Say Cheese!

My mother visited this weekend and we had a wonderful time.  We went to the art museum, attended a talk at the local nursery hosted by the herbal society, and made cheese with a school friend of hers.  I have pictures of the latter.  My mother brought fresh milk (from their farm) and we made mozzarella and ricotta.  They both have gotten into this.

Dissolving rennet in bottled water

Cutting the curd into pieces after heating & adding the rennet

Stirring to push more whey out of the curd.

 

Finished mozzarella after stretching it - no pictures because my hands were full at the time :-)

Notice there is no picture of the ricotta, that's because our finished product wasn't that great.  There just wasn't a lot of it.  Mom has since discovered she is much more successful with making ricotta from the milk instead of the whey.  She knew she could, but then you don't get mozzarella.


I also took advantage of the nice weather to plant garlic my grandmother sent me.  I'm excited because it is elephant ear garlic.  While the head is a regular size, there are 3-4 cloves per head.  Woo hoo!  Considering we go through garlic so quickly, I'm not sure how long it will last, but that's okay.  It's still fun to have grown some of your own food.  I also planted some flower bulbs in the same bed.  Spring will bring some very nice plants.

Mulched bed, ready for winter.