Two weeks post-artisan cheesemaking course...

Wow - what a week it was. We made quark, cheshire, feta, washed rind, ricotta, mozzarella, red leicester, brie, halloumi and romano....so much cheesey goodness! Sue and Neil (and Dan and P.H) were so generous with their time, patience and wisdom. It was a pleasure to turn up each day and get stuck in to those curds and whey.

Since I got back I have made halloumi and ricotta twice, once from raw milk sourced on the way home, from Hohepa in Havelock North. I made paneer and ricotta one night when I had a halloumi curd issue...but all is never lost with cheesemaking, it just becomes something else!

Conrad and the children bought me a lovely book for my 40th last week, Making Artisan Cheese by Tim Smith. I can't wait to get into the slightly trickier cheeses like Muenster, Gruyere and White Stilton. And Caerphilly too, and oh yum Cabra al Vino (goat cheese brined in red wine).

I have even been offered a cow for milking! But that may be a little complicated....thinking about it though. Difficult and expensive to get enough non-homogenised milk without having shares in a cow for lovely fresh, raw milk.

Great first day of cheese school

Phew. What a day: chemistry, regulations, conventions, pasteurising, cultures, rennet variations(animal or vegetable) and other such important things for makign cheesy delights.

And we helped get some lactic curd started to make into soft cheese tomorrow.

Our group is making Cheshire cheese tomorrow - exciting!

We have been very well fed, with a trio of delicious goat cheeses for morning tea and various tasty rich delights for lunch. Luckily Mindi and I bought 10kgs of carrots in Ohakune on the way up and a big bag of brussel sprouts for penance...

12 lovely keen types on the course - 10 women and two men! Funny. Many milkmaids : )

Mindi and I are very excited about future opportunities this new knowledge (and hands on skills) will bring.
Our lovely morning tea cheeses (a half and half goat and cow camembert, a goat brie and goat blue) all available from www.overthemoondairy.co.nz - go there now and buy up - such deliciousness cannot wait!

: ) x

7 days and counting

Oh yes, only seven more days and my lovely friend Mindi and I will be arriving in sunny (fingers crossed) Putaruru for a week long adventure into the mechanics of cheesey goodness. We are doing the New Zealand Cheese School's 5 day artisan cheesemaker course and it is all very exciting!

In a couple of years I have gone from a run-of-the-mill cheese eater to an appreciator of stinky, washed rind, blue, sheep, goat....all sorts of cheesey delights. Spurred by 6 months in Europe (mmmmmmm such memories, cabecou de rocamadour, mont d'or, comte, gruyere from the Pyrenees, etc etc)and then re-entering the land of cows and milk and of course cheese, I appreciate with a whole new passion the work of the artisan cheesemaker. Now a big fan of anything Kingsmeade, surprisingly good Kapiti Ramara and Raclette, prohibitively expensive imported Comte from Ontrays in Petone (where you can also buy Jamon Iberico, btw but that's another story...), I want to know how to play with cheesemaking myself. Maybe even one day sale-able cheese. Yay.

So Mindi and I have spurned the day or evening "make a cheese" class and decided to immerse ourselves in this unique Cheese School and see what comes out the other end. Stay tuned to find out!

(pic courtesy of www.nordiccheese.com)