Sunday I spent 3 hours at
Herron Hill Dairy in
Lakebay, WA., learning how to make cheese from goat milk. The eight students were all greeted by Melody, a bottle-fed kid, who is so adorable I wanted one of my very own. But they grow up, don't they?
Mary, the proprietress, is a very kind and gentle soul. She has around 40 goats; milks about 15 of them at this time. She has been a certified dairy for 2 years. Her output is small, so she sells to a couple of farmers' markets in their brief season (here in Western WA that is only about 3 months of the year), but also to
Pacific Grill which is one of the finest restaurants in the region. We all got to milk a goat. It was easy but we were far from proficient. Her dairy is on 7 acres along with her home which was built in the late 1800's. A landmark. Her classroom is housed in what was once a country store.
Here is milk straight out of the goats. You can see how rich and thick it is as it goes through this fine mesh filter.
In the classroom Mary demonstrated how to make two cheeses from the milk we just brought in from the barn. First is feta, pictured above as it starts to set. While the cheese was setting, to
separate curds from whey, we were offered homemade soup, pumpkin muffins and tea. Then Mary brought out 3 big bowls of
chevre so that we could experiment mixing in herbs of our choice. Dried
lavender and honey were added to the first batch; next I mixed up a bowl with fennel pollen and cracked black pepper and kosher salt; last batch was made with salt and herbs de
Provence. We each got to take home a tub of our concoction.
After a while the feta was drained, placed in a flour sack bag and hung to drain. Then the
panir Mary made was drained. It too will hang to dry for a while. We each left with cheese making instructions, a 1/2 gallon of vat
pasteurized goat milk and supplies to make feta,
panir or
chevre, plus advice from Mary to treat the milk and cheese gently. I have an appreciation now for the reason
artisanal cheeses cost more than the bulk "stuff", and for the huge effort involved in running a small farm. Mary couldn't have been more patient, and she clearly puts love into her work. Her website is well designed; Baby Belle's blog is a delight to read.
Sunday I spent 3 hours at Herron Hill Dairy in Lakebay, WA., learning how to make cheese from goat milk. The eight students were all greeted by Melody, a bottle-fed kid, who is so adorable I wanted one of my very own. But they grow up, don't they?
Mary, the proprietress, is a very kind and gentle soul. She has around 40 goats; milks about 15 of them at this time. She has been a certified dairy for 2 years. Her output is small, so she sells to a couple of farmers' markets in their brief season (here in Western WA that is only about 3 months of the year), but also to Pacific Grill which is one of the finest restaurants in the region. We all got to milk a goat. It was easy but we were far from proficient. Her dairy is on 7 acres along with her home which was built in the late 1800's. A landmark. Her classroom is housed in what was once a country store.
Here is milk straight out of the goats. You can see how rich and thick it is as it goes through this fine mesh filter.
In the classroom Mary demonstrated how to make two cheeses from the milk we just brought in from the barn. First is feta, pictured above as it starts to set. While the cheese was setting, to separate curds from whey, we were offered homemade soup, pumpkin muffins and tea. Then Mary brought out 3 big bowls of chevre so that we could experiment mixing in herbs of our choice. Dried lavender and honey were added to the first batch; next I mixed up a bowl with fennel pollen and cracked black pepper and kosher salt; last batch was made with salt and herbs de Provence. We each got to take home a tub of our concoction.
After a while the feta was drained, placed in a flour sack bag and hung to drain. Then the panir Mary made was drained. It too will hang to dry for a while. We each left with cheese making instructions, a 1/2 gallon of vat pasteurized goat milk and supplies to make feta, panir or chevre, plus advice from Mary to treat the milk and cheese gently. I have an appreciation now for the reason artisanal cheeses cost more than the bulk "stuff", and for the huge effort involved in running a small farm. Mary couldn't have been more patient, and she clearly puts love into her work. Her website is well designed; Baby Belle's blog is a delight to read.
2 comments:
Oh my goodness, how FUN!!!!
I love all these adventures you share with us, Charlotte.
The little kid WAS adorable. Did you notice that their pupils have a funky rectangular shape? So odd.
Did I tell you that when I used to live with my much-older boyfriend outside of Austin that we had a herd of meat goats? I couldn't bear to part with any of them, so the herd grew and grew. The weird thing was, they were FAINTING goats. A certain percentage of the herd would get startled then fall over in a dead faint. Isn't that CRAZY??????
I bet the cheese you made was the BEST cheest you ever had, yes? I would parcel it out, only a few tiny nibbles at a time. Are you going to be nice and share with Bob? I thought the last batch sounded the tastiest---what did you like best?
How cool!!! Was the cheese good. That is the question and how did your concoction taste?
Hugs
SueAnn
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