Kind of Cheesey

Now that my contract job has ended and the garden is in maintenance mode, I  am finding time to makes some cheeses with our milk abundance. We make mozzarella weekly for pizza nights (not to mention ice cream, yogurt, butter and panneer), but I am still a beginner at hard cheeses.
Making cheddar is a putzy process, Here are photos of most of the steps for making a wheel of  Farmhouse Cheddar. First,  two gallons of raw milk are heated to 90F with the 1/4 tsp of mesophilic starter. Then it is left covered to ripen for 45 minutes.

Next, the rennet is stirred in gently with an up and-down-motion. It is left to sit for another 45 minutes while the curd forms.  The curd is sort of like a very firm pudding. Then comes my favorite part: You use a large knife to cut it into 1/2-inch pieces - I cut it into a grid and then slice at an angle.  As you slice, the curd separates cleanly from the whey and you have little pieces floating in yellowish, clear liquid.

The pot of curds and whey is placed in a sink full of hot water and the temperature is gradually raised to 100F. Keep stirring gently. The curds get bit firmer and the proportion of whey increases. The curds are allowed to rest for 5 minutes, then poured into a colander lined with cheesecloth to drain off the whey (the whey can be saved to make ricotta cheese, or fed to the grateful critters.)

The cheesecloth is tied up and the package of curds hung up to drain. I am fortunate to have a pot rack above my stove, so I hang it from the rack and put the pot beneath to catch the drips.  They drain for an hour.

This is my extravagant new cheesemaking tool - a cheese press ordered from Hoegger Supply Co.. The ball of drained curd is broken into walnut-sized pieces, a tablespoon of fine salt mixed in, and then the curds are packed into the cheesecloth-lined press.

The wood cover on top of the  curds is called the  Follower.   I also splurged on the springloaded pressure gauge accessory that allows me to apply pressure without a bulky, precarious system of weightlifting weights that we used in our previous home-made cheese press invention.

After ten minutes the  cheese is carefully removed and  unwrapped.   The  cheese press has squeezed out a lot more whey and the curds are beginning to  form into a wheel. The wheel is turned over, re-wrapped and placed in the press again at 20 lb. pressure for 20 minutes. A third re-wrapping and repressing is done at  50 lbs. for  12  hours.

Here is the beautiful  wheel after the third pressing. Next, the cheese is air-dried on a wooden board for several days, being turned over frequently so it dries evenly and the bottom does not get soggy.

My first two wheels  have now dried enough to form a hard rind. I am experimenting with a new product, cream wax, to coat the new wheels before I cover them with hard cheese wax.  [There is nothing more disappointing than cutting open a wheel of cheese after patiently aging it for months and finding mold inside.] The cream wax is supposed to prevent mold from forming under the wax.

The coated wheels are now in a 50-degree cooler to dry for a few more days before I coat them with the hard red cheese wax.

These photos showed the steps for making Farmhouse Cheddar; which will be ready to eat after just one month aging (August 26th, inscribing it on my calendar). I have also made some traditional cheddar,  which has several more steps and requires three to twelve months to age before eating. In the past we have had a 50% success rate on hard cheeses, but I am hoping with my new, more professional equipment and more practice, our success rate will improve.  After making my own, I realize that paying $8 for a wedge of well- aged, delicious raw cheddar is a real deal!

Say "Cheese!"

I just got home from teaching a Cheesemaking Class at the Good Food Store Co-op.  I love this photo taken at the end of the class because it looks like everyone had fun!

Miller is the Cheese Whiz at the Co-op and he invited me to demonstrate how to make fresh mozzarella.  (I know he really wanted Cadence, our farm's most intrepid cheesemaker, but she is in Mexico.)  I had made quite a few wheels of hard cheeses after Cadence left for school, but truth be told, I hadn't tried mozzarella until I was asked to teach the class.  It's not that difficult, however - it is the first cheese we ever made using Barbara Kingsolver's instructions in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. 

The cheese-making action was interspersed with  tasting and learning. Miller is extremely knowledgeable about cheese and had prepared samples of many mozzarella-type  cheeses for  everyone to compare.  The last step of mozzarella-making involves pulling the cheese like taffy and rolling it into little balls. This part was hands-on for everyone.  I am happy to say our  home-made cheese compared pretty favorably with the professional samples.  Better yet, I think we have inspired six new cheese-makers!

Since the last full moon...

