We are from Norway. We aren’t going anywhere, we have too many animals to look after. 
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We are from Norway. We aren’t going anywhere, we have too many animals to look after.
A Bad Guide
I somehow feel that if I don’t post a comment myself, no one else is likely to. These pictures were all taken last summer, except for the one of Topsy in the snow.
Ha! Ha! Congrats on the blog, my friend! Love the name and quote, and the whole thing looks wonderful. Believe it or not, that card is sitting atop my printer right now.
Well done, and hooray for goats!
I love their little horns. It seems the sheep look (and act) a lot like the dogs.
Congratulations on a fine start. Great images!
I’ve just found that Tesco and Sainsbury’s are selling goats’ milk: skimmed, semi-, or full. This may not be news to you; or indeed, of any interest. But I have little other goat-related gossip to offer.
Noetica, thank you. I’m glad you like the photographs. My plan is to make this mostly a blog of images — photos and drawings — although it’s hard to know exactly what’s going to happen.
Dearie, I’m stunned that Tesco and Sainsbury sell goat products, I’d no idea. Do you have anything on where Noetica can buy Italian cheeses in the Southern Hemisphere? Our goats don’t produce milk, they’re angora goats and we get wool instead (mohair). Any gossip of any kind,on any subject, is always welcome.
Uuuuuuuuuuu.
That being said, I notice a suspicious absence of cats. What giveth?
AJP, whereabouts in the Southern Hemispehere is Noetica? Italian cheeses, that is cheeses actually imported from Italy, are readily available even in my small (50K) town here in Aotearoa. Goats milk products are very popular here, and there’s aeven a sheep dairy now producing ice cream from sheep’s milk, so wherever Noetica is, I am sure that real Italian cheeses will be relatively easy to get hold of.
No, we don’t eat them, we’re just allergic to fur. We have birds (feathers), goats (wool) and a hypoallergenic soft-coated Irish wheaten terrier. My daughter Alma’s Icelandic horse is a potential source of allergy, but even that would not be insurmountable; there’s a breed of hypoallergenic Bashkir curly horses (beware of the Buddy Holly soundtrack) available.
Stuart, is that your site, Pieriansipist? If so, I’ll link to it. I’m looking forward to trying your Italian cheeses, next time I’m in Aotearoa. Are they available on Emerson Street, in Napier?
I think Noetica is in Victoria or S. Australia, but I’m not sure. This is what he wrote: <
So, you see, it’s obviously outstanding cheese and it’s vital we get him an answer.
Have you tried sheep’s ice cream?
AJP: Can’t help on erbolini. I would like to know where can you get tinned whitebait in the northen hemisphere. If indeed tinned whitebait still exists. It goes back to my childhood in Australia, tiny (less than an inch-long) fish in a white sauce that you spread on toast.
Perhaps it was banned because of taking too many toiny fish … ?
Paul, the problem with whitebait is we’re talking about different a fish in the Northern hemisphere. In NZ and Australia whitebait is the common galaxias or inanga. According to Wiki:
Surely you and Noetica could come to an arrangement for the exchange of tins of Australian whitebait in white sauce in return for some real and correctly conceived erbolino?
Sorry, AJP, I hadn’t realised that Noetica was in Vic. If she can’t get a specialty Italian cheese in Melbourne, with its large and enthusiatic Italian community, then I will be of no use. As for tinned whitebait, that must be some Australian monstrosity. I have NEVER heard of it here on the non-penal side of the Tasman, and it sounds disgusting.
That is my list of links, and any linking to it would be a gracious kindness. Perhaps I could send some non-tinned whitebait in return.
Noetica is a he (the -a is a neuter plural, not a feminine singular suffix).
Drat! I knew I should gone with “they”.
Here’s the explanation.
I can’t link to the exact comment but it’s about two thirds of the way down.
http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003362.php
So now we know, when someone says I’m just going outside to do ‘phoetica’, what they mean.
…Melbourne, with its large and enthusia[s]tic Italian community…
Melbourne is indeed enormously cosmopolitan. But the cheese called “erbo” (for short) that I remember from my early years in Melbourne has since eluded me, even there. Still, there is consolation in being able to buy many varieties of genuine Marsala, which I use occasionally for a certain stewed-chestnut dessert.
I think I’d like that. I must admit I’d only heard of using marsala in zabaglione, whose ‘real Italian name’, according to wiki, ‘is zabaione (or zabajone, which is an archaic form). It is also popular in Argentina, where it is known as sambayón. In Colombia, it’s known as sabajón.’
We mustn’t give up on this. I’ll ask my mother in New York. She’s an expert at international cheese mailings.
Dans quelle étagère ?
Are you after something French? New York is better for Italian food, but I can think of a couple of places that have French cheeses. (Murray’s is just cheese and D&D is gourmet foods in general).
In a sense yes. There’s that famous existentialist sentence that your title recalled: “Qui suis-je ? Ou vais-je ? Dans quel état j’erre ?” (Who am I? Where am I going? In what state am I wandering?)
Following your smelly link (has your mother ever tried posting Munster and did it pass security checks?), I had to once again wonder how could it be that some people gave the name “crottin” (dung, manure) to something they would actually eat.
Sig, see my new post about the title here …
English Wiki, on Crottin: The small cylindrical goat cheese from the area around Chavignol has been produced since the 16th century, but it wasn’t until 1829 that it was first written about. The etymology is dubious: the word “Crot” described a small oil lamp made from burned clay, which resembles the mold used to prepare the cheese. Another explanation is that old “Crottin” gets harder and browner and tends to look like dung.
They probably ought to change the name.
Noetica,
The only information about erbolino I could find on the web is from the family that you linked to, who have been making it only since 1992. If they won’t send it to you, you may have to start making your own. It sounds like you add parsley, garlic and chili, and possibly some other herbs to a Pecorino Toscano, which is a softer and milder pecorino than Pecorino Romano. It’s ready to eat in three days, according to the woman who makes it.
(O, sorry. I lost track of this.)
Thanks for your research, AJPC. There are many pallid imitations of the erbolino of my youth, but I have not found anything resembling it closely enough. From what I now see on the web and in your useful descriptions, the quest to recover what has been long lost is probably futile, and best abandoned. I suspect that my formaggissimo of fond memory was a nonce-cheese, no longer to be found.
Nonce cheeses: now there’s a depressing thought.