If you change a person's relationship with food, you've changed the world forever.

Welcome to my BLOG. I've been at Goat Lady Dairy for two full weeks yet everyone agrees is seems longer. That is actually a good thing as it seems that I fit right in and hit the ground running. It is now apparent the payoff of all the farm and dairy visits I made over the past 10 months, the coursework and internships. A great deal has happened these two weeks any many impressions made. My hope is that this BLOG will do some catch-up of those two weeks as it continues to move forward. For example, the Thursday before my first Saturday market a wind storm (which they call a tornado around here) blew the freezer, refrigerator and all the goat cheese into a pond 100 yards from our stall. A wall was blown out of an adjacent building yet the day lilies in the stall across from ours were simply knocked over. There, enough introduction...let's get started!

It was a busy week at Goat Lady Dairy. We've ramped up our production this season to over 600 gallons of milk a week. The amazing thing is that all of the cheese is being sold. This week alone we made several hundred pounds of fresh curd which is turned into flavored spreadable cheese, logs rolled in herbs, truffles and hickory smoked rounds. For our other cheeses, the milk is set and the curd cut then placed into molds for our camembert, crotin and Sandy Creek (ash coated). The one raw milk cheese we make is called Providence which is aged over 60 days in a method similar to a taleggio. We also made 70 gallons of Greek style yogurt using a new straining cloth to help make the process (and the yogurt) smoother.

Every 2-3 days Sammy our goat farmer brings the milk to the dairy and pumps it into a 500 gallon holding tank. We then fill our pasteurizer a couple of times a day with 118 gallons of milk to make it ready for processing into cheese. I got my first tutorial in pasteurizing on Thursday. More on that later. The really interesting part of the process is to watch Steve and Carey do the math to figure out just how much milk is needed for each make in order to consume each delivery completely. All this with an eye on everything else that is going on to ensure that the space, equipment, manpower and timing works out. We try to avoid things having to be done at 2 in the morning that is. The flow always has to consider what product is needed when, in order to supply our wholesale accounts, distributor, and the two markets we sell at on Saturday.

This weekend was a dinner weekend where 50 people attend a Friday evening meal, a Sunday brunch or a Sunday evening meal. Included is a presentation about the cheese, the food (almost entirely raised or grown on the farm or nearby) and a walking tour. During the tour Steve provides the historical background of the farm which was originally purchased by his sister Ginny who is 11 years older and the original goat lady. He discussed the goats and how the herd grew, the milking operation and how it grew into cheese, and how the entire enterprise is the outgrowth of values which started on the farm he was raised on in central Illinois. It is about stewardship of the land and a sustainable lifestyle. His mantra is that if you change the way a person thinks about food, their relationship with food, you have changed the world forever.