The photo below shows a large Tomme (7.9# after brining) made on December 11. This used raw milk and was cultured with Kazu, MD-89 and LH-100. Added to the milk in the hopes of developing a colorful rind was KL-71, Mycodore, Geo 15 and B. Linens. The completed cheese was put in a ripening box in my 55F cave and the humidity was maintained at 90-92% for ten days to allow mold to develop. By the end of ten days the cheese showed some Geo growth and perhaps some KL-71 and white Mycodore but no blue, brown, yellow black or anything else.
I moved the cheese box to my garage bench and covered the box with a draining screen. The temperature held steady at around 55F with the humidity at 90%. It stayed there a week with two washings of a morge made with the KL-71, et al. Still nothing interesting. Perhaps my garage is a sterile environment?
So I decided to try a little experiment.
I made a "brew" of distilled water, a little salt, a couple of drops of vinegar, some
invert sugar (for the glucose), and some water extract of a balanced fertilizer for a little nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK). This should be a pretty good growing media for yeasts and mold. This was placed covered as shown below on the bench near the cheese . Sure enough, in about five days I had some interesting stuff growing in the little glass bowl - nothing on the cheese.
I don't know what I've got. There is some whitish mold (yeast?) with a gray center and some darker material on the bowl sides. I don't see any noticeable blue molds. I am attempted to inoculate the the Tomme rind with this. My theory (and justification?) is that the spores landing in the bowl also landed on the cheese but just never got started. I'd just be helping things along if I did this. Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions?
