We started out in the classroom again, finishing up on the basics with how to measure pH, salt content and moisture in our 'green' cheese (cheese at ~1 day old before aging) and the importance of these measurements. Then we made some Queso Blanco (which I've made at home - I learned a lot despite this) and finished up on our "bloomy rind" from the day before. We finished up with last minute questions and some basic troubleshooting tips. Then we got our certificates and it was done.
The two men from New York (up state, fairly close to the Canadian border), Andy and Shaun, invited Sam, a boy my age from Missouri, and me on a field trip. We stopped first at the Dancing Cow. Steve, the owner and man we met, is apparently a city-boy turned farmer. He has a 50 head herd that he milks only once a day. It didn't start out this way, however. At first he had a mainly Jersey herd and was selling fluid milk. About 3 years ago he changed to making some cheese and selling about 1/2 of his milk fluid. He discovered that the test (protein and fat) from his herd wasn't cheese-quality since he was shooting for quantity rather than the correct fat/protein ratio. Now he feeds only a few pounds of feed with mostly alfalfa/grass. The once a day milking helps the cows shift their production towards protein and fat production rather than fluid quantity. He makes some of the best cheese in the area, which was interesting to see coming from such a motley crew of milked-once-a-day cows his jersey herd is now very mixed with Dutch Belted, Normandy Red, Holstein, Gurnsey, Ayrshire, and Brown Swiss. He said he was "tired of the bug jerseys" - very obvious since all of his cows are about half as tall as ours at home. They're very happy looking cows despite the vertical challenge.
The parlor is a beautiful setup. Steve really wants to minimize the amount of water and energy he uses - especially the water when it comes to bacteria-prone areas. Thus he has a 'dry', single-4, step-up parlor. With automatic take offs it seems like a beautiful set up to milk with 1 or maybe 2 people: it is clean, efficient . . . it doesn't even smell like a barn. The cheesemaking set up is in a room next door with the warm milk headed straight to the cheese room. They make cheese 7 days a week, one batch a day. There are 2 others buildings, we only visited 1, in which the cheeses age. They are still being perfected, one is quite new, but are built exquisitely. Overall it is top-notch artisan, farmstead cheese operation.
We continued further from Burlington and deeper into the dark hills of wild Vermont. We ended up on an 80-90 head dairy that milked primarily Ayrshires. They sell fluid milk but make cheese anywhere from 5 -10 days a week. They only make 2 different kinds, and are a little more commercial than Steve's setup, but it was clean and well managed. I was glad to see some small-scale cheese operations not only up and running, but very successful and established. Through this trip, listening to the others in the class that are close to running their own operation, and the class itself, I'm starting to realize what I don't know, and am starting to understand the planning, thought and dedication that goes into artisan cheesemaking.
We ended up eating at a café in a town near Burlington. It was a very good meal, for far less than Burlington fare, in good company. Sam is from the suburbs of Missouri - he has little to no experience on a farm or making cheese, but has a year long internship at one of the few goat cheese farms in Missouri. Andy and Shaun are hilarious, kind, insightful and brilliant. So, overall, it was another magnificent day in Vermont. I feel as if I am in a "Burlington Bubble" and am afraid for when it will pop and I have to return to the world of college and work. I am anticipating a summer full of cheese, however, with new knowledge and new cheeses.
- Love to All - Katie
2 comments:
KT, What a great day again!!! I would like to milk once a day to.
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