I understand the factors of comtamination of milk and eating cheese before it is mature, but to add to this topic may i say that i have made hard cheese and eaten all of it within 7 days of making it, because, 1. I am a glutton for cheese, 2. it tasted soooo good, 3. I milked the goat myself, I follow strict proceedures after milking to not have my milk contaminated, and know just by tasting the milk, that it was ok. [ If I taste the milk soon after filtering that it tastes a little 'goaty' i give it all to the dogs and they love it!]. Since consuming that gorgeous cheese, i have not suffered any problems at all. However, I intend to make a lot of hard cheese during the summer and 'store' them for the winter, this I believe was the original 'point' to making milk into cheese, but also now, my girls are milking really well and I know that shortly in less then 6 months they will 'tail off' a bit and not milk as much as they are doing right now, so making hard cheese is perfect to be able to continue eating cheese all through the winter? what say you?