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I used to be on the forum a LOT.  Then I started buying foster calves for my cow, was making a lot less cheese and had my time diverted elsewhere.

I still have my cow (she'll be 10 in August) and she still gets foster calves but not as many as I used to give her.  Life has slowed down a lot for everyone around here - I messed up my left knee and had surgery almost exactly a year ago and while recuperating, the osteoarthritis set up in both knees.  I've had crap knees all my life, but now they are crippling.

So I am no longer able to work a job and my physical therapist recommends that I avoid weight bearing as much as possible.  I ride a tractor to the barnyard and the riding lawn mower around the yard to do my gardening.  I sit in a lawn chair to garden and I'm working on ways to simplify things in the house so that I am off my feet as much as possible.

I came out here to search for an answer about cheese from a member of another forum and decided I should hang out here more again. 

I am still milking my cow once a day since she just freshened in May.  She has her own calf plus a foster on her now but they can't take everything she puts out, but I'm down to cheesemaking about once a week instead of the every other day I was doing before getting the foster.

I've been making a lot of mozzarella because I freeze it, especially the Easy Peasy Pizza cheese that I came up with a couple of years ago.  A cultured mozz type that I don't bother stretching, but it still tastes wonderful on anything melted.  I'll look to see if I've posted my recipe here and if not I will add it.

I've got a Gouda in the cave and a cheese that went wrong in the processing due to lack of attention.  I scanned through Debra Amrein-Boyes' book and discovered that what I had done was fairly close to the recipe for Asiago, so I treated it as such from that point forward.  I guess I'll know if I actually got close in a couple of months.

Now I need to look around and see if any of the old gang is still hanging around!

Welcome back Karen!!  Good to see you again!

Welcome back, I have read many of your posts and would be interested in your "Easy Peasy Pizza mozzarella cheese"

Thanks

John

We must be thinking alike. I've been mostly gone for two years now, and just recently thought I'd like to get involved with the forum again. I'm sorry to hear about your knees, but I'm impressed with what you are still keeping up. While I've lost some hair, and had more turn gray, it wasn't health that's kept me away. Turns out it's harder to find time to make cheese while working on a PhD (and helping my wife start a business and taking up beekeeping and...), than it was when I was working. I used to make cheese every other weekend, but now I'm hoping for once a month. We'll see if I can manage that.

Welcome back and I hope you get well soon.

Thanks for the welcomes!

Did you get your PhD yet, Mike?  In what area?

Here's the link to the pizza cheese recipe.

Thanks for the link!

I haven't finished the PhD, yet. I've got one more year to get it done. It's an interdisciplinary degree called Energy Science and Engineering. My emphasis is in thermal hydraulics, or thermal fluid sciences as applied to nuclear energy. My research is coming along. I should be able to finish on time...I hope.

Karen, it is great to see you back on the forum. I've got at least one cheese recipe that I identify as "MrsKK's version" - a Lancashire make. Sorry to hear about the knees, but great to hear that you are finding ways to adjust - and still make cheese!

Mike, blessings on your work toward the PhD. It can be a long road ... !

Hi Karen
Good to have you and your expertise on the forum again

Quote from: MrsKK on June 15, 2016, 03:02:49 PM
Now I need to look around and see if any of the old gang is still hanging around!

Quote from: Mike Richards on June 15, 2016, 09:52:05 PM
just recently thought I'd like to get involved with the forum again.

Welcome back to the fold, you guys! Recently Tiarella reappeared also. Hey, we're getting the band back together! The band of cheese aficionados....

-Boofer-

Welcome back Karen!

It's nice to see some of the folks from 5-6 years ago stuck with the hobby and still post here! I too recently started to post again, but never stopped making cheese. I usually keep a 80-90LBS inventory in my cave. I've experimented A LOT! A lot of those were failures and hard to get motivated back into making cheese, but I held on!

Welcome back, Karen! I just came back also from a rough few years; you have my sympathy!
Dave in CT

It's really great to see so many of you previously prolific posters back on the forum.  As a newbie to the cheese making interest, the knowledge you people posted here over the years has been very helpful and inspiring as I've gone back over the topics.  Whilst you may not be putting up pics and posts of all your cheeses, the help you can provide others with your wealth of experience is much appreciated.

I have not been present on the forum much at all recently, but will try to get back to posting, not just occasional lurking in the shadows...
I have been making cheese, and have been maintaining about 50# supply. Just opened a Bitto half that had been vacuum sealed and forgotten many months ago. I realized it was made a year and a half ago. It was only so-so at 6 months, and I considered it a bit of a failure, though edible. But now...!
There are still so many things I don't know about making cheese, and so much to learn!
It really is lovely to read the postings of those who have been in the game a long time, or just seem able to intuit more than I can about the mysteries of milk and cheese.

It almost feels like Old Home Week with all the oldies-but-goodies tuning back in.

I am impressed with the amounts of cheese @Spoons and @scasnerkay have been keeping on hand.  I have never been that prolific, but I do play around with cheese making a lot.  I have to give all the credit to my cow, though, without whom this adventure would have never even begun.  I can't imagine having to buy all the milk much less figure out how to work around pasturization and homogenization issues.