Cheesey

Meg and I went to another simple living workshop in the little town where we bought the farm. This time it was cheese-making. We learnt a lot, had an interesting "fermented" lunch and enjoyed being together.

It's such a lovely setting.

A selection of utensils and ingredients:

Here's some cheese brought along by the presenter. We had these for lunch. We passed the board around and all had a smell - they were very strong!

We learnt how to "make" the cheese - heating the milk, adding the starter and rennet, letting it sit then transferring it to a cloth or press - which all seemed quite easy. We prepared a brie and a cheddar as much as we could - the maturing process now has to kick in and that takes 4-6 weeks.

The Brie:

The Cheddar:

This one was really easy - Cottage Cheese that can be eaten same day as making. It was just a matter of separating curds and whey:

Lunch was provided by the presenter. It was a showcase of fermented foods, all home-made, from the sourdough bread right through to the dressing on the salad.

This is the lunch selection; all a little startling for the untrained palate! Three of the four cheeses brought along by the presenter:

Brie:

Cheddar:

I can't remember what this was called but it was a combination of grains, pulses and prunes:

Kimchi:

Sauerkraut:

Salad with Miso dressing added just before serving:

Meg's plate; note the slathering of butter!

There was wine:

After lunch we made butter, yoghurt and kefir which had a very strong biting taste but is apparently excellent for "the gut".

Churning the butter, 2012 style.

Washing the butter:

The finished product.

Meg fell asleep at about this point; I had to dig her in the ribs to wake her up.

It was a very informative day; I've read quite a lot about cheese making but to actually see the process helps me to understand it so much better. We bought a couple of tiny sachets of kefir culture and yoghurt starter; they're stored in the freezer for when we decide to try our own hand. We were both quite hungry (!) so it was good to come home to a Gibbo cooked meal of y-bone and veges, including fresh broccoli from the garden.