Books & Blues

I admit it, I love books.  Particularly when I have a new interest I crave books on the topic.  Between my mom and I we've managed to collect quite a few books on cheese making.  The most recent addition to my collection is the book "Practical Cheesemaking" published in England in 1919, which arrived a couple days ago. 

On the inside of the cover (front and back) it has some great old ads for farm & dairy machinery like milking machines, butter churns, and even dairy salt & rennet.

Part of the reason I wanted this book (besides the fact that it's an old cheese book) is the section on blue cheese, Stilton specifically.  I am currently absorbing everything I can about blue cheese in order to develop a goat milk blue.  Much of the written work out there is on cow milk or blended milk blues so I'm trying to learn everything I can about blues to make decisions about things like what time of year to make the cheese, what recipe, what style, etc.  Milk changes characteristics from spring to summer to fall.  So, learning more about the changes in our own milk chemistry and combining that knowledge with what I learn about making blue cheese will, I hope, help me make some good decisions.

Stay tuned for more... after all, even farm-girls get the blues!

This little pig went to market...

So with the increase in goat babies comes more milk, and with more milk comes more cheese making.  And of course with more cheese comes markets.  Here in central Vermont we are lucky to have several great winter farmer's markets.  We sell our cheese through Farmers to You which delivers to the Boston area, Fair Food Farm Store in East Calais, and the St. Johnsbury winter market.  More recently we've joined the Waterbury winter farmer market.  As a consumer I love a good winter market.  They are a great opportunity to potentially find some local produce (yes produce, even in the midst of winter's blanket of snow) and other local products.  As a vendor I find them somewhat underwhelming. It seems that come winter many people don't think about shopping at a farmer's market, which is a shame.  There are so many great local products available at a winter market so find one in your area and give it try - it's a great way to welcome spring.

Immortality

"A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains, cheese, milk's leap toward immortality."  - Clifton Fadiman

Cheese again!

After a far too short winter break (which I spent recovering from knee replacement surgery - Merry Christmas to ME!!) we are back in the cheese room!  This of course means the barn and dairy side have been very busy as well.  To date we've had around 25 does kid resulting in 68 new baby goats.  Talk about cute!

Mom and I started our new season by attending an affinage class at VIAC at UVM.  It was great to learn some new ways to describe cheese and gain a better understanding of what some of the flavors we were tasting really were.  While I was not quite ready to bring some of our cheese with me for the class to taste I did send some off to our instructor for her input on how we were doing.  Great Job! was the subject of her email back to me with her comments so I think we're on the right track (phew!).  I admit it was quite nerve racking to send my hard work off to be evaluated by someone else.  I was quite nervous about the process, but oh so pleased with the return.

We're only a week or so into the new season of cheese making.  Much of the new milk we're receiving from our goats is still going to feed all those new babies.  However, I have managed to get two small batches of Greek Feta into the cooler as well as our first batch of chevre this week - which I'll be taking to the Waterbury Farmer's Market on Saturday.  Our farm store will officially open on April 1st but we are already starting to stock it with some of our marinated feta and Winooski Tomme.  We have a new aged cheese coming out this spring, it will be an raw milk aged cheese.  Look for it at a market soon!