According to my digital camera, I took this photo of the beautiful moonrise over our yard on August 15th --but the lunar phase calendar says the full moon wasn't scheduled until August 24th, so I don't know what is going on with that. But, in looking through photos from the past couple weeks, I  noticed that we have been working pretty hard and have accomplished a lot of projects that haven't made it to a blog post. Since this blog is serving as our Squash Blossom Farm journal,  here are some blogworthy accomplishments since our last full-looking moon:

When Cadence left for Mexico, besides  having to milk the cow solo, I also had to deal with all the milk.  Meaning, I had to learn to make cheese!   I have now made Monterey Jack,  traditional cheddar, manchego and gouda.  Here is my second wheel of lovely gouda, just out of the press. (All those little round bumps are where the cheese tried to press through the holes in the mold where the whey drains.) At this point, the cheese is air dried for a week or so before being  waxed.

Here I am waxing my very first wheel of cheese, Monterey Jack.  The wheels have gotten a bit prettier since this first one. 

We used up the last of Cadence's fresh  mozzarella and some of her awesome parmesan on a yummy pizza featuring Rog's sourdough crust and tomato sauce, veggies, garlic and herbs from our garden. Other than the pepperoni, which we purchased at the Farmers Market,  all the ingredients for this pizza came from our farm.

On one of our evening walks, we harvested the wild elderberries growing along the road and Rog made elderberry wine.  After simmering the berries to make juice, he pressed them through the chinoise with the wooden pestle to remove the skins and seeds. (That chinoise has been one of my most rewarding thrift store finds!  )

The wine is now fermenting. It will be ready to bottle in about a month, ready to drink in about 7 months.

Rog helped me deal with our cow's relentless milk supply by making yogurt.  Now that we have let LaFonda go dry, this will be our last gallon of yogurt from our own cow until next spring. We have been enjoying a bowl of it every morning with nectarines, raspberries, walnuts and a drizzle of honey--a concoction that a friend titled "Bucolic Breakfast of Bliss."

It's tomato season.  Last year I planted 100 tomato plants and had to deal with 1000 pounds of tomatoes. I learned my lesson and only planted 50 plants this year. 

However, because of burgeoning life demands, I did not get the tomatoes properly staked this  summer, so they are sprawling wantonly all over the place. It has been so rainy that most of the fruit has split, some tomatoes have virtually exploded. And then there is the slug infestation.  Long story short, the turkeys and chickens are feasting on the half of the tomato crop that is split and slug-nibbled and I have many fewer to preserve this year. Nevertheless,  I have roasted and frozen quite a few tomatoes--with plenty more batches yet to go.

Finally, after trying many less-than-satisfactory approaches, I have successfully raised two crops of micro-greens - pea shoots and sunflower shoots.  They are mighty tasty! This is an experiment to potentially expand my little sprout operation. Stay tuned to find out how it goes...

To Milk or Not to Milk?

Before Cadence left for school in Mexico, realizing that I would be the only milker, we cut back our milking schedule from twice-a-day to once-a-day.  LaFonda adapted easily. Her production quickly dropped from 3 gallons a day to 2 1/2, and has continued to decline, settling at about 1 1/2 gallons each morning.  That is fine with me because it is a challenge to keep up with so much milk.

I really do enjoy the hour I spend milking each day, hanging out with LaFonda, singing and talking to her.  She is a good-humored cow and often cranes her head way around to look at me, wondering what is taking me so long, perhaps. Sometimes she gives my arm a sandpapery lick with her gigantic tongue, and once she chomped onto an unruly lock of hair...and gently yanked it out!

But then I also have to deal with the milk, even more-time-consuming than the milking. With one week's milk I can make 3 or 4 large wheels of cheese,  a gallon of yogurt, a pound of butter, and still have plenty for us and the dogs to drink.  Depending on the kind of cheese, making it is often an all-day project.  Today I am making gouda, which I started at 11 a.m. and just got it into the press now, after 5 p.m.  In 20 minutes I take it out of the mold, flip it over and re-wrap it, and put it back in the press with heavier weights. This gets repeated several times yet tonight.

I am also still battling the problem of aching hands from milking. My Udderly EZ milker has only partially solved the problem - it is not really up to for such constant, heavy-duty duty. After a session of helpful hand-massage work from the fellow who does $1/minute massage at the street fair, I went back to hand-milking. And I investigated purchasing a bucket milker.

