Author Topic: Hi from SE Queensland  (Read 3381 times)

Bella

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Hi from SE Queensland
« on: January 10, 2009, 04:15:09 AM »
Hello from SE Queensland, about 2 hours north of Brisbane. I have an interest in nutrition and raw milk has been a sought after item for me for several years. The price keeps going up (when you can get it!), and so I bought my own cow earlier this year, and then a second a few weeks ago to keep the first company (and to get me back to cheese quicker).

The first cow was close to drying off, so had milk from her for about 3 months, and used much of that to practice making cheese, and tried out quite a few varieties with mixed success.  But I missed making the cheese, and was grateful when the second cow came along. I have been milking her for only 3 weeks, and am happily back at my cheesemaking attempts.

This forum is a wonderful resource of information from so many talented people, and I am so glad to have found it. During the ‘off’ period, I lurked around here every so often and it is partly to ‘blame’ for making the arrangements for the second cow – was anxious to get back to it.

So thanks to all who have so generously contributed to the knowledge base here, and while I am very much a newbie to the process, I hope to be able to contribute as time goes by.

saycheese

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2009, 04:27:22 AM »
Bella,
Welcome from a fellow newbie.  Having your own source of raw milk is great!  I'm sure you will find lots of good info here.  Welcome.

Cheese Head

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2009, 05:17:17 AM »
Hi Bella and welcome to the forum, thanks for the kudos, a lot of good people here, FYI Tea & Bundy on this forum also live in Queensland :).

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2009, 05:29:23 AM »
Tea, has a cow to. Post pics of your cows.

Bella

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2009, 05:38:00 AM »
I tried to post a photo, but I don't seem to be able to do it. Can someone give me some assistance please!!!

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2009, 05:40:25 AM »
What was the file extension .jpg? How big was the file, it can't be bigger that 600K I think. How did you try to post it? When you reply to a post at the bottom it'll say "additional options" then at the bottom will be a box where you click a button and search your computer for the pic you want to upload. Hope that helps.

Bella

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2009, 05:45:48 AM »
Thanks so much.  I hope this works - not what I did before which was to click on an icon (not here this time??) for inserting an image.

The cow in the front is Bella, my new cow, and the other is Lady, who should be having a calf sometime this month (the farmer who sold her couldn't give me a date). Bella is milking from two quarters only, but still provides 7-8 litres per day, so that is plenty for me, some of my friends, and lots left over for cheese.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2009, 05:53:06 AM »
Cows are funny. What kind of cows are they? What's great is they give a return on the investment besides milk, another cow. What are you going to do with calf, milk her too when she's of age, or I guess you don't know the sex yet?

Lucky cows, I'd love to just live in a green tall grass field.

Bella

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2009, 06:16:14 AM »
Thanks so much for your help with the photo - it really was simple after all.

The cows are both jerseys, and are the most adorable animals, really as friendly as a puppy with many extra bonuses. I have been away from the computer for a bit, making an ice cream from yoghurt and cream (supplied by Bella), mint and lemon juice grown here - the taste is fantastic!

If the calf is a heifer, I have a friend who has put up a hand to take her as a house cow - I doubt that I could use all that milk - my storage capacity is already pretty stretched. If a bull calf - who knows! I am told that jersey meat is the best, but I'll just have to wait and see.

Cheese Head

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2009, 12:30:13 PM »
Bella, glad you got the picture attachment figured out, thx Carter for helping, in addition to posting in this forum as Cheese Head I'm also the webmaster and I made a FAQ on attaching files here that may be useful.

Also, sadly most of us here don't have Carter's wit, he is our resident comedian, secretly wants to move from suburban San Francisco to the wide open spaces, and from his post above presumably be re-incarnated as a cow :o!

Anyway, welcome again!

Tea

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #10 on: January 10, 2009, 07:53:44 PM »
Good morning Bella and welcome to the forum.  Beautiful couple of girls you have there too.
So what cheeses have you made and what have you had success with and what are you going to try next?

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2009, 01:34:33 AM »
Oddly enough John, I was serious about the green field, I grew up hiking and backpacking the Sierra Nevada Mountains and I really miss the outdoors. I always envisioned building a custom house in the middle the wood and have an open air movie theater, private of course.

Bella

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2009, 01:36:37 AM »
Thanks CH and hello Tea
I have made several of the cheeses from Home Cheesemaking by Neil and Carole Willman: Blue, Blue/White combo, caerphilly, cheddar, brie, camembert, parmesan, swiss, halloumi, fetta, havarti, pepato, swiss, and white wensleydale. I have made the stilton from Ricki Carrol’s book as well. Oh, and lots of ricotta from the whey.

As for quality, well, that’s another matter. They have all been edible, but the ones I was most happy with were pepato, caerphilly and brie. The blue didn’t blue (used too fine a skewer to pierce); cheddar was a tad floury – not sure why; one batch of camembert was OK, but I took too long to eat the second and by then it was inedible with a very strong ammonia smell (the blue/white combo – ditto); I didn’t get to taste the swiss as I gave it away but was told it was nice; the halloumi and fetta were OK, but perhaps a tad salty; and the wensleydale was also OK, but nothing to write home about.

In the past couple of weeks, I have made another blue (has lots of blue so I’m ahead so far), caerphilly – it was like a mild cheddar but eminently edible; a brie (but have decided it has just been too hot to even go there again until it cools down in a couple of months; and two stiltons – the first was a disaster as I took it out of the mould too early – didn’t read the instructions carefully enough, and the second one is draining as I type. I really want to learn to make a good stilton – one of my favourite cheeses.

All in all, a very mixed bag, but I am absolutely committed to get better!  I love the process, right from the get go with milking the cow and seeing it through to a final product. Have made quite a bit of butter, one quarg and one batch of yoghurt.

Ps and the ice cream is pretty good too!

pps your idea of an open theatre sounds great, Carter.

Cheese Head

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #13 on: January 11, 2009, 01:48:02 AM »
:o Wow Bella, that's great, it also means you'll hopefully be able to give some of us advice! Glad you are here!

bundy

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Re: Hi from SE Queensland
« Reply #14 on: January 11, 2009, 03:54:44 AM »
Hi Bella great to hear from another Queenslander.
Welcome, great mob here always willing to help some one.
Bundy