Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark Book Blog Tour and #Giveaway #LoneStarLit

Amber Royer’s “We Visited a Goat Dairy”

Scrapbook Page

In each of the Bean to Bar Mysteries, my protagonist, Felicity, gets to interact with a different companion animal.  Felicity is a bean to bar chocolate maker, so at the end of each book, she winds up making a special bar dedicated to the animal she got to spend time with: sea salt in honor of the octopus, millet and macadamia nuts to commemorate the cockatoo.  (Don’t worry – no animals are fed chocolate in the course of these books!)  But one interesting thing kept coming back to me.  Sometimes chocolate is actually made with goat milk.  We sampled just such a bar from Manoa Chocolate, when we were in Hawaii.  According to their own flavor notes, it is reminiscent of chocolate cheesecake.

So when I was coming up with an animal for Felicity to hang out with in Something Borrowed, Something 90% Dark, my first thought was a Pygmy goat.  (For the simple reason that it would be small enough to be cute.)  There’s a scene in the book where Felicity gets to eat spinach dip and stuffed mushrooms, both made with goat cheese, and she’s fascinated that the milk came from the very goats she’s looking at.  In order to write the most realistic goats possible, we visited a petting area for baby goats in Hawaii, but upon returning to Texas, we went out to Lost Ruby Ranch (LostRubyRanch Facebook Page) where Paul Allen gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how goats are milked and how goat cheese is made.

Pic 1 Caption:   It was an enjoyable and educational visit to Lost Ruby Ranch.

Pic 2 Caption: The tasting in Hawaii that inspired it all.  Manoa’s facility is on Oahu, and we highly recommend a visit.

Pic 3 Caption:  After the cheese is pasteurized, the cheese is placed in cloths, tied, and hung to let the cheese curds (solids) separate from the whey (liquid).  When the cheese has dried sufficiently then it is placed in trays to finish setting up.

Pic 4 Caption: At Lost Ruby, which is just a couple hours north of Dallas, the goats were curious and friendly.  It felt like they were happy to see us!

Pic 5 Caption:  The milk heads here for pasteurization.  There are multiple thermometers to make sure the milk retains the appropriate temperature, and for the air above the milk, to make sure no condensation forms.

Pic 6 Caption: For modern milking, the goats are milked by machine, making the process more efficient and sanitary.

Pic 7 Caption: After the cheese has dried, it is then divided into containers.  The ones pictured here are set to go to restaurants in convenient 10-pound tubs.  He also has 8-ounce or 16-ounce versions for individual purchase.