If you've ever seen a whole wheel of the iconic US cheese, Vella Dry Jack you might have noticed that the cheese is irregularly shaped and has an indentation on the top that the Vella family fondly dubbed "the belly button". This cheese, along with several other aged cheeses, are pressed while wrapped in cheese cloth- instead … Continue reading Pressing Cheese without a Form
Author: Gianaclis Caldwell
Making Yogurt to Feed Kids and Calves
Yogurt not only provides valuable probiotic bacteria to the young ruminant, but it is easy to digest and can remain at room temperature in free choice bucket feeders without fear of growing unwanted pathogens. Making yogurt for kids and calves is a simple and inexpensive process. At Pholia Farm, we feed pasteurized goat milk and … Continue reading Making Yogurt to Feed Kids and Calves
Feeding Kids with the Free-Choice, Cool Milk Method- Peace in the Barn!
A few years ago we attempted to raise our Nigerian Dwarf kids on the "cool milk, free-choice" method. This way of feeding kids involves providing full time access to a bucket feeder, or other mechanical nursing unit, stocked with cold or cool milk. The idea behind the method is twofold. First-that kids will not overeat … Continue reading Feeding Kids with the Free-Choice, Cool Milk Method- Peace in the Barn!
The Most Important Room in the Dairy
When I designed our small, farmstead dairy and creamery in 2005, I unknowingly left out what is perhaps the most important and useful room - the Baby Milk Kitchen. After working through a handful of chaotic kidding seasons, struggling to maneuver around whoever was milking, cluttering up the milk house with bucket feeders, etc., I realized that … Continue reading The Most Important Room in the Dairy
Preliminary Assessment FlowChart for Future Farmstead Creameries
Here is another flow chart I created that will walk you through the many considerations you should face before deciding to build a farmstead or artisan cheesemaking business. The red boxes signify a step at which you should stop and assess several factors for suitability, costs, and possible income. If you follow this path, you … Continue reading Preliminary Assessment FlowChart for Future Farmstead Creameries
FlowChart- Steps to Licensing a Creamery
Here is a flow chart that may be helpful in seeing the many steps of licensing and permits involved with building a cheesemaking facility. I have focused this chart on California, as it is one of the more "permit heavy" states, but most of the steps will apply in other states as well.
The De-Horning Dilemma
The De-Horning Dilemma A few weeks ago I was bumming around on Amazon.com, reading a few of the reviews that readers can post after reading (hopefully thoroughly) someone’s book. The particular author in whose reviews I was snooping around is a favorite of mine. His book on life with goats is particularly poetic and at … Continue reading The De-Horning Dilemma
Must-Have Booklet for Consumers and Sellers of Raw Milk
Thanks to Suzanne Willow of Willow-Witt Ranch in Ashalnd, Oregon, I found out about this awesome little booklet by Peggy Beals called "Safe Handling- Consumers' Guide- Preserving the Quality of Fresh, Unprocessed Whole Milk". The booklet is meant to be distributed to members of cow and goat shares, buying clubs, and on farm milk customers. … Continue reading Must-Have Booklet for Consumers and Sellers of Raw Milk
All ‘Bout Bloomies- Secrets of Making White Mold Ripened Beauties
When you talk about French cheeses most of us immediately think of Brie and Camembert. These two surface ripened cheeses are easy to love and are, arguably, the most imitated cheeses in the world. They seem to represent sophistication of palate and are therefore the gateway cheese to a whole new world of taste. Camembert … Continue reading All ‘Bout Bloomies- Secrets of Making White Mold Ripened Beauties
Petrifilm plate count- Brine
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. … Continue reading Petrifilm plate count- Brine