a long set of complex processes

Cheesemaking is a journey. This is what I have discovered in the last 2 years of diving into the process. The journey itself involves an education of what lays right in front of our eyes, yet we cannot see at first. Under careful examination, experiments, many questions with hard to find answers, and with time, the story begins to present itself. Vague outlines of important characters and interconnected plots appear slightly more clear as each season passes. Kate and I have very purposively chosen a lifestyle and a path that is the most natural for our animals, the land and the products that we are creating. I hate to simmer down what we are doing to just making “cheese,” specifically because most everyone has become accustomed to “cheese” as a rather bland and uniform common food product-who’s story is expectingly… uninteresting. On top of that, my whole life, every single day is wrapped up in my animals wellbeing and then accepting and recreating the nourishment they give. Cheese on top of that, is a final expression of everything we are doing. It exalts the season, the herd, the grasses& plants growing on our hilly pastures, the rain, the sun, the bugs, the microbes, the air, and our own hands that bring it all together. I am sure of the intention that I want to take, but the direction can be unclear with how to do it. Although I understand this is the process and the journey we are on- with time and continuing observation and experimentation, I’m sure someday we will understand so much more.

It is meaningful to start to unravel all of these processes when I am peering into the cheese vat or take watch over the cheeses as they age. Slowly, ever so slowly, things are starting to come together. Molds in the cheese cave, that I let grow naturally on our aging cheese, I’ beginning to see old familiar faces. Old friends that keep popping up. hello once again.

This is a true journey for me, day in and day out.