Slow Cheese

Slow Cheese you say? yes good cheese can take some time and it can also be simple.My Slow cheese is simple and takes time but mostly is not demanding.but is one of the things we do here in sitkum please visit ;Sitkum Soapworks
to see some of the other things we also do here.
Out here in Sitkum ,being a long way and many gallons of gas to get there from town we try and make do with what we have and use as much of our own products in as many ways as possible. To that end I make cheese. Many years ago my DH stated he wanted these cute little animals he introduced me to at the fair. Dairy Goats! Not miniature pygmy goats, not meat goats but dairy goats. So in 1976 I brought home our first goat. One became two became many and today years later we still have about 10 goats. Over the years we have done many things with the goats. We drank the milk and feed it to our kids, we took the goats to the fairs and won prizes and money with them, We bred them and traded them and sold lots of goats to lots of people and almost every day over these 33 years with goats we milked at least some of the goats. Now to win in the show ring a goat must make a fair amount of milk, remember I said they were Dairy goats, and our goats made a lot of milk. Not just today but yesterday and tomorrow too and the day after as well. So it became necessary to find ways of using this milk.
Well why not sell it you say? that is the subject of another blog for sure. but lets just say most of the time selling milk has not been an option. So other means of using the milk became necessary. What do you do with 2 to 5 gallons of milk every day? That is the big question we had to face and I think over the years we have came up with some very good Ideas. Over the next few blogs I will cover some of these uses we have found. Here's a short list to let you see what I'll be blogging about.
Raising young animals, calves,Goats,Pigs,Lambs, puppies, kittens and many others.
Making products like the best soap, lotion and cheese, a lot of cheese. I never got good at Cheddar ,I like another brand for that but I make a soft Chevre. A fresh cheese that is eaten in a variety was. On a bagel, plain on crackers or in many dishes from lasagna to chocolate Truffles.
Slow Cheese is a name for untimmed cheese No clock watching.
Start with fresh milk if possible or good store milk add 1 cup Store bought buttermilk and 15 drops liquid rennet to two gallons milk and let it sit. How long? Well not 24 hours but maybe 6 to 12 hours,
Cut the curd into chunks and let the cheese rest.
How long? oh 2 to 6 to 12 hours, Get the idea? Let your life tell you when to start draining the cheese curds. busy now, wait a bit. as long as the whole process is done in two days you should be good. Curds are drained in any thin cloth that will let the liquid through. Let them drip for at least 6 hours but 12 is better. Try Your cheese!
More details will follow in future blogs so stay tuned.