Banana and Goat's Cheese Wrap

How simple and how delicious!  Even without the goat's cheese, this spelt wrap filled with a single banana makes for a divine and healthy snack!

Wheat-free and sugar-free!

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My first attempt at making Chevre was a success!  The cheese didn't set as the recipe intended, so I used lemon juice and heated it slightly on the stove until it seperated.  I didn't press the curds into a solid either, so I ended up with a spreadable soft cheese with a lovely texture and rich flavour. 

Homemade Ice Cream

My last WWOOF host taught me a traditional recipe for homemade ice cream which uses 4 raw eggs, cream, sugar and your choice of flavouring.  Preferring to avoid sugar and raw eggs, and being a bit of a kefir junkie, I decided to find a way to make kefir ice cream without an ice cream maker and which also appealed to Ulf, who loves the creamy flavour of ice cream.  This is my first attempt at something between straight kefir ice cream and the traditional version.  And it tastes amazing...!!!

Banana Kefir-Yoghurt Ice Cream

Combine in a bowl:
3 bananas, mashed with a fork (or two large ones)
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup agave syrup (or you could use honey instead)
1 1/2 cups natural yoghurt
1 cup kefir

In another bowl, beat 300ml cream until aerated and doubled, NOT whipped.
Gently fold cream into first bowl and freeze 6 hours or overnight.

YUM!
P.S. Ulf loves it too!

Hirundo Park Goat Dairy, Mount Sylvia

 Enjoying Mulberries! Yum!

 Our 'little flower' exploring the beautiful spring flower gardens in Toowoomba.

 Round and around and around she went.... and she didn't want to stop!

 The cat having a snooze while Nahlia climbs down the front steps with her favourite dolly and book, to see the chickens.

 The dairy goats, after milking.

A particularly friendly and curious goat who likes to follow me around, and loves a pat!

Baby goats are born every day at the moment.  There's even been two sets of twins!  So cute!

Nahlia sees the baby goats!

Ulf milking.

Chasing the goats out.

We've been wwoofing at a commercial goat dairy.in Mount Sylvia, just south of Gatton (my home-town), for one week now.  Our caravan is parked amongst some shady trees at our host's house which is just up the road from the farm.  We share the house/kitchen/bathroom/laundry with another wwoofer and one of the farm workers.  The goats are milked twice a day - at 5am and again at 2pm.  Ulf does the early shift and I do the afternoon.  This gives me the whole morning to do my breadmaking/cheesemaking/meal planning/cooking/cleaning or whatever I need to do for us as a family.  The work is not difficult, just repetitive.  The goats need to be milked and fed each morning and afternoon.

Using the knowledge that I learnt from our last Wwoof host in Urbenville, I have made my first batch of quark cottage cheese with goat's milk... and it's delicious!  I'm also trying to perfect a recipe for kefir ice cream, without success as yet.  It has given me an accidental creation though - cultured butter!  It's so delicious that I want to keep on making it and never eat regular butter on my bread ever again!

Nahlia has now met some of my family for the first time - my father and stepmother and my brother and his wife.  It's been great to see them and I'm hoping to see them regularly while we're in the area.  It will be sad to say goodbye.

We felt it was time now to look at when it would be best for us to end our Australian Wwoof journey and fly to Germany.  Several factors led us to book flights from Cairns to Amsterdam, departing Tuesday 18th March 2014.  This lets us arrive in Germany in time for Nahlia's 2nd birthday, and it allows us to avoid the expense of driving back to Brisbane after visiting my Mum.  It feels good to have a date to work towards now, and to know how much time we have left.  So Germany here we come!