Just a quick update on our little Nelson Jameson incubator and the aerobic plate count petrifilm plates: It dawned on me that that is a great way to test our cheese brine for its microbiological safety. Ran the first test on Friday and the brine, which is about 6 months old now, had zero growth. Very reassuring.

Also, I had told you all that you would have to purchase a plate spreader, but low and behold, a new one comes with every packet of petri film.

My lab geek mentor, Shawn Fels from The Rogue Creamery, is coming out in a few weeks to do some cool air quality checks – for molds and yeasts- in our creamery. I’ll update everyone on those. He’ll be using some fancy equipment, but also petrifilm plates specifically for counting fungi.

gianaclis