After going back and forth about it for weeks, I decided to let LaFonda go dry now, rather than waiting until winter.  This way, I will have significantly more time this fall to deal with harvest, paint, and focus on my part-time job. Plus, I  will be able to visit my family up north for a long weekend without abandoning Rog to the milking.  I'll miss the fresh milk and yogurt and occasional ice cream --but we have a refrigerator full of cheese aging that should last us all year.

Drying a cow off is a worrisome proposition -- there is a risk of mastitis, plus there is just no avoiding her being uncomfortable.  My neighbors with 150 holsteins  advised me to restrict food and water for a couple of days and close her in a stall.  I guess I can imagine that being the most sure-fire strategy for such huge cattle that are giving up to 14 gallons of milk a day, but restricting water seems pretty harsh in this hot weather.  One resource suggested tapering off,  milking once a day, then every other day, then stopping.  One said feed her no pasture or grain or high-quality hay (what else is there?) Another book advises to just stop milking suddenly - nature has designed a cow's body to know what to do if she loses a calf, and by intermittent milking you are confusing her system.

I decided to just stop. Since she is only giving a gallon and a half a day, it seemed she should dry off pretty easily. Yesterday was the first day I didn't milk  her --she came running to be milked when she saw me and waited for me patiently at the gate, looking at me like, "Aren't you forgetting something?"   But eventually she went back to grazing with Lariat.

Today her udder was immensely full, but it wasn't feverish and she wasn't complaining.   Not that I would be able to tell. When Lariat moos, it is a deep, grouchy bellow, but when LaFonda moos, it is as musical and gentle as a low note on the harmonica.

Cheese Whiz

Keeping up  with nearly 4 gallons of milk a day from our generous cow LaFonda is a challenge. But Cadence is always up for a challenge, and has tackled this one by teaching herself to make cheese, using the book "Home Cheesemaking" by Ricki Carroll.
So far, Cadence has made the following cheeses:  Ricotta, Mozzarella, Cheddar, Cream Cheese, Paneer, Queso Fresco, Manchego, Parmesan, Romano.  Making cheese takes the better part of a day, and I haven't followed her through the entire process with my camera, but I have taken  photos of most of the stages - these shots are from different days, different cheeses.

Basically, a culture is added to the milk and it is heated up to a specified temperature, depending on what type of cheese is being made.  All of the types of cheese Cadence has made so far have been from  just two cultures, thermophilic or mesophilic. The temperatures and cycles of heating and cooling, and size of curds determine the type of cheese.

The milk forms a semi-solid mass which is then  cut up into curds (the size again depends upon what type of cheese is being made.)

The whey separates from the curds --at this stage it looks sort of like very large-curd cottage cheese. The whey is drained off (and  usually fed to our very happy chickens.) The cheese curds are formed into a disc shape and placed into the press to squeeze out the remaining whey.

Cadence and her dad devised a simple cheese press using a cylindrical plastic container with drainage holes drilled in the bottom, a length of plastic pipe that just fits inside the container, a metal plate screwed onto a dowel, a small ceramic plate, and some heavy weights. The metal plate pushes down on the cheese, the weights slide on the dowel to  press onto the cheese, and the plastic pipe serves as a spacer for the weights.

The first version of cheese press was too tall and top-heavy and was susceptible to catastrophic crashes.

Cheese Press 2.0 works great.  The entire press  is placed inside a large metal mixing bowl to collect the whey that is pressed out.

After being pressed, the wheel of cheese is then either  brushed with cheese wax or wrapped in cheesecloth, depending upon the  cheese. Some wheels, such as manchego, can be eaten fresh (the manchego has been delicious!)  Cheese that aren't waxed are allowed to dry  enough to form a natural crust.  They are all stored in a  cool, dark place to age. Our current "cheese cave" is an unused bathroom in our cool basement.  If it gets too warm we will move the cheeses to a refrigerator.
At this moment, we have  six large wheels of cheese curing in our "cheese cave." When you open the door you are hit by a wonderful aroma of parmesan!

Mozzarella a la Barbara Kingsolver

Rog is reading Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and was was inspired to make mozzarella cheese today, following her instructions ( it's a recipe from Ricki Carroll).

He purchased organic whole milk (not ultra-pastuerized), citric acid and rennet at the co-op and heated on the stove
until the curds separated from the whey and the temperature reached 100 Degrees F.

He strained the curds from the whey, kneaded, put in the microwave for one minute, and kneaded again.

Then he added salt to taste and kneaded it in.

The lovely finished fresh mozzarella. So easy! So fast (30 minutes)! So delicious!