefir as a regular part of our diet. I'm also making cottage cheese, which is quite delicious.

Fresh homemade cottage cheese is hard to stop eating.

And with warm weather, ice cream!

vanilla goat milk ice cream and chocolate sourdough cookies

The cookie recipe is from Kate Downham's Sourdough Without Fail. She calls them "dark chocolate cookies," but Dan and I call them "brownie cookies," because they are like fudgey brownies. It's a perfect recipe for sourdough discard. It uses coconut sugar, but not too much, so they aren't too sweet. They're just the way we like them and perfect with vanilla ice cream. 

Between milk and planting, my days are busy. In the evenings, I'm working on getting a new warp on my big loom. That will be my summer weaving project. 

Tons of Milk © 2026 by Leigh at

https://www.5acresandadream.com