Say CHEESE

Monday girl power gathered at Caramel Apple Farm to make cheese.  Two days later:
CHEESE - 12 1/2 pounds of it.

12 pounds of cheese, Gouda and cheddar

It started out with 8 girls and twelve GALLONS of fabulous goat milk

Iris and Bumblebee

Peter

Well these guys had nothing to do with it.  Iris and Bumblebee are kids from this season and Peter is a wether from last season.  Sargent is MaMa to all of these beauties.

After heating the milk, ripening it with the culture and coagulating it with rennet, then cutting it into small pieces this is what it looks like:  Curds and whey:

Slowly the curds are heated to 95 degrees ( 98 for cheddar)  until they look like this:

Becka (Denise and Autumn in the kitchen)

We had five fabulous young women to help us: Liz, Becka, Ella, Kate and Kaitlin

Ella at the press

Kate and Kaitlin making quills in the rest time

Ready for the press:

Then the Gouda went into the salt brine for 8 hours and the cheddar was salted and dried countertop

wheel of fresh (un-aged) cheddar

We used a week's worth of milk from 6 does.  Three goat owners and 5 fabulous human girl kids started at 10 o'clock Monday morning and I have just finished waxing and sealing on Friday night.  Now the hardest part- waiting for it to age so we can eat this wonderful cheese.

Bon Appetit!