Jeremy decided to come with me so he could drive to Zillah, WA and pick grapes for home winemaking…And it made the driving faster.
We left Sunday evening, in the snow; luckily we seemed to be the only snowy spot on the whole trip! We got to Dayton Wa with plenty of time to get coffee and change pants before class. The class was at Monteillet Fromagerie. There was one other lady in the class the first day, and another couple came the second day. Jeremy tagged along for the farm tour and cheese tasting at the end of class, but otherwise was exploring.
driveway to the fromagerie
So, the first day, we started with 80gal of freshly pasteurized milk, 2/3 goat, 1/3 sheep, as that is the ratio the animals are giving. We made 40 gal of fresh cheese- she (Jackie Freeman) uses this base for their chevre, le roi noir (my fave), larzac (my other fave), and carda belle. The other 40 gal. went to make their hard cheese- causse noir (my other other fave). We got to do the whole process of making, including ladling into molds, then did some other projects: dusted le noi noir with grape leaf ash and sea salt, and layering the same ash for the larzac, then packing more chevre on top and spraying with another culture. It was a full day, and it was GREAT! There aren’t any photos of us actually doing *stuff*, but I did take pictures of ‘after the fact.’
fresh chevre hanging
hard cheese, front left, the rest are soft
freshly layered Larzac
Jeremy and I decided to stay at the bed and breakfast on the property (I’ve always wanted to stay at a B&B!), and it was great! They prepped the kitchen with cheese, fresh bread, fresh milk, fresh butter (made by Jackie), sausage from their pig, bacon (local), local roasted coffee, fresh oranges for juice, and their farm fresh eggs. It was delicious! I wanted to stay another night just so we could eat more!
farm grown sausage and bacon
freshly juiced rinds
please ignore the bed head
I was REALLY excited about the fresh oj
a very yummy breakfast
The second day: We salted the hard cheeses to prep them for going into the ageing room; flipped soft ripening cheeses; sprayed cultures onto the soft cheeses from the previous day; squished the hanging chevre around to release more whey; waxed hard cheeses, and then went for a farm tour and cheese tasting. Jackie has taken their same hard cheese, which normally has a natural rind, and has waxed some of it, which gives it a very different texture and flavor-still very good…just different.
Larzac, out of the molds
hard cheese, just rubbed with salt
hard cheeses ageing
this year's kids
Overall, it was definitely worthwhile! I learned a lot, got lots of ideas for not only making different cheeses, but also how to set up a cheese room-what the minimum is I would want.
Jackie made us a farm fresh lunch both days-delicious! They had a huge garden on the farm, so everything was straight from the garden: veggie quiche with chevre, roasted root veggies, salad greens, goat curry, plum cobbler…and I think there was actually more. It was a lot of food!
The only thing I didn’t like about the farm was the animal management program…or lack thereof. They aren’t breeding for improvement, so they have lots of….ugly udders- on both sheep and goats. They don’t do any CAE prevention-which I guess is fine if they aren’t selling extra stock. There were a couple other things I thought could improve their animals…so I took notes on what I will do…if not already.
I would highly recommend purchasing and eating their cheeses-all of them! I would also highly recommend staying at their B&B! Third, I would definitely recommend Jackie’s class, too! 
And on the wine, we now have sangiovese (my fave…one of the them), zinfandel, pinot noir, and orange muscat fermenting in the upstairs bathroom.
