Hi all,
like to introduce myself. I live in wonderful Willamette Valley, where I garden, raise my egg and meat chickens and just a few months ago met a nice 'Goat lady' I can get fresh, raw goat milk from, and then found a young farmer that just started a milk herd share with Jersey cows where I can get raw milk, Butter and Cream from. I grew up in Germany and drank raw milk for most of my life, so since I moved to the US I haven't drank a lot of milk there I never liked the taste and raw milk is hard to come by over here and often illegal to sell. So I am now in complete Milk heaven.
I am a drop off point for the Jersey herd share and if people don't pick up their milk I get to keep it. It doesn't happen very often, but because we can't drink that much milk I started making cheese with it, mainly soft cheeses like Quark and yoghurt, buttermilk. But the goat milk, I get one bottle of milk that is from a special cheese milk goat, I think it's a Toogenburg goat so I have been making some Chevre and Hand Cheese from my goat milk.
But now I am afraid the cheese bug got me and I want to make aged cheeses. I just got myself a mini fridge and ordered a digital temp. controller to turn it into a cheese cave..........it's a small fridge and as I looked around the web at other cheese making hobbyists I am thinking I should have gotten a larger fridge, Oh well! My farmer friend just told me if I like to get some skim milk to make milk with I just should tell him, because he has more then he can use and is not set up yet to make cheese with, so I can get it for free........I surely want to make cheese now!
Since I have lot's to learn and I already have found so much good info on this board I thought it would be good to join.......I am sure I will have many questions and cheese disasters in this new adventure.
