Say Cheese!

So we are now part owners of a cow in Lubbock, Texas from which we receive one gallon of unpasturized, raw milk a week. My husband learned of this through an acquaintance. It acts like a buying cooperative - the farmer drops off the milk at a private home and we pick it up gallon every Saturday at 1pm. What you need to do for real food!

Lubbock is 385 miles away - this will be the most distant product we source for our local year, unless we can find the same thing closer. In the meantime we are experimenting with making cheese, which as it turns out is a lot easier than one would think.

For starters you need unpasturized, raw milk - any old milk from the grocery store just won't do.
Next, you throw a piece of wheat-based bread in it and let it curdle for two days.
Then scoop off the whey, strain it and what is left over is the cheese.
For our first try we used 1/2 gallon and got about a 2x3 inch chunk of mexican-style like cheese.
It is almost that easy.

A great local resource for cheese making classes, recipes and a farm visit is Old Windmill Dairy in Estancia, NM. Their two hour classes cover it all. They also sell their cheeses at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market and through the Los Poblanos CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

http://www.theoldwindmilldairy.com/_mgxroot/page_10783.html