Farmstead Cheese Equipment: What's a Small Farmer To Do?


Maria at Masseria la Greca outside Lecce in Salento, Italy

Since the end of last summer we’ve been acquiring the bits and pieces to put together the creamery. The primary components we’re interested in are the milking system (pipeline or bucket, we don’t know yet), the bulk tank and the cheese vat. The milking system is exactly what it sounds like. It includes the piping and the vacuum system required to milk the animals. In a bucket system you pump the milk directly into buckets and then dump it into the bulk tank. In a pipeline system you pump the milk through a pipeline that flows directly into the bulk tank. There are other variations as well, but those are the basic methods. The bulk tank is where the milk goes for cooling after milking. It cools the milk to approx 40 degrees within an hour or two. Once the milk in the tank is cool and you have enough to make cheese you open up a pipeline and the milk flows to your vat. From there you begin the cheesemaking process. Aside from the construction of the building, these three pieces of equipment are typically the largest capital expenses.

Last summer we got very lucky and found a highly affordable vat being refurbished after use at a University on the west coast. The process took six months of intensive hunting and networking. Not as simple as an eBay search. Then our inspector spoke on the phone with the fab guy, we sent the inspectors detailed photos and spec sheets and eventually we got the green light. Once we get our creamery construction underway we’ll have it shipped out and it will need to be inspected and approved all over again. 

 

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Impending Move to Nowhere, Reading Gets Primal


Cover of Where There Is No Doctor by David Werner and available at Hesperian.org

With the move date drawing closer my research is getting more primal. It's been a strange phenomenon, but true. Maybe it's because every time I tell a friend about our plans the first thing they ask is, "Are you going to get a gun?" Ha. It's even funnier when I tell them that I already have guns, plural. More likely, however, it's because I'm subconsciously (and now consciously) reacting to the fact that we'll be living in the middle of nowhere in approximately 6 weeks.

So I was thinking about what to write about this week and really the only thing that came to mind is all this weird reading I've been doing. Last week it was Human Farming and this week it's Where There Is No Doctor (which you can download for free from Hesperian). I suppose it's not much weirder than books on raising dairy goats and managing cover crops, just a little more graphic. People on the subway still give me equally weird looks and pretend not to be reading over my shoulder. If you're listening to Pitbull at full blast on your Skull Candy headphones you cannot seriously be interested in the awesome nitrogen-fixing power of crimson clover.

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Bean Soup with Lemon Paprika Oil

Usually by January's end I've made dozens of bean soups. This year however, we had yet to enjoy our first until this weekend. It has been a winter of erily mild weather. This past Saturday it was close to 60f and Scrapple and I went to the farmers market half dressed in tee-shirts. Finally though, on Sunday, the temperature dropped enough to cook one up. Bean soups are best for cold days when you just want to snuggle up under a quilt next to a fire. They're hearty and filling, warming and comforting and one of my favorite winter staples. A pot simmering on a Sunday afternoon makes the kitchen a cozy spot to read or write and the meal practically cooks itself. If you have less time at home in the evening, you can speed up the process by putting the beans in water to soak in the morning and letting them sit for the day. If you do this, you can cut the cook time down to 30-45 minutes. Be sure to test the beans for doneness. 

 

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