Simple Solstice Farms

Or how to make farmers cheese at Accent Cellars

I’m a little late here publishing the blog about the class but it was an overwhelming success! Thank you so much to all of our students from Saturday, we couldn’t have asked for a more attentive crowd. The questions and feedback we received during and after the class were incredibly insightful, and as always you can feel free to ask for information in the comment section below or through email or social media!

Through the power of starting a batch before anyone ever showed up we were able to have 2 pounds of cheese ready and waiting for everyone to add their herbs and spices while they watched the process from start to finish.

Using fresh local milk we demonstrated bringing the milk up to pasteurization temp and adding the acid to separate the curds and whey, pouring off the whey and letting the curd drip a while to dry out a touch before portioning out to everyone. While the cheese was draining we had a discussion on how acid set cheese differs from cheese made with rennet. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions about the ethics of either kind but I will say that rennet is necessary for certain types of aged cheese and parmigiano reggiano is delicious.

Once the second batch was complete we portioned up the cheese between everyone and passed around some of our favorite spice blends to be mixed into the cheese before a taste test. Fresh cheeses can be eaten without anything other than salt added, but a little spice or fresh fruit really liven it up!

Everyone there was equal parts fascinated and surprised by how simple and fast the process is but that’s why we do this! Getting people more interested in their food and the processes involved to have more control over what you consume, leads to better health and better community. We’re looking forward to our next class in a couple weeks on making your own butter and adding herbs to create delicious compound butters. While you wait or sign up for that class, head over to the Recipes! page to find our process for making fresh cheese as well as some of the favorite dishes from our previous classes and demonstrations.