Author Topic: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!  (Read 2093 times)

Tammy

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Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« on: February 21, 2009, 02:22:28 PM »
Hi, my name is Tammy and it's MrsK's fault that I am here!   ;)  She was kind enough to invite me over to this forum and I am so glad that she did.  (Although my housework might suffer because of it!  ;D)

I hope to be able to find the time to hang out here and learn from you all!  I am in my second year of "cheese-making" but I have basically taught myself from a few recipes that I have.  I am looking forward to learning from the experts on this forum!

A little about me:

I am a wife, a mother, and a farmer.  We raise cash crops (hay, oats, corn and sometimes a few soybeans), grow and sell produce, have a herd of beef cattle, sell free-range eggs from my Rhode Island Red hens, have Dachshunds, Corgis, one barn cat and my beautiful Jersey girls!  My Jerseys are my passion.  I currently have two miniature Jersey cows, two miniature Jersey bulls, two standard Jersey cows, a standard Jersey heifer that will be calving for the first time in July and a mini Jersey/standard Jersey cross heifer calf that is my pride and joy named Princess!  In addition, I have a set of Holstein twins raised on Jersey milk and a Holstein/Angus cross heifer that I intend to keep and raise up as a future family cow.  I have a small cow-share program as well. 

We hope to add feeder pigs to the mix this spring and my future goals include having a small flock of sheep that I can milk and use for specialty cheese!  Yum!

If you would like to see pictures of my animals you can view them at the following link!

http://tcuppminiatures.wordpress.com/

Looking forward to getting to know you all better and glean from your cheese making experience!

Thanks for inviting me, MrsK!  It looks like a great forum!

Tammy

« Last Edit: February 21, 2009, 03:02:26 PM by Tammy »

Cheese Head

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2009, 02:44:12 PM »
Hello Tammy and welcome to this forum :).

Great you have lots of experience with cheese making, I'm only at the 1 year Cheese Making mark but there are some very knowledgeable friendly people from around the world here. I have no clue about farming but the pics of your cows on your link do look nice.

I looked at our list of members locations and didn't see Virginia USA, so I think you are the first one. So I've just added Virginia to that post and just added a Board just in case you have anything specific for there :).

Looking forward to your input, John.

Tammy

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2009, 03:32:13 PM »
Thanks for the kind welcome, John.  I just had to come back and say that this site is amazing!  So much information that it boggles my mind!  Is there somewhere that gives information on how this forum got started?  Curious minds like to know these things! 

My housework is already suffering..................I must get off here and get something done!

Tammy

Cheese Head

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2009, 04:02:10 PM »
Tammy, you are right, there is a cornucopia of information here now. I just set up the website and forum framework, it's all the members from around the world that make it great.

The reason for CFO's existence is:
  • I wanted to build a website on something as I liked computer programming way back in college.
  • When I chance googled "Cheese Forum" to find some info on a cheese, I couldn't find anything decent. (I did find a couple of older style chat systems on cheese where you get emailed the discussion but I don't find those very user friendly).
  • Someone said to me that in China, if you are 1 in 10,000, there are still another million like you.
So I put all 3 together and thought that there must be a bunch of cheese lovers out there who have no where to go and chat.

Thus I built a basic website in January 2008 (steep organic learning curve as I had no one to ask how) and plugged in this forum's software and made a few posts. But no one came as no-one knew this website existed because when I googled "Cheese Forum" it didn't show up as google search ranking algorithm is complicated but basically is not based on website name. So I left a few cheese crumbs on other forums and Amazon book reviews and a few people did sign on and make a few posts, but to my surprise they were mostly about making cheese, not about cheese. So I bought a book (now 3 and growing) and also started making cheese and posting my results, which drew more people and basically it snowballed such that we just passed 7500 posts and CFO is #1 result when you google "Cheese Forum". And yes I now have the Cheese Making bug and am on my 36th cheese making this morning. If the current post rate stays unchanged, we will have 45,000 posts in Feb 2010 :o, so I occassionaly re-organize the boards to better cater for topic popularity and for our future growth.

Also, like I said on the homepage, this is an "independent global website as it does not promote any store or vendor's merchandise and try to use metric and standard imperial units", which I think helps. Also also, I have made the forum almost completely open format so that people can post links to pictures and videos they post on other sites etc which I other members appreciate.

Lastly, my copy of US based Ricki Carroll's book says it has sold over 170,000 copies, so I am surprised that there are not more members, maybe it's just a question of people not knowing this site exists.

Any ideas to better this website, please PM or email me.

Housework? Today's Saturday!
« Last Edit: February 21, 2009, 04:20:07 PM by John (Cheese Head) »

MrsKK

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2009, 04:21:07 PM »
Yes, it is all my fault that Tammy is not getting her housework done!  I take all the credit...um, blame!

I'm just starting to dig into what is available here.  It is rather mind-boggling, but I'm really enjoying it so far.  Thank you, John, for posting the history of the forum.  I am amazed at the quality and quantity of what is available, as you have only been out "here" for a little over a year.

It will grow in time.

Captain Caprine

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2009, 04:40:58 PM »
Hi Tammy and MrsKK
Welcome, as you are finding out John has put together an amazing forum here and I'm sure you will end up teaching as well as learning.We are actually looking into buying a few sheep to add to our menagerie as well.  Are you thinking of Friesians or something else?  Finding nice Friesians isn't hard but what I really want are pure Lacaunes. 
Cheers
CC

Tammy

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2009, 05:42:49 PM »
Thanks, John for that detailed explanation of the forum's origins!  How cool is that?  I am so glad that you started the forum and I am looking forward to all the things I will learn from this great site. 

Hi Karen!   :)

CC, I really don't have a specific breed of sheep in mind at this time, as I am still learning about them.  I hope to do some research and then start a small flock next spring.  I am open to suggestions.  I am not familiar with the Lacaunes.  I will have to do a little checking up on them as well!

Thanks for the welcome!


Tea

  • Guest
Re: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2009, 09:33:24 PM »
Good morning Tammy and welcome to the forum.

Offline Cartierusm

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  • Posts: 1,874
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Re: Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia!
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2009, 11:19:43 PM »
Welcome, very cute animals!