Pick-Up Date: Thursday, September 29
Sites: Black Oak, Crestwood, Cross Plains, Hampshire, Jackson, Parmenter-Standard, Mason, Monona, Oakridge, Research Park, UW Hospital, Verona, Dreamfarm
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 |
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| Be sure to use your flavored oil as a dip or spread for cooking - yum. |
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| 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. Stop by the Westside Farmers' Market and say hello too. And, we're always happy
to receive your feedback, feel free to leave any thoughts by clicking on the the
link to the "Comments" section below - we'll try to answer your questions in the next
newsletter.
