Hello all -
Very new to cheesemaking; long time chef (French, one life), brewer (another life - side journey of several years), and, in love with artisanal cheese, and wanting a hobby for the lad and myself to do together, have enjoyed making several batches of chevre (until this weekend!). Looking forward to learning and taking part. We are socked in with a monstrous blizzard this weekend, so not much to do but .... eat cheese (well, that, and drink some nicely laid-in wine..!)
Welcome Arnaud:
I'm just across the river from you in Iowa. Storm hit us hard also. Using Belgum horses and sleigh to get around. Will be days before were dug out here.
This is a great site with a wealth of information and friendly experienced members.
So get plowed out go to town and buy some milk and join us.
Regards: john
Howdy Arnaud and welcome, tonnes of info here and in the articles on the website (https://cheeseforum.org/), both have Search buttons, yep saw the pictures on the news, over night here in Houston it gets down to freezing but sadly no snow! Those darn Canadian north winds (I'm originally Canuck ;D). Have fun!
Thanks very much, guys. Really looking forward to exploring. Saw the "new tank" thread in the "other products" sub-forum, and salivated....cannot compare my humble DIY to that cellar, but do love farmstead anything and have a 1/2 bbl dedicated brewery in mothballs. More into wine over the last several years, but as we live so close to so many wonderful cheesemakers, I do hope to build a decent cheese cellar over the coming time. Great site!
Buck, just had an all out snow fight with the lad, so it's not a total wash today. Hang in there, neighbor!
Anyway, many thanks for the kind welcome (and early advice, John). Looking forward to more.
Paul
Arnaud/Paul I'm envious, it's getting close to Christmas we are currently putting up the rest of the decorations and I miss snow, can you or Buck/John post some pics (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,51.0.html) of all that snow?
Quote from: John (CH) on December 12, 2010, 07:53:35 PM
Arnaud/Paul I'm envious, it's getting close to Christmas we are currently putting up the rest of the decorations and I miss snow, can you or Buck/John post some pics (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,51.0.html) of all that snow?
Here you go my friend. Enjoy!
Wow, gorgeous place to live, especially with the snow, I'm very envious, playing Christmas music now, many thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And thanks for the last 1940's picture!
Beautiful pics, Buck. Heading up north (gulp) for Christmas next week, we'll see if we can't grab some more while there.
Welcome, Paul! I, too, am in Wisconsin - the Menomonie area. We got about 20 inches of snow here, much more than we can easily deal with. I was an hour and a half late getting to work today because it took that long for the township to get our road plowed out.
Cheers on the cheesemaking!
Hi Karen - we know your environs well, as we passed by the bridge every time we went from Chicago to Marquette. We're in Madison, now - digging out this morning at several below, like yourself....!
Many thanks for the welcome. Looking forward to playing around and learning more.
We got less than 3 inches last night and all the schools, etc are closed. Here in Lexington we rarely get more than a foot a year so just a 6" snow puts Kentucky at a complete standstill. It's been at least 15 years since we have had a white Christmas, but it's 16 degrees (6 tonight), snowing, and looking possible.
Arnaud, did you brew in Madison? I've been to the Great Taste many times.
No, never brewed in WI, though when I was in the biz, knew Rob, Don and Co. from Great Dane. Fond memory - single, dumb as a box of rocks, before dadhood, mind you - of doing an all day "tasting" of barleywines from the Taste, then many boots of Weiss from EssenHaus. Then heading home with my cellarmanship mate from Goose. He drove - I was in no condition to drive - but worse, no condition to passenger. I've become a veritable monk since those halcyon, painful days....
Quote from: John (CH) on December 12, 2010, 09:29:37 PM
Wow, gorgeous place to live, especially with the snow, I'm very envious, playing Christmas music now, many thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And thanks for the last 1940's picture!
Here's one more photo John, Taken at noon today. Drafts make it easy to get around after a snow storm.
Didn't take time to put the bells on this morning.
Regards: john
Beautiful horses! I ride a paint quarter horse mare around my farm, but we had only about an inch of snow last night, so the "automated horses" are doing the hauling for the time being. In the midafternoon sun the thermometer on the side porch managed to squeak all the way up to 14F!
My dear neighbor whose goats produce milk for some of my cheeses is setting aside a gallon for me from tomorrow's morning milking, so I'll be working on chevre that I can freeze, as there's no more room in my cave 'til I get the new refrigerator that I've promised myself for being such an amazingly good girl the entire year . . .
Quote from: ArnaudForestier on December 13, 2010, 02:08:50 PM
Hi Karen - we know your environs well, as we passed by the bridge every time we went from Chicago to Marquette. We're in Madison, now - digging out this morning at several below, like yourself....!
Many thanks for the welcome. Looking forward to playing around and learning more.
You may be thinking Menomonie Falls, WI or Menomonee, MI - I'm clear across the state, just 45 miles from the Minnesota border.
Shivering here at the forecast of -19 for tonight. And I have to milk the cow at midnight. No more winter calves!
