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Today we made cheese! Not the at home kitchen variety ( though that's fun too ), but at the sheep farm that produces some of the most amazing stuff I've ever tasted.
Our host, Eran, was a truly interesting fellow. Not just the head cheese maker, but the the owner of the whole place, his passion for his craft was inspiring. I greatly enjoy spending time with people who are really into what they do. Eran does cheese. Sometimes, when he talks about a particularly nice cheese, he gets this ecstatic look of reminiscence that's somewhat endearing.
As Eran was making his opening presentation, where he was amazingly candid about how his business ran, I couldn't help noticing the drama out the window in the petting zoo. An alpaca was "fighting" with a miniature horse. After a little observation it seemed that the horse was a lover, not a fighter. While he never consummated his intent, the alpaca did seem to be leading him on. Over the course of the day, I noted this particular midget equine would pretty much try to screw anything, and hadn't been fixed! A slightly larger little horse went so far as to kick the horny bastard away. I almost felt sorry for him.
On to the cheese! Wait, time to meet the milk makers. I held a lamb in my arms. Cute little critter. To be honest, I mostly wanted the smell to drive the cat bonkers, but it was adorable. It also considered eating my beard, which is why we didn't stay friends longer.
Now the cheese, but first the hair net! We'd known this part was coming, we'd even managed to scare up some light colored clothes, as requested. In fact,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
loosecanon had been casting sidelong glances at me for the last couple weeks, muttering the words "beard bra" and chuckling evilly. I even gave the beard the summer trim this morning which is probably why the lamb thought my face had some freshly mowed material. Happily, no face nets were present and I wasn't about to ask for one.
The class was basically standing in a real live cheese making place as the necessarily steps were done to make milk in a 1200 pound vat into proper curds. We, the class, then squished our curds into little molds. Squished and resquished and put a number onto the round curd cake thing to call it our own. It will go and sit in the cave for a few months and we get cheese that we once fondled while raw.
We tasted the raw curds. At first glance, they weren't drastically different from some I've made myself. Perhaps a little smoother. I know what the final product is and it's nothing like what I've made myself. Also, as a bonus, loosecanon and I have the option of staggering our retrieval of the ripened result, which sounds yummy.
Our host, Eran, was a truly interesting fellow. Not just the head cheese maker, but the the owner of the whole place, his passion for his craft was inspiring. I greatly enjoy spending time with people who are really into what they do. Eran does cheese. Sometimes, when he talks about a particularly nice cheese, he gets this ecstatic look of reminiscence that's somewhat endearing.
As Eran was making his opening presentation, where he was amazingly candid about how his business ran, I couldn't help noticing the drama out the window in the petting zoo. An alpaca was "fighting" with a miniature horse. After a little observation it seemed that the horse was a lover, not a fighter. While he never consummated his intent, the alpaca did seem to be leading him on. Over the course of the day, I noted this particular midget equine would pretty much try to screw anything, and hadn't been fixed! A slightly larger little horse went so far as to kick the horny bastard away. I almost felt sorry for him.
On to the cheese! Wait, time to meet the milk makers. I held a lamb in my arms. Cute little critter. To be honest, I mostly wanted the smell to drive the cat bonkers, but it was adorable. It also considered eating my beard, which is why we didn't stay friends longer.
Now the cheese, but first the hair net! We'd known this part was coming, we'd even managed to scare up some light colored clothes, as requested. In fact,
loosecanon had been casting sidelong glances at me for the last couple weeks, muttering the words "beard bra" and chuckling evilly. I even gave the beard the summer trim this morning which is probably why the lamb thought my face had some freshly mowed material. Happily, no face nets were present and I wasn't about to ask for one.The class was basically standing in a real live cheese making place as the necessarily steps were done to make milk in a 1200 pound vat into proper curds. We, the class, then squished our curds into little molds. Squished and resquished and put a number onto the round curd cake thing to call it our own. It will go and sit in the cave for a few months and we get cheese that we once fondled while raw.
We tasted the raw curds. At first glance, they weren't drastically different from some I've made myself. Perhaps a little smoother. I know what the final product is and it's nothing like what I've made myself. Also, as a bonus, loosecanon and I have the option of staggering our retrieval of the ripened result, which sounds yummy.
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I'm glad that you had such an awesome experience.
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Our cheese maker raises the sheep, to get the milk, to make the cheese. So much so that the cute little lambs are weened quickly and put on formula; they want all the milk they can get. You get the sense they don't have enough, which is why they have some cow and sheep/cow mix.
I love Bourdain, but I can't recall the episode. The place we went to was Valley Shepherd Creamery (http://www.valleyshepherd.com/). They have a media section on the website and Tony isn't mentioned, so I'm guessing not.
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