Hello!
My name is theresa and I am a newbie cheese maker. A bit about me: I am a P.h.D candidate at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia in the U.S. I study chemistry and I specialize in organic/medicinal chemistry. I have a deep interest in sustainability and I am currently on a personal journey to reduce the amount of trash I produce and buy locally where I can.
...however, as a student, I don't make a lot of money, so a lot of this journey so far has been making my own cleaning products, and making my own cosmetics which are easy on my bank account. Limiting or eliminating plastic in my life is a goal I'd like to reach, but I eat cheese and I eat meat and there's no place that I know of near me where I can buy package free or plastic free without hurting my wallet. So, just like my cleaning products and cosmetic/hygiene products, I decided to figure out how to make my own and started reading about cheese making. I looked through several blogs, websites and found a few books but my favorite book so far has been 'On Food and Cooking' by Harold McGee (because I'm a science nerd). While reading about cheese making, I went pretty far down the rabbit hole to the point where I was on the hunt for an old dorm fridge or wine cooler.
A few months ago I found an old wine cooler that someone was throwing out that still worked and brought it home. After that, there was very little to stop me from making cheese, I saved up to buy a press, some cultures and a few other tools. I made my first cheese three weeks ago and my second one I made last weekend. I decided to start with a Cotswold (grew up in Europe and it was my favourite growing up). I decided to make the same cheese over and over for a little while so I can get a feel for the technique. I've also been taking notes as I make it so I can compare and tweak where needed. I'll probably make one more wheel of Cotswold before moving on to making another type.
I am mostly thinking of cheese making for personal use; I would love to make enough for me to eat and then some to give as gifts, but we'll see over the course of the next few months how well that goes. It would be interesting to make cheese to sell, but I'm already pretty invested in this chemistry degree, I should probably work in my field for a while to at least pay off my loans and do some cool research.
But that's all I can think to write about. I hope to learn a lot from this community. Please take care of me while I'm here!
