So here's the short of it, 
I'm starting to get interested in making cheese. 

And here's the long.

I have a friend on Facebook who is always commenting about making cheese.  I don't know this woman, but she is friends with a college friend who moved to Alaska oh so many years ago.  She and I also think we may have some common ancestry.  Anyway, she has a farm near Homer Alaska!

Some of you know that I started making yogurt some time ago.  It was all Alan's fault.  He was buying my yogurt for me over at Earthfare because he goes over to that part of town a couple of times a week and Bi-Lo didn't carry Chobani or StonyField Farm which are (that should be were)  my favorites.  Well - one day he came home and said something about how expensive the yogurt was.  It wasn't critical at all - just an observation. I thought - OK - I can try making that.  And once I got the recipe how I wanted it, I like it much better than the store bought stuff.  And I know it doesn't have the stabilizers and other additives that commercial yogurts use to get the consistency they have.  Of course, mine isn't very consistent - it's a bit like my cornbread - always good, but always just a little bit different.

So now that I've got the yogurt down I got curious about Terry always commenting on making cheese.  She keeps goats and she sells milk and cheese.  So I just queried her.  She always just comments that she's put the milk on to boil for the cheese, or that she's got the cheese in the press.   So I just couldn't imagine it.  I've always heard of using rennet - although I don't think I've ever seen it sold anywhere at all.  I've never known anyone who made cheese before.  So it turns out that it's really pretty simple to make a simple cheese.  You boil the milk, add some vinegar, and drain off the whey!  There are a few next steps, but that's the basic recipe.  There's a vendor at the Farmer's Market who sells lotions and soaps made from goat's milk.  I'm going to ask them if they would be willing to sell me a gallon of goat's milk.  So I won't get to ask until Saturday, and then I won't get it until the next Saturday.  But I'm not really in much of a hurry.  But I'm anticipating it, I'm hoping to learn to make a very small batch that I'll like as much as I like my yogurt!