Hello from British Columbia

[birdsongmilkmaid]

My name is Naomi Fournier, I'm a budding cheesemaker from Enderby, British Columbia. I raise registered Jersey cows and Nubian goats, and right now I'm milking three cows and one goat. I can fit four gallons of milk in my cheese press, and I've been making two to four rounds of cheese a week in addition to yogurt, ice cream, and soft cheeses. I've made several rounds of cheddar so far, and I made my first round of gouda this past week.

I love making cheese, which is good since cheese doesn't last long in my large family. I'm looking forward to perfecting the cheese recipes I'm using now, and trying new ones in the future.

Naomi Fournier

[Jaspar]

Hi Naomi welcome to the forum, I to have a large family (6 kids).

                                       Jaspar

[birdsongmilkmaid]

I'm actually the oldest of nine children, all of whom are still living at home. My dad's mom also lives with our family, so we've got an even dozen of people to eat all of the cheese. We have lots of fun running the farm together, and it makes for a nice-sized sports team, too.  The whole family loves the cheese (I think we could live on it), and they even eat my failures without complaining. I'm teaching them how to make cheese now so that they can do something other than eat it all the time. 

I've got a farm website with photos of the cows and goats that you can check out: http://naomisbirdsongfarm.webs.com/

Naomi

[ArnaudForestier]

Hi Naomi, welcome to the site.  Your farming sounds wonderful.  Looking forward to following your ventures on the forum.  I'm really grateful for all I have learned, and for the friendships I've developed here.   

I also love your username.  Very pretty.

Paul

[smilingcalico]

Welcome, your family life sounds charming and idyllic.  I'll check your link to see if that's true or not!  I have some Gouda that's over 18 months old.  It's insanely good!  Hide some from your family if you can.  They'll really thank you for it later.

[Cheese Head]

Welcome Naomi, I've been through Enderby a few times, nice area! One of my childhood friend's twin sisters moved there ( I think) from North Van where I think she is a teacher. Have fun here!

[birdsongmilkmaid]

Thanks for the warm welcome to the forum!

I'm planning on setting aside every second cheese I make for longer aging, as our family has always preferred the "old" cheddars and goudas. I didn't realize that I could keep a gouda for 18 months, though. How long do you let your goudas sit in the brine? I soaked my first one for 12 hours, but I'm thinking of doing my second one for 24 hours and then seeing which one I prefer in about three months.

Naomi

[Cheese Head]

Hi Naomi, here's a post of mine on a store bought 1000 day old Gouda, I think there are some other threads on even older ones.

On brining time for Gouda's there's several posts on that in the RENNET COAGULATED - Semi-Hard "Sweet" Washed Curd Board and some in the STANDARD METHODS - Forming Cheese Board, have a mooch around and also you can use Search tool within a Board to help, have fun!

[birdsongmilkmaid]

Thanks for the pointers on where to look on the forum for information. I'll obviously need to sit down a do a bit of reading sometime while I'm making cheese. 

Naomi

[smilingcalico]

I brine them for four hours per pound. 3-4 hours is fairly standard for many cheeses, but defer to your recipe on the first make and adjust from there.  Happy cheesemaking!

[kookookachoo]

Hi, Naomi!

Welcome to the forum.  You will find there are a lot of really knowledgeable, as well as helpful people here.  I have a couple of good cheesemaking books, but finding people to discuss things with, reading about the experience, the tips, etc around here is invaluable.  I honestly prefer reading the forum & refer to my books for the cut-and-dried stuff. 

BC is one of my favorite places in the world!