Sadly I have not taken any pictures, but there are some that my comrades, the Williams, have put up on their blog. They are young, self-proclaimed "urban intellectuals" trying to get into farming. They are just 2 among many interesting folks that I have met here this time.
On Wed. we had a class solely on starter cultures. Again, as with all of these classes, I felt as if a curtain had been swept aside and I could see clearly (not that I can clearly see everything - just my vision isn't nearly so muddy on most concepts). The teacher was surprisingly good, considering he was from Cargil. Yesterday's class, thank god, was a little less sciencey - it involved eating gobs of cheese and smelling lots of random smells and categorizing such sensory evaluations. It was a lovely way to finish out the course. I can now proudly say that I am a cheese maker. As Jamie, fellow classmate and cheese maker, kept saying boisterously last night at supper, "We have cheese cred!"
Supper last night was great. Expensive, but can you really put a price on good food and good company? I had dishes consisting of raw ground beef (it closely resembles Dad's hamburgers), hummus containing grapes, Australian wine, potato and leek soup with chunks of cheese slightly melted in it, part of a Vermont martini (a VTinin as our waitress called it), my first creme brulee (heavenly, divine, delicious, I'm making it when I get home) and chocolate mousse. I'm still full just thinking about it. To top it all off, I was dining with Jamie (very energetic, Liz's upfront attitude, life-of-the-party type) a lovely Canadian couple (sweet Tanya and her wonderful husband) and a Chilean, Ana (very nice with a father who self-medicates like Grandpa). I didn't get back home until around 11 PM (complete with a bag of Vermont cheese I got from the co-op for a Minnesota cheese-tasting).
I'll be home soon, and I look forward to getting back to cheese making and thinking about future plans. Summer of cheese, here I come!
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