Hard cheesemaking

The cheesemaking was easy, but the cheese has to age quite a while to become hard. :-D We partnered up and made chipotle cheddar, colby jack, parmesan, pepper jack, and caraway gouda. Yum!! I got to see a cheese factory, and a big ole cheese cave. We tasted another big plate of cheeses: blueberry havarti, eden (brie with an ash layer), cheddar, gouda, and I don't know what all else!

I brought home some colby jack, caraway gouda and chipotle cheddar. I think I'm officially cheesed out, for at least a day or two.

Soft cheese making

Today I took a soft cheese making class, and I don't know that I've ever eaten so much cheese in one day!! It's amazing how a recipe can have the same ingredients and yield such different flavors. Mozzarella was the only cheese we all got to make, and then we helped or watch the instructor demo a very long list of cheese and other milk products: We made butter, cultured buttermilk, sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt, labneh, cottage cheese, feta, two kinds of ricotta, mozzarella, creme fraiche, herbed cheese log, and a whey smoothie. Many of the cheeses needed to drain or sit overnight, so things were prepped for us to see different stages. I left with a ball of mozzarella, an herbed cheese log, a jar of marinated feta, and a jar of marinated labneh (yogurt cheese). Just amazing!! I can't wait to get home and try some of this out.

Breadmaking

My day making bread at Heritage Farms exceeded my expectations. I thought we'd make a couple of loaves of bread. We made two loaves of whole wheat bread, a dozen flour tortillas, a dozen crescent rolls, AND a dozen cinnamon rolls. They grind their own flour in a gristmill there on the property. The bread and tortillas were made with the red wheat, and the crescent and cinnamon rolls with the white wheat. It was just awesome. I can't wait for cheese tomorrow!!