Flocculating

I'm actually writing today from along side my cheese vat.  I finished packing our weekly order for Farmer's To You and find myself just hanging out waiting for my milk to flocculate so figured I'd take the opportunity to write.  If you are in the Boston area you should check out Farmers To You, a great way to get some real Vermont products straight from the farm!

There are actually other similar services in many areas and it is a great way to find wonderful foods, often from farmers in your local area.  Near us we also have the St. Johnsbury Food Alliance which tried their hands at an online market this fall for St.Johnsbury area folks.  The Central Vermont Food Hub, focusing on bringing their customers food from producers in Washington County, VT.  And recently a friend of the farm became involved in yet another local food/farm to the people type service for folks in the Charlotte/Shelburne area - yourfarmstand.com.  As a food producer it's great, and allows us to extend our reach to the consumer with relatively low overhead.

So back to my milk (which by now has flocculated) - working with goat milk today, making Feta.  Feta is actually a good cheese for the home cheese maker to start out with.  The basic process is simple and there are several tutorials on YouTube even!  Actually, what isn't there a tutorial for on YouTube?  Our Feta is made from our own recipe but as the process really isn't that different across the board, we think our secret really has more to do with our milk.   Time to cut the curd!