Lol, uh, yep, that would be right. Must have been the bitter cold that got my head turned around.
Hang in there - I think we have it nowhere as bad as you do,
Quote from: MrsKK on December 14, 2010, 02:34:21 AM
Quote from: Mrkk on December 13, 2010, 02:08:50 PM
Shivering here at the forecast of -19 for tonight. And I have to milk the cow at midnight. No more winter calves!
Congratulations: I believe your the winner MrsKK ... only -17.3F here this morning. You have my respect - milking at these temp is hard - but going out at midnight is brutal.
Ditto, my kudos! We're in a balmy -4 right now, and lord knows I don't have to milk!
I do have to say that when we lived in Spring Green, on a farm, and I was an insanely driven brewer, I would often get the need to do a brew overnight - "Ugly Betty" was a 550K propane system, and needed the outdoors, so "overnight" in the Spring Green winter had some potentially interesting implications.
Fond memory of what my wife affectionately called "Hellenback Bock" - a straight decoction brew of a doppelbock (not a helles, but the name fits, for reasons following) that I had an idea on overnight so....-10F, doing a decoction brew, and the...lauter screen lifted; I couldn't get a clear runoff, and couldn't figure out why, as I was always anal about an absolutely pristine runoff. Finally figured out why, and so took the mash out, reset the lauter, decocted an additional portion and, bottom line, something like 18 hours later, one very tired idiot husband dragged into bed, frozen to near death, but pleased he had laid down what amounted now to a seriously dunkel doppelback into the fermentor. To hell and back; served for Christmas, one of the best brews I ever made (always name the style after the fact, that's my motto).
Can I claim some country hardiness from the episode, even though I sit in relative Madison warmth this morning? ;D
Seriously, Mrs. KK, good luck with the milking, and good health to you and your cow.
Karen,
There are very few people who can fully appreciate the warmth of a cow's bag in bitter cold weather. :)
Quote from: FarmerJD on December 14, 2010, 10:12:17 PM
Karen,
There are very few people who can fully appreciate the warmth of a cow's bag in bitter cold weather. :)
Or how warm her flank can be when you wear a loose hoodie that funnels the warmth right to your face. Only when she's clean and dry, of course!
LOL I was actually going to add that but I thought most folks would think we were crazy. I guess we are. ;D
I hope you guys are putting wool sweaters on those poor cold cows (and goats, and sheep). Otherwise the milk will come out as ice cream. ;)
The other night when it was -20 F, I had to use a spatula to scrape the rest of the milk out of the bucket.
Balmy here the past couple of days with 0 for the low and 15 for the high.
No wool sweaters for the cow, but the calf does have a heat lamp suspended above his pen, which is left open so he can come and go.
Holy Moses! -20?! You go girl! I have avoided owning a cow or goat as I know my limitations; and -20 way exceeds it. We occasionally (though rarely) get in the single digits but it is more than I can manage. I milked goats as a child and always struggled with those cold days. If only you could milk them .. weather permitting.
Susan
Arnaud,
Beautiful pictures, but I'm not sure I'd trust that bridge if I were you. :)
Fred
Welcome aboard Paul!
I certainly don't envy the cold you and Karen are dealing with. I don't know how you do it. +20 degrees is as cold as I want to get never mind -20!
Quote from: DeejayDebi on December 18, 2010, 08:01:42 PM
Welcome aboard Paul!
I certainly don't envy the cold you and Karen are dealing with. I don't know how you do it. +20 degrees is as cold as I want to get never mind -20!
Lol - well, I have no idea why I took to it....born and bred surfer from Ventura, California, moved back east originally after grad school to pursue a stage career (Shakespeare, Lenox, MA; Providence, RI), and never lost the taste for seasons. At least 3 of them - tops for me is Autumn, followed by Winter, then spring, then, if I have to, summer. I usually get shot when I ask for colder weather around these parts.... ;D
Thanks for the warm welcome, all. I've been doing some thinking on future plans, and have decided to think a bit more on a better setup for a cheese cave, before diving in more. So much great and helpful information on this site - my thanks to all of you with experience and dedication to this wonderful food.
I think the photos are beautiful, but.... will enjoy from afar.
I was born outside Chicago... don't miss all that snow.
Remember having to be dug out of our house with enloaders.... and not be allowed to play outside due to the large air pockets folks were falling in and suffocating.
My ewes, all heavy pregnant for January lambs (let the cheese making commence BG), are laying outside "on the grass" this morning. :)
We had an inch of snow here the other day and they thought it was strange.
Although it is below freezing here this morning.
Enjoy the snow... I'll keep my TN Christmas. 8)
Quote from: spalko on December 19, 2010, 12:58:10 PM
I think the photos are beautiful, but.... will enjoy from afar.
Enjoy the snow... I'll keep my TN Christmas. 8)
spalko: Yes, it is beautiful here. What part of Tennessee are you in?
I was born in Milan (about a 115 miles North & East of Memphis. ;D