Making Cheese by Hand in Chianti
We recently returned from a trip to Italy - Tuscany, Umbria and Rome specifically. This is a land with lots of history, churches, artwork, narrow streets and red wine. We experienced all of that and more. But we thought we would start with a post about something you might not associate with Italy: goat cheese. We were fortunate to have a demonstration and assist in the making of goat cheese by hand at a small, artisanal operation called Podere Le Fornaci.
Of course it starts with a goat.
Goats provide the main ingredient of milk. The herd was very friendly and obviously well cared for. But like any milking operation, there is a ton of work to do. Not only do the goats have to be milked every single day during the milking season. (Yes there is a season. The goats get time off in the winter to get ready for having baby goats.) But there is feeding, and cleaning and caring for the goats.
Once you have goat milk, you need a cheese maker.
The cheese maker works with the milk to make curds and whey.
With the help of some natural enzymes, the milk separates into the firm curds which the cheese maker will cut and breakup. Under the curd is the whey.
This is a small operation where the cheese maker uses a lot of handwork to cut, stir and pack the curds.
An example of the curds.
On this day, she hand packed the curds into these small plastic containers. This allowed the excess whey (the watery part) to drain out.
After filling the containers there are more steps of drying and aging. Of course this is also managed by the cheese maker and requires a lot of knowledge of cheese and fermentation.
And yes our cheese maker is a very animated person, who loves to talk with her hands about what she does.
And with different aging time and conditions the farm produces a variety of cheeses from this simple process. And we can testify that they were all delicious. Especially when washed down with a little red wine.
So a hearty Thank You to the folks at Podere Le Fornaci for spending a morning with us. These ladies are extremely dedicated to their farm, goats and cheese. They also are really fun people.
If you want to learn more about this farm, check out their website below. The website is in both Italian and English.