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…
Whenever we have a school tour we start with a question: are bacteria good or bad? Most kids say bad because they associate bacteria with washing dirt off their hands. However, anyone familiar with food preservation knows that there are good and bad bacteria. If you make wine, beer, kombucha, 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…
It’s has been a wet month in Morrison’s Cove so far. The grass is growing quickly, and the cows disappear into it whenever we open a new section for them to eat. It’s almost like they are swimming in grass! Our annual veterinarian herd check took place this past week. Read more…
The grass on our pastures is growing as fast as the cows can eat it. The trees in our yard have sprouted leaves last week and the flowers are growing around our buildings. We are back to running to three or four farmers’ markets each week. Even though we don’t enjoy Read more…
Rain showers were falling on our farm as we wrote this newsletter. The grass in our pastures is turning green and starting to grow. We are hearing baby calves bawling in excitement to be fed. All these things mean that springtime is here on our farm! Since our first calf Read more…
We can tell that spring is on its way. We enjoyed one week of balmy 65°F weather at the end of February. Then as soon as the calendar turned to March, we woke up to a half inch of snow on the ground, and single digits in the morning. Looks Read more…