So I'm curious if anyone is aware of an app that allows you to plug in details about each cheese (dates, maintenance, target aging) and provide reminders as to what should be done for each of them on a daily basis, similar to a sales/marketing CRM tool. I'm approaching 20 different styles of cheese and finding it tiresome to run back thru the recipe to review notes and remember what day each one gets attention, and when it was made. I have a cheat sheet on the cheese cave but my life is dictated by my outlook calendar so if it doesn't pop up in front of me I'll probably forget.
Example:
Monday:
1.Brine Gouda 16 hours
2.Flip/Wipe Reblochon with blinens and brine
3.Flip batch 1 Cheddar wheels
4.Move Rochfort to cold storage
Tuesday:
1. Remove Gouda from brine and dry two days
2. Flip batch 2 Colby wheels
3. Flip/Wipe Swiss with brine
etc
If not, one of you enterprising people should start writing some code. ;-)
did you ever find your app? it sounds great to me too!
Nope, you're the first response. I need to do some web surfing. If theres not a cheese specific app I might be able to use something generic. Maybe even MS Project which I loathe since I use it everyday. :'(
Quote from: CheeseSnipe on March 02, 2011, 01:08:24 PM
Nope, you're the first response. I need to do some web surfing. If theres not a cheese specific app I might be able to use something generic. Maybe even MS Project which I loathe since I use it everyday. :'(
Yeah, I'll schedule my caves on MS Project. That ought to kill the fun aspect pretty quick. ::)
It does sound like a good idea though. Do what you said and provide alerts, popups, or some other notification when prompt attention is needed. Quite often a day or two will go by and I may forget that something needs to be done daily. Then again, I could probably learn to ignore the popups or alerts too. 8)
-Boofer-
I was looking for the same - and was thinking about trying to build such a system as a web app (with some help from someone who actually knows what he's doing.) What are the key things that would need to be tracked in such a system? Off the top of my head, I was thinking:
- cheese name
- recipe
- make notes
- make date
- date into cave
- brine schedule (with alerts)
- wash schedule (with alerts)
- flip schedule (with alterts)
- projected ready date (with alert)
Am I missing anything?
I love how geeky we can get. (And before anyone gets offended, I am the biggest geek of all >:D so I mean no offense)
If you want to be reminded of what you need to do, why not set up recurring task in your outlook/thunderbird/etc.
Would never work for me though. I have become a pro at ignoring those kind of things; I see them too much at work. :)
iain,
Maybe tasting notes if you want to taste along the way (or if you have to put back in the hole for a while). Maybe an alert for wrapping or moving to a colder location for longer storage. Are you a programmer?
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not a programmer, but I used to be a project manager at an interactive agency. I'm going to try and rope a programmer friend into this project (though it may be slow going). I'll keep this board posted on the progress.
Actually, as long as you know which cheese you made and when, you should automatically know what to do with it when you run into it on the shelf (presuming it says the cheese name and make date). You can also print the task list/recipe and pin it to the shelf in your cave.
I think feeding all of that to an app may be too tedious and waste of much energy. (especially when the tasks change based on what you see, smell and taste during aging so you won't know exactly in advance what will happen and when). If you must however, you can use any task management apps like Due, ToDo, WunderList and Evernote for the iPhone. There are similar apps for other platforms like the PC, Mac, Android Etc.
I've also been looking at using a spreadsheet for a recipe though as I can put in the quantities as a percentage and can then put in an amount and have the correct recipe in front of me. Should be a fairly straightforward task and I can create a fresh tab for each recipe.
If you did create such a spreadsheet, could you share it with the forum?
Morning Iain,
As I said, just been looking at it however once done (shouldn't be too long) I'm more than happy to share it you or anybody else.
Regards
David
Thanks - appreciate it. I'm interested in seeing how other people record their projects.
I have a step-by-step recipe instructions on MS word. For each batch I make a copy and add the make date to the name so I can easily find it.
The instructions include technique best used and target pH is any. then I record in each instructions in red color the actual comments about what had taken place in this particular batch and possibly comments for changes I would like to implement on the next batch.
E.g:
• Add 1/2 tsp CalCl2. (skip this test, using raw milk, no need)
• Add 3/4 tsp calf rennet mixed in 1/2 water. no mixing more than 30 seconds
• Wait for flocculation X3.5 (occurred at 14Min x3.5 = 49 min. total time from rennet)
• Cut into 1/4 inch cubes, let rest 5 min (target: 6.5pH, 90F) (80F room, curd remained at 89F. 6.5pH)
You get the idea...
Ooooooh, I would love an app that could do all the things you guys are talking about. I am pretty new to cheese making and right now I am uesing a log I got from curd-nerd.com to keep track of my follies since I haven't had many successes yet. An app with pop-up reminders would be wicked cool to remind me to flip my cheese, track the aging and so on!!
I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with :D
If anyone is interested in forms and charts you may use for cheesemaking, here is a link for printable forms etc: http://www.artisancheesemakingathome.com/cheesemaking-forms-charts.html (http://www.artisancheesemakingathome.com/cheesemaking-forms-charts.html)