September 22 - Creating Rose Memories

Pick-Up Date: Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sites: Baldwin, Vermont Valley Farm, HospiceCare, Jenifer, Just Coffee, Middleton Hills, Mt. Horeb, Nakoma, Parmenter-EOW, Seminole, Shorewood, Vilas, West Lawn

Cheese of the Week: Italian Blend Fresh Cheese 

Important Notes: Please return all empty glass jars with lids, so we can re-use them to pack your cheese. Thanks! We will be delivering the "Rose Memories" to various sites over the next few weeks. Enjoy and give us your feedback.

Making Rose Memories: A Special Delivery

Hi Dreamfarm CSA Members! By now you are all familiar with the delicious varieties of Fresh Style goat cheese Diana creates on a weekly basis - but did you know she crafts a variety of other goat milk cheeses as well? The other delicious Dreamfarm cheese include aged raw milk cheeses like Winters Rest, Arthur, and a delicious feta, to pressed fresh cheeses like Queso Fresco and a series of Rosebuds - small, pressed fresh cheese rounds. In fact, there is a whole family of Rosebud cheeses that Diana creates including the Rosebud with Ash, Rose Blossom & Rose Memories. Each is distinct, but the Rose Memories is extra special and will be appearing in your share over the next few weeks, read more to find out how it's made and why it's so special. Because the Rose Memories is a very small batch cheese, they will be delivered to just a few drop sites each week. When you receive your Rose Memories, and savored it thoroughly, please be sure to return your empty glass jar for re-use.

As you can tell from the photo above, Rose Memories is not your average cheese. In fact, Rose Memories is two rounds of Rosebud cheese, steeped in extra virgin olive oil with oregano, garlic and chili pepper flakes. Although this may look different than the fresh cheese you receive in your share, the Rose Memories actually starts off just the same as the softer Fresh Cheese you enjoy - and is actually made at the same time. Just as the fresh cheese, the milk is hauled from the milk room to the cheeserie, and pasteurized low and slow, as all fresh cheese has to be pasteurized. Then the culture is added to the pasteurized goat milk, and then the rennet - and the curds and whey begin to separate. (More to come on the overall cheese making process in an upcoming newsletter!) The curds and whey then sit in the pasteurizer over night, after which the curd is removed. To make the Rosebud cheese, the curd is ladeled into 3" round forms and pressed - to get into its perfect, small round form.

The small rounds then dry for the rest of the week, at which point they are either wrapped as Rosebuds, or get transformed into Rose Memories. The process for creating the Rose Memories is straightforward, and quite beautiful. Clean glass jars are lined up, waiting for their cheese! One Rosebud is gently placed in each jar (sort of like playing a reverse game of Operation), and then sprinkled with a fair share of organic oregano, chili flakes and garlic. Then another Rosebud is placed on top of the first and the herbs are added again. Next, the olive oil is poured over the small stack of cheese. Lastly, the jars are sealed with clean lids, and the labels are applied. Voila - Rose Memories! Please enjoy the sampling of photos below - and enjoy watching all the details it takes to make this cheese.

Fitting the cheese in the jars

The herbs

All packed - waiting for the oil

 

Be sure to use your flavored oil as a dip or spread for cooking - yum.

All sealed up, labeled and ready for your CSA

 Other Farm Updates
All else around the farm is well - although the days are noticeably shorter! As the seasons change, the milk changes too, and becomes a bit richer this time of year. Here's one last photo for the day - the kitten Roberta jumping out of a nesting box in one of the chicken houses! She spent time with the chickens when Jim and Diana moved the chicken houses last, and Jim found her in one of the nest boxes the next morning.

 Enjoy your cheese this week, and have a wonderful weekend. We're always happy to receive your feedback, feel free to leave any thoughts in the comments section below - we'll try to answer your questions in the next newsletter.