Finally Spring?

I think we’ve turned a corner, with sunny skies and warm weather. The cows and sheep are thrilled, milk production is really picking up, and it is time for me to get in the kitchen and make cheese!

The sheep have all twinned this year, which is exciting news for anybody on the list to buy lamb this winter. The girls are going to milk the ewes for a couple of weeks in May or June so I can make sheep milk cheese. I will be experimenting with cheeses that highlight the specific qualities of the milk, not just throwing it in with other cow’s milk cheese. Right now I’m looking at a recipe for Ossau-Iraty.

In other milky news, goats (not mine!) are freshening all around us, and very soon I’ll have lots of goat milk to play with, too. My favorite tommes are cow and goat milk mixed, and then there’s Valencay, Chaource-style cheeses….

I think it’s going to be a fun summer!

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Getting Started

I love making cheese. There’s really nothing I would rather spend my days doing. Getting legal to make cheese is a whole different thing, though! Lately, market research, building design, septic systems—these are the things that fill my thoughts. I can’t wait to be messing around with the cheese itself again, which should be any day now.

Welcome!

Welcome to Laurel Farm Creamery. You may have followed us in our previous incarnation as Moonmeadow Farm, where we chronicled life on our Southern Appalachian farm, raising animals, children and gardens. Our farm has undergone many changes over the years, including a switch from dairy goats to Jersey cows, a move from one end of the county to the other, and a serious illness. Now we have changed the name of the farm to reflect its physical location, and will be using this blog to share all the latest changes as we go from a small mountain homestead to a micro-creamery producing aged raw milk cheeses for sale to our loyal customers in Asheville and beyond.