October updates

We’ve been busy finishing the interior of the milking parlor and putting in the drainage systems. We’ve got a 1550 gallon tank to hold wastewater during the rainy season here, so no dirty water will go out onto the pastures. Terry also dug trenches and put in an underground drainage system for the cheese room. It’s lot of work for these sort of things, and they really don’t show up. But, they will make it successful. And, the tank will let us save water from the rainy season to use on the pasture during the dry summers we have here.

Hooray! Prize winner!

Wow, were we excited to find out that the cheeses I sent to the American Dairy Goat Association annual goat cheese competition received some attention.  Our cheeses took 2nd and 3rd place in the hard cheese category. The recognition validated our cheesemaking progress and spurred us to work hard to eventually win a first place ribbon. Next year we can enter the commercial category and are eager to see how our cheese fares against some of the best in the world. 

We entered waxed rounds of our Cascadia cheese using two different cultures. It’s a washed curd cheese that’s lightly pressed and brined, then waxed and aged for at least two months. It’s a bit like a gouda or colby, with a farmstead flavor.