Sarah Gerving with her second batch of cottage cheese
We love to hear from beginners! Sarah has just started making cheese and she’s loving it. We all know it’s an exciting adventure, so, if any of you have any advice for her, please share it in the comments.
Sarah’s Story
Why cheesemaking?
My paternal grandparents owned a dairy. So, my fascination with milk products goes back to my youth, I guess.
I left home in 1987, to pursue college and a career in education. I graduated in 1990. I was a principal in St. Joseph, MO for 14 years.
During that time, I saw first hand the nutritional poverty of children. As a fourth generation farm girl, I grew up with fresh vegetables from the garden, fresh eggs from the neighbor and our freezer was always full of local beef and pork.
Because of this realization, I walked away from a 24 year career in education and started a food truck (Sarah’s #comfortfood) with the intention of feeding people free. Sarah’s #comfortfood fed over 5,000 free meals during the summers from 2016-2019. I sold my food trailer February 1, 2020.
The first three years, I used profits from sales to “pay it forward” to others. Some of the free meals went to school teachers, fire departments, police officers, and hospital workers as appreciation for the work they do.
Then, I partnered with the Second Harvest Food Bank to feed children free during summer breaks and spring breaks.
The last two years, I changed my license to a “micro non profit.” This meant that people could donate to my cause to help feed others. (A micro non profit in Kansas has to remain under $5,000 in donations a year.) I partnered with a local church whose congregants helped me prep and serve food.
How did you get started?
I started making cheese a month ago. Friends of ours have a dairy and they had to start dumping milk on May 1st. So, I bought 10 gallons of milk to try my hand at creating my own cheese! A couple weeks later, I bought 15 gallons and I am hooked!
My first attempt at making cheese was with my first purchase from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. Your recipes are that easy!
Your site (cheesemaking.com) has great step-by-step recipes and the products are fail safe. I recently bought the Mozzarella Kit and Mascarpone Kit to give with raw milk to my friends for their birthday gifts!
I posted my finished mozzarella on the Shop Kansas Farms site on Facebook. Our farmers in Kansas are hurting and this site has been created to buy meat, dairy and produce locally. It has over 100,000 members!
What are you making now?
I’ve made mozzarella, cottage cheese, cream cheese and ricotta. And I can’t wait to try some advanced recipes next!!
Cottage cheese – The ice water bath to set the curds helped a lot on the second batch.
Mozzarella curds
Finished Mozzarella
I have always been focused on making food from “scratch” and using fresh products or making it myself. It is not unusual for me to eat in a restaurant and then go home and replicate the intricate dish myself. (The pizza pot pies from Grinder’s in Chicago and the crabmeat tower from McCormick and Schmidt’s are a couple of examples. ha ha)
For a few years, I raised my own chickens for personal use because there is nothing like fresh meat, eggs, and milk, right? Last Christmas my gift to several close friends and neighbors was a whole fresh chicken from Pheasant Run Ranch and a bag of my homemade noodles. I like to share the joy of fresh food with others.
My husband is a pilot with Southwest Airlines and for awhile I was a stay-at-home dog mom who made cheese to share with our four children and two grandchildren. 🙂 Recently, I was talked into returning to education and therefore I’ve been busy getting a classroom ready for this fall. Life is good!
What are your goals?
I don’t intend to sell my cheese. Right now I’m just giving it to friends and family. It’s made with love and hopefully it’s making people happy in a time of such turmoil. If I sold it, that would sound like too much work. 😀
