Artisan Farmstead Cheese Making Workshop

Upon arrival at the farm you will be invited into our NY State licensed cheese production room. After learning about each participant’s interest in cheese making, we will discuss and become familiar with the characteristics of different types of milk for cheese making, ingredients , and equipment. and will learn about the importance of good sanitation in cheese making.

We will work through the entire process of making three different fresh cheeses. I will have each stage of the cheese making process ready for you to experience and handle. We begin with warming milk to start a fresh Chevre and then culturing and adding enzyme. We will then warm milk to start Greek Style Feta and add culture and enzyme. While the culture and enzyme do their thing in the feta milk we will work with set Chevre and hang the curd to drain followed by handling drained Chevre and discuss salting and flavoring. Returning to the Feta we will add rennet and learn to cut and stir curds while evaluating their readiness for draining. We will prepare drained Feta curd for curing as well as brining cured feta. Finally we will make a fresh whole milk ricotta.

In addition to making cheese we will sample Acorn Hill Farm products and finally spend some time in the barn meeting our baby goats and members of the milking herd. Each participant will take home the three cheeses we make during our time together

Other things to note:
Our workshop takes place on a working farm in our licensed creamery. We will be spending much of our time together standing on a concrete floor so comfortable supportive shoes are a must. Please let us know in advance if you have any concerns about standing so we can help make your day comfortable.