Author Topic: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)  (Read 1795 times)

Chinders

  • Guest
Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« on: April 10, 2016, 04:10:30 PM »
I have been lurking and reading plenty in the forum all week, so I thought that an introduction was in order. 

Hello, my name is Cynthia, and I have a new obsession hobby making cheese. 

I started down this road by joining a Facebook group, that lead to a free online lesson by a local cheesemaking teacher, that then has led to obsessive reading and researching.  This is all really quite fun, and now every time that I am on the computer/iPad, my husband is asking if I am reading about cheese again.  He does love cheese, so he is very hopeful about my new hobby.   :D

Cheeses that I have managed so far:
30 minute mozzarella
quark (baked commercial buttermilk)
paneer 
ricotta - 2 successes out of three, first success I added milk to whey to boost yield.
a tiny Parmesan- 1 gal make (dried too far, but vac sealed and aging)
farmhouse cheddar- 2 gal make ( homemade mould cracked, and cheese bulging out one side)
Caerphilly - 3 gal make (tried to press in pasta draining pot, flimsy "follower" pressed poorly, poor curd join)

I bought a homemade lever type press from the local cheesemaking teacher, and it seems to do the job much more simply than the stacking of all of my cast iron pans on that wee Parmesan.  I have a real hard cheese mould on its way from Artisan Geek, and a big order of proper supplies and cultures from Glengarry cheese works coming next week.  We replaced our fridge, and I have sanitized and saved the older one in the garage to be my cheese fridge.  I am having the normal difficulties keeping humidity up in a fridge, and am working on keeping the temperature in range.  The best that I can do without turning it off completely is 45-50F, but I am sure that it will vary a bit with the ambient temperatures as well.

Anyway, the more that I learn, the more I realize that there is to learn, so I am trying to stay simple.  I have quite a few books queued at the library, and will review them to see which I wish to invest in buying.  There is also so much information here in this board, it is awesome!  Real life experience, and so importantly, follow ups with the cheese attempts, be it successes or failures.  The searchability has been great.

As a handspinner and knitter, I already am used to taking raw materials (fleece) from sheep to finished product, so I am not scared of the process nor time invested, should the end result be worth it.  I am a little hesitant to invest in the more expensive non-homogenized milk before I have some skills under my belt -literally- but I would imagine that the better starting product yields an awesome cheese.  But then, that is a whole other discussion, and this is just my intro!

Thanks to you all, you have already been incredibly helpful to this newbie.  I hope to be able to post some of my successes!

Cynthia


Kern

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2016, 03:57:50 AM »
Cynthia:  Sounds like you are hooked on cheese.  Welcome to the Forum.  You have found the right place to be.  Because you posted a picture of the cheese you made I will award you with your first cheese (thumbs up).  :)

Chinders

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2016, 08:22:53 PM »
Thank you for the warm welcome, Kern.  It is most kind of you to give me my first Cheese!

Frodage3

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2016, 10:40:16 PM »
Hi Cynthia,
I'm just north of you in Lanztville. Welcome to the forum!
Jim.

Offline Fritz

  • Mature Cheese
  • ****
  • Location: Toronto
  • Posts: 316
  • Cheeses: 15
  • So many cheeses.... So little time...
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2016, 01:38:46 AM »
Hello Cynthia, fellow Canuck :)
Great to see another member and cheese enthusiast (or nut like me) joining us here. Welcome ! and keep up the pictures... We love to see other peoples cheese... Cheese voyeurs, sort of.. Lol


valley ranch

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2016, 04:53:00 AM »
Cynthia, Now that's a nice name. Well you're very into cheese making, great, I think you come to the right place. It will be fun hearing what you're doing, and everybody here likes pictures. Look forward to your post and threads. Glad you found this place. A big welcome to you.

Richard

Duntov

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2016, 02:01:17 PM »
Welcome Cynthia.  There are many members from B.C. here.  AC4U for a nice looking cheese!

Chinders

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2016, 03:09:38 AM »
Thanks so much everybody!  I am on a bit of a hiatus in cheese making for the summertime, just too much to do to stay in the house for the continuous hours needed for a make

Chinders

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2016, 03:12:58 AM »
Upside down cheese huh?  Silly photo!  Well, I promise that it was actually right ways up when I cut it  ::)

valley ranch

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2016, 08:41:22 PM »
Hi, Can you tell us about that cheese in the picture? What spice, and the color.

Richard

Chinders

  • Guest
Re: Hello everybody, from Duncan, BC (Vancouver Island)
« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2016, 06:44:34 AM »
Sure, Richard.  I did use annatto colouring drops, and the flavouring is dried chives and dried red onion.  The recipe is from Gavin Webber's website "Little green cheese", and it is called Cotswold.