Farm Poet T. S. Eliot says April is the cruelest month, but for us it means warm weather and green grass. Between the rain and the sunshine, our pastures are starting to grow again, which means Dave is setting up break wires every few days so the cows eat the Read more…
On our farm in central Pennsylvania, we get to experience the full swing of seasonal changes. We watch the spring rain turn our pastures green and experience the lush growth of summer grass. We enjoy the cooler breezes of autumn as the ridge behind our farm turns shades of red, Read more…
When we started making cheese, we packaged each retail wedge by coating it in wax. We burned our fingers a few times dipping the cheese, but packaging this way wasn’t too difficult. Then a few customers complained that the wax would crack and later they would find mold underneath. We Read more…
Affinage is a French word that refers to caring for cheese as it ages. The aging process is where our cheese matures and develops its awesome flavor. We make our cheeses in an artisan European style. Cheese factories suffocate cheese in vacuum pack bags right after they come out of Read more…
Rennet, curds, whey, cheddaring. As you may have noticed throughout this series, cheese making has its own special vocabulary. Before I can explain the next steps in cheesemaking there are two more words that I need to define. Hoops are the containers we use to mold the curds into a Read more…
Did you know that in cheesemaking, cheddaring is a verb? Cheddaring is a process that cheesemakers use to further acidify the curds and draw more whey out. This process is what allows cheddar cheese to last a long time. But, before we can get to the cheddaring process, first we Read more…
How does a family of cheese makers from central Pennsylvania end up spending a week in Kenya, East Africa? Terry and her siblings spent their childhood in Tanzania, while our grandpa Kraybill managed a hospital. For his eightieth birthday, the Kraybill family decided to spend a week in neighboring Kenya, Read more…
“Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet eating her curds and whey.” You probably know the rhyme, but what are curds and whey? Where do they come from, and what do they have to do with making cheese? Without curds and whey, we would never get cheese. But first, we Read more…
Welcome to August. The month where the return of school starts to loom in the not-so-distant future, to the rejoicing of parents and the terror of children. Or, in our case, the rejoicing of students because they will have an excuse to avoid some of the farm and cheese chores. Read more…
Ah, July. The time when kids are out of school, normal people go on vacation, and we just keep on working. We used to try to go on vacation during the summer months, but packing luggage for fifty cows was too much of a pain. July is the middle of Read more…