It has been quite a couple of weeks. Still so much going on at the Farm. The milk pasteuriser has arrived at last and was fitted up a week ago. We ran it last Saturday and made our very first pasteurised milk and used the milk to start making a soft lactic cheese.
Clare with the new pasteuriser
Yesterday, we started our first make of the ‘Chalvedon’ alpine style cheese using the pasteurised milk. Everything seems to be going well with the new cheeses so far, but we will of course need to see how they mature and develop.
Lactic cheese
The cream separator is being fitted today and we will be making our first cream tomorrow. We also start testing and there is plenty of that to do before we can sell our products, but we feel that we are on the homeward stretch with bottles, labels, pots and lids are all on the way. We are working hard to try have milk and cream ready for sale by Christmas.
I was interviewed live on Sadie Nine’s BBC Essex show just after 7.30 this morning. Quite terrifying, but it did seem to go fairly smoothly. I was asked to go on to talk about dairy issues regarding a recent national drop in milk production as a result of a lot of farms going out of business. This has meant higher milk, cream and cheese prices and potentially a shortage of cream at Christmas. There’s been quite a lot about this in the newspapers. I also talked with Sadie about our micro dairy at the Farm and the milk and cheese developments.
Clare with Sadie Nine
Being interviewed
Out on the Farm, the cows came in a couple of weeks ago too as the temperature dropped. They won’t be out on the grass again until the spring and will enjoy being tucked up out of the rain. The rain has come just in time, we hope. The crops and grass have been so dry. They will have needed the couple of warm days this week to finish germination before winter sets in.