Friday 30 September 2016

The last cheese......

Upon observing the rather large tummy and 'tight like a drum' udder of Lissie this morning, it came to me that I really ought to get myself moving with sorting out the cheese making equipment. Days are passing, and soon her calf will be here and then I shall be awash with milk. OK, a  bit of an exaggeration, but once Lester starts milking then I shall once again feel two steps behind myself as I try to keep up with the processing of that milk. 'I can do it' I keep telling myself, and of course I can because this is my third (I think) season of milk.
 
 
So in an effort to make a start with the Milk Project, I plucked up the courage to look inside the cheese fridge, whose door had not been opened for many a week / month. I was expecting much mould and whiffy odours, but no, the interior looked quite clean and there were no odours at all.
But sat forlornly on the middle shelf was this:
 

Now I knew that there was one last cheese wheel left, but thought that by now it would have gone 'off', but I had to have a look anyway, so I unpeeled the lard and muslin wrapper, et voila!
 


One reasonably pristine wheel of cheese, but shame about the state of the work surface it is sitting on, which is covered in flour and pastry. Now all I needed to do was get the cheese cut in two and have a taste. Now when a cheese comes out into the air after being wrapped up for a long time it tends to have a strong, sharp, taste, which is almost acidic which immediately has me thinking that it has gone 'off', so Lester has to be the tester for first time tasting. His verdict? That it was a nice cheese. As a reward I then made him a sandwich out of the DIY cheese, DIY butter, and DIY bread.
 
So this is the last cheese from the last milking season. It would seem that lard and muslin work as a good wrap, so nor more fussing with salt brines or cheese wax which should make cheese making less complicated for me.
 

Both cows are due to calve in the next week or so. Meanwhile, Lester thinks that he will have to go to the UK to get another car as ours is due for its French MOT and will probably fail miserably. The cars in the UK are vastly cheaper than the ones here in France, although the steering wheel is on the 'wrong' side. He will be away for at least a week. I shall be in charge of the farm.
 
Bye for now,
Vx

3 comments:

Cro Magnon said...

My youngest son buys his cars in Germany. They are priced similarly to the UK, and are LHD. I've never understood why old cars are SO EXPENSIVE here. Hope the calving goes well.

Jean said...

Around us people seem to keep their old cars going rather than change them so maybe there are fewer good used cars for sale. There don't seem to be as many available here as in the UK and they do seem pricey.

Vera said...

CRO MAGNON, Germany is not do-able for us, but Lester has a friend who is going to go to the UK with him, flying up and then driving back down with the new car. We would prefer to buy here, but second hand cars, like you say, are so expensive and at the moment we have to watch the pennies!

JEAN, you are right....the French don't seem to have the culture of exchanging old cars for new like they do in the UK, which does not then make for a second hand market in cars. We prefer to keep cars until they are really too expensive to keep in repair, and this is what has happened to our current car.