Hi from the high desert wine country of Central Washington!

[greg]

I recently found this web forum and have been reading it as much as I can since. My name is Greg, my wife and I have a small(ish) winery here in the Yakima Valley. We have twin 6 year olds and in my spare time I'm executive chef at a Country Club.  Obviously a tad ADD, I restore antique cars, furniture and have decided that making cheese would be a great cross-utilization of some of my skills.
Over the years I have made small batches of fresh style cheeses but nothing serious or long aged. I have some Feta and cottage cheese in the fridge currently. I generally have 10-15 different commercial cheeses on hand at any time.
My immediate cheese goals are to make a hard grana style, cheddar and some sort of Brie or similar type.
The wine harvest is in full swing so it may be several weeks before I start anything to consuming.

Thanks for allowing me to tag along with this great forum!

[Gregore]

Welcome and enjoy the hobby as it is very rewarding ,

I recommend a short aged cheese to start with as usually the first few are less than stellar because of  many small mistakes in the  making .  So the sooner you can taste and modify your technique the faster you steer yourself towards creating great cheese .

[greg]

Thanks Gregore- Sounds like a prudent suggestion. Less time before I discover how bad it is..  I just got notice that fedex has delivered some supplies that I ordered so I'll be ready as soon as I get these fermenters full of grapes pressed off and into barrel.

[H-K-J]

Hi Greg
Make some Caerphilly, it can be tried at 4 to 6 weeks, I opened my first one at 3 weeks, not excellent, still we loved it 
OH! BTW welcome to the forum

[John@PC]

Hi Greg and welcome also.  A lot of nice avocations listed there and cheese would be a nice addition for you (although considering the fact you have twins I don't know how you even have time to change a spark plug ).  I would suggest you also add to you list at least one washed-rind cheese.  Bries are fine but a nice Reblochon or ale washed rind cheese is worth the little extra bit of work.

[Mermaid]

Welcome Greg! I'm from WA state too!
Hope you didnt have any wildfires in your area. Welcome to cheesemaking
I would recommend a simple tomme style cheese- I make one that is only 4 months aged, and I wash it with white wine during aging. Since you have wine around it could be a good one!

[Stinky]

I recommend a Butterkäse. Short aging and delicious.

[greg]

Thanks all- what a great welcome!
I do intend to make as many different types as possible. I hadn't yet considered butterkasse but I really like that one so it'll come sooner rather than later. Some supplies started arriving yesterday-  but I'll need to go back through and make a clean up order to get what I missed.
I started some meat curing yesterday- bacon, Canadian bacon and a marinade on some belly for Char Siu (Chinese style bbq pork) and got a batch of sauerkraut started too.
There are lots of dairies around here- should I try getting raw milk or just work with the store bought?

This summer the fires seemed to be all around our valley and it was very smoky for weeks on end but no fires within about 50 miles of my place.
Also, the twins love to be out in the shop so it's slow going but I do get time out there because they ask to go out.

Some of you may know that it takes a lot of beer to make wine- so I have a keg fridge, but it doesn't get warm enough for cheeses. Looks like I may be adding another ao I can store that. I'd keep it in the wine cellar but I'm concerned with cross contamination. Lactobacillus is the last thing I need to purposely introduce to my wines...
Thanks again and I'll keep reading and start posting as I begin. Greg

[Al Lewis]

Hi Greg and welcome from Port Orchard Washington on the Kitsap peninsula!!  Look forward to your makes.  Please don't limit your posts to cheese though.  We have a plethora of food topics and any input from an Executive Chef would be very welcome.  With regards to the milk the, kind of basic rule, is that anything aged over 60 days is good for raw milk.  Anything fresh such as brie, camembert, Mozz should be PH milk.  Do not use Ultra pasteurized though.  If won't make cheese.

[Boofer]

Greets from just south of Tacoma.

As a young captain I commanded the Yakima Firing Center many years ago. Very warm and very cold when I was there.

Welcome to the forum. Good to have you here.

-Boofer-

[H-K-J]

and here I sit in Vancouver Washington 
trying to repair my sister-in-laws fence of course it was only supposed to take a few hours.
a 4 hour drive from home in Oregon, repair it, then home tomorrow, yea right home sunday after I rebuild the hole freekin thing,
OH sure why not I aint got anything better to do, right?
GGGGRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Kern]

Hi Greg.  I'm over the "hill" from you in Enumclaw.  Welcome to the Forum.  Lot's of good stuff here.  Spent a night in Prosser in late July - 106F at 6:00pm.  We ate in a great little restaurant in the new little wine center in Prosser - outstanding food.   

[Al Lewis]

and here I sit in Vancouver Washington 
trying to repair my sister-in-laws fence of course it was only supposed to take a few hours.
a 4 hour drive from home in Oregon, repair it, then home tomorrow, yea right home sunday after I rebuild the hole freekin thing,
OH sure why not I aint got anything better to do, right?
GGGGRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! 

You need to bring your butt by here when you're done!!  We have a party to do. LOL

[H-K-J]

LOL we would love to Al, going back home this morning, besides, my butt is dragin after building 40' of fence and punch in the post holes through river rock and concrete
Maybe next time 

[Al Lewis]

Waiting for Viking to do mine.  Cost me $3000.00.  Should have called you! LOL