August Already?!

Well I've been busy here at Olde Oak Farm and I must say, after reading back through some of last year's posts, that this year is so much different! (And Better!) What a difference a year makes!

So what is going on down on the farm?

To begin with, the rest of kidding season went smoothly--45 kids in 2 weeks! We are keeping 9 girls this year and just one buck for breeding (Big Joe.)

We had another apprentice here this summer also. Jenny. She was here from mid May up until last Monday. She's a student at Rutgers in New Jersey (she would appreciate it if you keep the Jersey jokes to yourself.) Jenny was my right-hand woman in the cheeseplant for the last 3 months. She got a lot of experience with our soft cheeses and made her own batches of Camembert and Havarti (a cheese I had never tried). The Havarti came out very very nice! We did a fresh dill and a plain. We just cut the dill and took it to market after giving Jenny a nice big wedge to take home and share with her family.

This year, I am running the cheeseplant. I'm now the "Head cheesemaker" and senior apprentice. Fancy title! Basically this means that I'm very happy here at Olde Oak and I've taken on more responsibility. I spent more time working with and teaching Jenny than Scott or Jen and it was definitely as much a learning experience for me as it was for her. Managing people is not a skill I've ever had to develop before and I think I equally enjoyed and dreaded some days. :)

Today, we hosted the August meeting of the Maine Cheese Guild. We gave a tour to about 10 members and fellow cheesemakers of the cheeseplant and barn and the new house. Then we sat down and talked business for a while and finally, tasted cheeses that we all brought to share. It was a good meeting and I'm glad it's over! Having all these other cheesemakers here was a bit nerve-wracking! But I think everyone was impressed with the new location and barn, not to mention the house. Coming up in a couple weeks, I'll be making a Tomme during the week of Labor day. Everyone involved will follow Peter Dixon's recipe which can be found on his website. Then, a short 4 months later, all of us cheesemakers will converge for our holiday meeting and try each other's cheeses. I haven't made a Tomme before, so it should be an interesting and fun project!

Beyond that, I've decided to stay on for my third season here next year. And I'm hoping to travel abroad this winter for a couple months to learn more and hone my skills in affinage (the art of aging and ripening cheeses.) I'd like to focus on the care and maintenance of washed rinds, cloth-bound cheddars and maybe learn more about bloomy-rind cheeses as well.

Well that's my world here in Maine. Maybe I'll even get around to updating this again with more on my Tomme.

Till next time...

Kids are here!

Gem, Prudence and Opal's kids.

We're currently at 8 kids and counting...

Update on the Epoisses: It's been just over a week since I made my first batch of Epoisses (see last post) I've been washing them with a salt water brine, KL-71 (yeast) and b. linens. They are starting to develop an interesting smell. A very thin coating of white mold (Geotrichum) has begun to bloom on them and has raised the pH on the surface from 4.8 up to 5.2. We should see some b. linens development here soon. B.linens or Brevibacterium Linens is the culture that gives the washed rind cheeses their characteristic orange/red surface color and strong smell.

More pictures of kids and cheese coming soon....

Quick Time

This is quite a short post, just wanted to update and let you all know that no, we haven't had any kids yet...but within the next week we should have our first of the season! I'll definitely have the camera ready. Gem could go anytime this week. (That's Gem and her baby bump in the blue collar on the right in the photo above.) Jen and Scott have had her for 4 or 5 years and she's never kidded here. She is most definitely pregnant this year! And she should be the first to go. Her due dates are Monday (already past) and Friday...here we go!

And today I joined a forum for cheesemakers called cheeseforum.org. I already posted a question about an experimental batch of washed rind cheeses that I'm trying out and I'm learning a lot about this cheese! The cheese I'm trying to duplicate I believe is Epoisses. (Ay-Pwos) I think this is the mystery cheese that I tried in London back in October. I was pretty burnt out from the end of the season here and I wasn't thinking too much about cheese...just tasting some at the Borough Market. A French style of washed rind, it is no bigger than a camembert, covered in a nice orange rind. Should have a strong, ripe smell but should not taste as strong as it smells. Today I made my first attempt and half way through I realized a mistake in my cheesemake and went with one pressed wheel of cheese instead of the multiple small rounds of cheese that are drained under their own weight and not pressed. I let the pH get away from me and the curds would not have knit well unless they were pressed into a wheel. I'll attempt it again on Friday this week and hope that Gem either has her kids Thursday or Saturday. :)

In the meantime, I'm milking the ladies over at Clovercrest Dairy (our partner cow-farm) and Wednesday, we have a possible 2nd apprentice coming for a visit and tour of our farm. I've been taking the goats out for walks in the snow the past week. They hate the snow...but they LOVE to eat all the pine needles off the white pine and fir trees around the fields. Tomorrow should be another beautiful day for a walk with some goat friends of mine.

It's about time for some cheese!

Since I'm a cheesemaker, I think it's time I post something about cheese. Cheese that I've made. So let's talk Cheddar! I visited a friend in London, England back in October and though I focused mainly on spending time with my dear friend Daneil, I also tasted lots and lots of cheeses. One of my favorite cheeses is Montgomery's Cheddar. It's sharp and the cheddar taste cuts right to your tastebuds. It's crumbly...but not dry. If you see some in a cheese shop, you should ask for a taste and definitely take a little home with you.

The cheddar I make is nothing like Montgomery's, but I'm learning more each time I make it. Normally, we always heat treat (pasteurize) our milk before starting the cheese-make, but a few weeks ago we went raw! I made my first raw milk cheese and it felt oh so good!

Cheddar is a cooked-curd cheese meaning that once the curds have separated from the whey, they are stirred and slowly cooked in the whey. After the right temperature and pH is reached, the whey is drained and the process of "cheddaring" begins.

This is a picture of the curds in the vat before the whey has been drained.

Cheddaring is a process in cheesemaking. After the whey is drained out of the vat, all you are left with is a big pile of curds that are still holding on to some whey. These curds clump and melt together into one mass of curd. If I tried to make a cheese out of this curd without cheddaring, it would probably make a rather bland cheese because the pH is still high (less acidic). What we want to do is give the curds some time in a nice warm environment to let the pH drop (more acidic) and let more whey drain out.

So I separate the pile of curds into 2 piles with a trench down the middle. This allows more whey to drain out while the curds are cheddaring. After 15 minutes, I flip both of the piles of curds which have settled and sort of melted down into 2 slabs of curds. After another 15 minutes I cut each slab in half and stack the halves on top of one another. Every 15 minutes I come back and check on the curds and flip the slabs. If the slabs get too flat, I cut them again and re-stack. Meanwhile, the pH is dropping, whey is draining out of the curds and the curd itself is getting a more elastic look and feel. It's soft and the individual curds are almost impossible to see.

This is a picture of the slabs at the bottom of the vat during the cheddaring process.

When the pH is good and I'm happy with how the slabs look, I pull out my trusty french-fry potato slicer thingy and I mill the slabs of curd through it. I place all the curds in a big bowl and salt them and mix them. After letting them rest for about 15 minutes, I scoop up the curds and place them into the forms where they will be pressed into wheels of cheese overnight.

Ta Da! Cheddarific!

This is our cheese press with 3 wheels of cheese pressing.