28 June 2004 - Tha mi a falbh dhan Ghaidhealthchd...

How's your Gaelic. I thought before I decide to try to make cheese commercially on my own, I might be well advised to actually make cheese, commercially, with an instructor, in a commercial environment. Since I didn't intend to build a "plant" per se, but rather have a small "creamery" and make cheese on a very small scale using artisan techniques, I would need to find that kind of environment to see if I would like this endeavor. As I said, I assumed I would have many choices here in Wisconsin, the land of cheese, but no. In fact there was nowhere in the state or any neighboring state or in the country for that matter that was offering cheese making classes. Enter the internet. A search on "cheese making classes" showed a few in house classes available and an occasional class on making Brie at home, which I later took, but only one on cow's milk cheese in a very small commercial environment at West Highland Dairy. This class was taught by Kathy Biss, the author of "Practical Cheese Making", a book I had purchased when first considering this adventure so I was familiar with the name. It’s relatively easy to get to their place. You first take a car to the bus to take you to the plane, and then jump on another plane, then take a bus to a train, to another train, to another train, to another train, and then an easy 7 mile walk and you're there, West Highland Dairy, Achmore, near Kyle of Lochalsh, Scotland, UK. Kathy and David used to milk sheep for their cheese making before the foot & mouth epidemic a few years back. Now they make cow's milk cheeses from milk they buy from a farm on the road to Inverness. Their customers are local hotels and cheese shops and an occasional farmers market. They make a plethora (I love that word) of products including hard pressed cheeses and crowdie which is a local soft cheese usually used as an ingredient. Yogurt and ice cream are also made as well as my personal favorite Cranachan a traditional Scottish dessert made with oatmeal, crowdie or heavy cream, honey and local scotch whisky or Drambuie which is made on the Isle of Skye, a few miles to the west. Making a lot of products on a small scale and delivering them, directly to the customer is exactly what I was looking for.

Hopefully the next few days learning to make cheese would be inspiring, educational and, most importantly, fun.