First Cheesemaking Day

This past Thursday, Shelly spent her first full day at the creamery learning how to make cheese. Here's how most of the process goes:

1. The goat's milk is pumped from the raw milk vat into the pasteurization tank. Because it's a fresh cheese (as opposed to an aged cheese), it has to be pasteurized for a minimum of 30 minutes at 145 degrees, according to Ohio Agricultural code.



2. After pasteurization, the milk is cooled and cultures are added.

3. After another hour, the rennet (made from vegetables) is added.

4. After another hour, the milk begins to solidify and the curd separates from the whey. This took about 50 minutes.



5. Then the curd is cut and stirred with a huge plastic shovel to prevent reforming.

6. The whey is then drained into buckets for use in brining. Eventually, some of the whey is taken back to the farm and fed to the pigs.

7. Next, the cheesemaking team uses big ladles to scoop the curd into cheese molds, where more whey is drained off and the cheese begins to set.



...at this point, Shelly had been at the creamery for over nine hours. She'll find out more about the final few steps soon, and I'll post more when I can.