When I have received a phone call from Canberra Environment Center’s Ryan, to do a cheese making workshop, I didn’t know what was I signing up for :-). When he asked “can you do a second one the same day” I said why not. Luckily, cheese making is something I love.
Apparently, there were a lot of people eager to get into cheese making and this option was one of the cheapest for them compared to other cheese making classes. There were 41 people in 2 sessions. With all the adulteration going on with our food supplies, it is becoming more and more important to produce our own food by any means.
Cheese making workshop poster
It was also a learning process for me as I have never done it at this scale. I made a nice plan to cover all 4 cheeses, setup boilers and burners in advance and everything was going as planned. Truth is nothing goes as planned. I apologized from the participants and ruled out the Mozzarella. Only myself made the mozzarella and others watched as the kitchen didn’t have enough microwaves for everybody.
The Workshop Plan
It was still a good practice for everyone to make a feta. The problem is, cheese making is not a 3 hours process. 1 day for renneting, cutting, cooking and moulding and another day for draining is required.
What I have learned from this workshop:
1- Cover only 1 or 2 cheeses. so that everyone can get to make these properly
2- Adjust milk supplied. We ended up excess, very quality milk that day.
3- Drink more water for me. At the end of the day, my throat was dry as a cardboard.
4- Turn on the camping stoves when there is no boiler on top sitting.
And the mozzarella I made is tasted by the participants with the ever beautiful sourdough bread made by Robert Guth with a glass of organic wine.
At the end of the day, I was feeling real tired and my knees weren’t holding anymore but I was feeling happy that maybe I have converted some of the participants into cheese makers.
We are planning a hard cheese workshop now. Stay tuned.
