Only Two Hours Northeast of Seattle …
If you’re lucky enough to live in the Northwest, you have a great opportunity to take all kinds of back-to-basics classes, including cheese making at Marblemount Homestead in Marblemount, Washington. Corina, her husband, Steve and their three children live off their five 1/2 acres of land close to the North Cascade National Park.
It’s truly amazing how much they accomplish: They homeschool their children. They grow most of their own food and Corina freezes, dries, pickles, and ferments it to preserve it for year round use. They raise goats, chickens and ducks. They teach a variety of classes, including wilderness skills for adults, nature classes for children, and goat raising. Corina is a certified Feminine Power coach (transformational life coaching).
Corina is also a fiber artist, selling all kinds of handmade clothes and accessories at https://www.creationsbycorina.etsy.com. She teaches workshops in knitting, how to handpaint wool roving for spinning, how to spin yarn on a spinning wheel, how to knit felted hats and purses, how to felt, and anything else fiber related.
Steve makes and sells custom longbows.
Once a month, starting in the Spring, Corina Sahlin teaches a Saturday cheese making class from noon – 3:30 (the next one is June 8th). The class starts in the barn where participants pick up the fresh milk from her goats and continues into her kitchen where they learn the principles of cheese making while making Gouda (Corina’s recipe below).
GOUDA GOAT CHEESE
Recipe by Corina Sahlin at her blog, Marblemounthomestead.blogspot.com
In a stainless steel or enamel pot, warm 2 to 4 gallons of milk to 84F.
Add ¼ teaspoon MM 100 culture for 2 to 4 gallons, add ½ teaspoon culture for more than 4 to 10 gallons.
Let sit for 15 minutes to ripen.
Add ½ teaspoon rennet diluted in ½ cup of water, stir thoroughly for 30 seconds for 2 to 4 gallons, add 1 teaspoon for more than 4 to 10 gallons.
Let milk sit (coagulate) for 25 minutes (or until you get a clean break when inserting your finger into the milk).
Start heating water in a different big pot to 140F to add to curds later.
Cut curd into small cubes (the size of a pea) for 10 minutes.
Drain 25% of the whey.
Add water of 140F until the curd reaches a temperature of 90F.
Stir the curd gently for 12 minutes (cut bigger curds with a knife while stirring).
Drain the whey to half of the original (milk) starting volume.
Add water of 140F until the curd reaches a temperature of 95F.
Stir the curds for 10 minutes.
Drain the curds and put into a mold under 15 pounds of pressure for 30 minutes.
Flip the cheese over and press at 15 pounds of pressure for 30 minutes.
Take weight off mold, but leave cheese in mold until you are ready to put it in brine overnight.
12 hours after adding culture, put cheese in brine in fridge (stir 2 pounds of cheese salt into one gallon water).
Leave cheese in brine for 12 hours, then dry on cheese mat in a warm place for several days until cheese is dry.
Vacuum pack or cover with cheese wax, age at least 2 months before eating.
