Things that grow in the night

When I first started making cheeses I played it safe. Fresh cheeses, washed rinds, absolutely no scary stuff growing on my cheese. I lived vicariously through beautiful colorful photos of bloomy rinds and wedges of colorful cheeses purchased from fine cheese counters everywhere. I wasn't really afraid of making those cheeses as much as I was afraid of growing some unknown deathly mold on my aged cheeses, killing all who dared to taste forth. One author said no red, another said a particular shade of red was great, no cat hair mold unless you want it but be careful because you just can't go back once it is introduced, the options and possibilities were endless as were the imaginable opportunities to fail and make a lethal weapon! Of course I was living on borrowed time.

My first batch of cheese allowed to bloom was a nail biting moment which spanned months. I didn't really have a plan, just an unaged raw milk tomme and a beautiful bloomy rind dream. I bravely removed my chosen tommes from the brine and placed them on the aging room shelves. I anxiously flipped them every day, watching for the first signs of the feared deadly "la fleur." While I admit my reflex at the first signs of any color was to run for the brine and wash it away, I did refrain and learned to enjoy patting down the new flora that grew and even looked forward to seeing new colors as the rind continued to develop. Fortunately, the first batches turned out amazing. And months later the cheese was more incredible. Unfortunately, all the cheeses that were unsold between that first batch and all the cheeses I put away from the spring make season that followed were victims of the May flooding in our area. The flood is a story on its own for a future post.

Jumping ahead in time, past a tumultuous summer in the aging room, we are finally starting to see cheeses we are happy with, and many beautiful flowery rinds. I may be a young cheesemaker but I feel like while our first year has been full of ups, ACS & ADGA wins, and downs, I couldn't have imagined a better learning opportunity and I have certainly become much braver about my willingness to let the scary things grow in the night.

Farm Markets

One of the nicest things about farm markets is all the people I meet. Of course one of the worse things can also sometimes be the people you meet, fortunately that doesn't usually happen. This year we were fortunate to join the Capital City Farmers Market in August as a sub for Mt. Mansfield Creamery.

We were pleasantly surprised when we learned that there was a spot for us at the winter market! It was great to arrive today for our first winter market and find that we are situated close to our summer market neighbors, Gaylord Farm, and right in between the delicious Butterfly Bakery and who else but Mt. Mansfield Creamery.

It was great to be situated right next to another cheesemaker and have the opportunity to chat a little in between customers. I also got a chance to meet another local cheesemaker who is also vending at the winter market, Molly from Sage Farm.

All in all a great day.

Snow White

Having worked closely with some of the best goat milk and the best cow milk, I'm really amazed by the differences in them. The color alone is amazing. Our goat's milk is so white, and the beautiful jersey milk is so golden. Like Snow White vs Goldilocks :)

I don't recall ever really appreciated the qualities of milk before now either. When we were kids I remember getting milk delivered in the early morning hours, and how fun it was to go collect the bottle of cream line milk fom the silver treasure chest on the front porch.  Sometimes there would even be orange juice at my grandmothers.  I remember the feel of the ice cold glass bottle in my hand, the beautiful color of the milk and the way the cream rose to the top.  I never thought about the farmer who milked his cows so we could have that fresh milk.  I never wondered what breed of cows they were, or what their rolling herd milk fat average was, or what kid of solids they had.  Have I truly become a milk geek?

Mmm. Chocolate.

My big project today was chocolate, goat's milk fudge and chocolate chevre truffles. However, I am currently at war with candy thermometers. 

I had a glass one, you know one of those cheapo ones you buy at the grocery store, but it cracked when I was using it so not only was I out a candy thermometer but I also had to throw out the entire batch of confections I was making.  I managed to find a nice metal one, but while using it today it seemed like it was taking an awful long time to get to soft ball stage so I used the water test and augh, it was well past, almost to hard ball stage!  This explains why I had so much difficulty with the last batch of carmels I made.

Of course all of this is in preparation for the upcoming holiday markets.  I don't make chocolates all year around, although one of my cheese instructors encouraged me to enter the truffles into a cheese competition - apparently there is a confections category - who knew!  I did manage to make two kinds of truffles, the first is just a plain chocolate truffle sweetened with maple syrup (you really don't taste the maple), some are salted and others are just plain chocolate, and the second is a lemon honey chocolate truffle.

And last but not least, I made some honey spice chevre dog cookies too. 

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!

Tis The Season

Wreath - check.  Lights - check.  Bows -check.  We are officially decorated for the holidays!  Next up, stocking the farm store.  Post flood we've managed to make preserves, harvest honey, make some lucious goat milk soaps, make some cool goat notecards, and of course work on increasing the variety of cheeses well be offering.  I'll also be making truffles and goat milk fudge later this week to bring to market this weekend and also feature in the farm store.  Of course we will also have special dog cookies made from chèvre as well!

Yesterday we took samples of two of our developing cheeses.  The first is a Spanish style cheese from pasteurized goat milk.  We opted to go with a pasteurized milk vs raw milk as our goal is to sell the cheese when it is young.  Although I have to say that I recently tried a piece of the same type of cheese from Spain that was a bit older and YUUUUMMMM!  Our version is looking lovely.  With its earthy blue-grey rind it resembles the surface of a rock, but once I pulled a plug from the center of the cheese a beautiful, creamy white center was revealed which melted in my mouth, full of flavor. I can't wait to see what it is like in another couple weeks.

The second cheese represents our first attempt at a goat milk blue cheese. Blues are tough, but in my opinion, when they are good they are among the best.  When they aren't good thought they can be horrible, really horrible.  I've been told that its just not possible to make a good blue cheese with goat milk.  But after tasting a Italian Goat Gorgonzola, I respectfully disagree.  So, a few months and a fair amount of research later I've come up with a modified recipe for a blue that I hope will lead us somewhere.  Also on the table for future development is a goat/cow blue, in the style of a Spanish Valdeon (a traditional aged Spanish cheese, wrapped in sycamore maple or chestnut  leaves), but wrapping our version in a more Vermont leaf: sugar maple. This will be a project farther down the road as it isn't exactly the right season for fresh maple sugar leaves, and I'd like to gain a little more hands on experience with making blues first.

While our all goat blue is months away from being available, if all goes well our newest Spanish style aged cheese will be available before Christmas.

Here we go

We don't have many market commitments this time of year so, since our milk production is still fairly decent, this is a big research and development time of year in the cheese make room. This week in particular has been ridiculously busy.

Monday I started 3 lactic cheeses which, if all goes as planned will be ready for sale right before Christmas.

Tuesday I started a special aged cheese. It's actually a little R&D we are working on so this particular cheese is a cross between that and something special for some friends.

Wednesday I made mozzarella, again part of the R&D project.

Thursday I set some Cream Cheese, more R&D.

Friday I set our weekly batch of chèvre, which I'm about to go out and set to drain. That is a record total for us as far as varieties of cheese made in a week, 7 in total this week. Phew!

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!