This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a blue cheese making demo in Brush Prairie Washington hosted by the Clark COunty Dairy Goat Association. For $15 I got the best home made chicken vegetable soup, varieties of cheeses brought on by locals, a 3 hour blue cheese demonstration and the chance to meet the woman i want to become. For $15! seriously.
After winding around the most complicated back roads, Stacey, My confident co-pilot, let us straight to this little building in the middle of nowhere across from a big red barn which was ironically also in the middle of nowhere with us. I had no idea what to expect. Classes i had attended previously had been from $45-120 and this was a stumper. It was the most pleasant surprise. I walked into what i think was a small school and we sat in rows facing a kitchen area all set up with the now familar cheese making supplies. behind us were 3 crockpots perking away, an ever ready supply of coffee with goat’s milk and a long table laid out with every kind of cheese, purchased and homemade you can imagine. The homemade chevres were my absolute favorite! The crowd was a mix of men and women who ranged from goat farmers to i have no idea what? Amish?
Then our teacher Mary Rosenblum came out and got started. She is the real deal. No nonsense but with a great sense of humor and a wealth of knowledge. We were informed that people had tried to stump her in the past and had failed. I can see why. She knows the chemistry as well as the common sense sides of cheese making. She also made it seem possible, really possible to make any cheese you could dream of.
2 gallons of fresh milk strained to curd left us with this much whey! The things you can do with Whey are seriously astounding to me, the least of which is feed your chickens. The best was adding it to juice consentrate instead of water. It was nearly tasteless and chalked full of more vitamins then you can shake a stick at.
Cheese making consists of pretty basic steps that are all relatively the same steps, just done at different tempuratures, rates and amounts. Of course blue cheese has mold added to it and Provolone doesnt but the basics are the same. heat, add, set, strain, age
Blue cheese is relatively easy. In the course of our 3 hour class we made a round of blue. The hard part is that it is not even close to ready to eat…that takes at least 6 months, but in 3 hours you can be well on your way with a round in the cooler.
i took a few random videos of her presentation. If you arent a cheese-maker they may be dull or confusing but if you do make cheese, she had some very interesting comments and why and how she completes certain steps.
Enjoy! I know if i ever have the opportunity to take another class from her, i wont think twice. It was an honor
This video shows Mary placing the drained curd into hte cheese press where it will stay for 24 hours
In this video she is taking the slimy mold off a 3 month old blue that she had started.
[...] from Portland, wonderful. The best part about this is that she is finding success! We went to a blue cheese making class that, in Portland would have cost us $100 and in Battleground cost us $15 and included a great [...]
wow, what an awesome experience! how did your cheese
turn out after aging, and did you make any more at home?
i’d like to watch your videos, too, but they say ‘private’
when I click the play button… help would be appreciated.
_lily
I just took Mary’s blue cheese making class yesterday at Kookoolan Farm. It was really awesome. She’s a great teacher and I came away with a lot of respect for her. I hope to take another class from her sometime. And I’m fired up to make my first batch of blue cheese!
She teaches these classes for the Clark county goat association for $15! same class!!