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| Shawn Saindon |
Shawn Saindon is one of those people who manages to accomplish more with his life than seems possible. He works a full time job, goes to college, apprentices at a cheese company and makes music (he’s a singer-songwriter).
He is well on the whey to achieving his goal – of being a professional cheese maker with his own business.
We first heard from Shawn when he entered out 35th Anniversary Essay Contest last fall.
He had just taken one of our technical advisor, Jim Wallace’s Advanced Cheesemaking classes. He had brought samples of his cheddar to the class for an evaluation by Jim and the others in the class. Shawn told us,
“I attended the two day French Cheese making class at Jim’s home last October. It was a great experience to learn from the master himself! We got valuable insight in to the very complex world of Alpine cheeses and heard many wonderful stories from Jim.
We also had time to do a tasting of cheeses created by any of the students who attended the class, so, I brought a few different flavors of my first few batches of cheddar which I had been working on over the past few months.
I brought samples of farmhouse cheddar, sage infused, rosemary infused and a garlic & chive. I was pretty nervous because Jim is such a Pro and here I am with a year of cheddar making experience…. I thought for sure he would just pat me on the head and say “Nice try, kid”… But he ended up really liking them! Everyone who sat around the table, including me, looked around in amazement at each other. I could hear them thinking “He liked it! He liked it!” I was very proud of myself after that.
Jim’s comment was that he could really taste the milk which is such an important thing. I did use organic, raw milk from the family farm (Rocky Ridge Organic Dairy Farm, Litchfield, Me.) and that’s flavor you don’t want to lose. Too often a cheddar will be over-salted or over-flavored and this distracts from the natural flavors coming from the milk.”
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| Jim cutting Shawn’s cheese to sample |
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| Other samples of Shawn’s cheese |
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| After everyone tried Shawn’s cheeses |
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| Shawn Saindon with his mozzarella |
Shawn’s Essay
I’ve been making cheese for about a year now but I’ve been talking about making cheese forever. I finally started after last Christmas when my wife bought me my first cheese-making supply kits and recipe books from New England Cheese Making Supply Company. I’m guessing she got sick of hearing me talking about it all the time!
For years, I’m sure the security guards at the local grocery store had me on some kind of watch list for years. They’d routinely clock me as I would get drawn, like a moth to a flame, towards the cheese section. I could almost hear them say on their radios, “There he is, boys! Keep your eye on that weird cheese guy…”
I’ve loved the look, the smell and the flavor of a well-crafted hard cheese.
I’ve adored the texture of a bloomy
rind goat’s cheese, the elegance of Stilton Blue and the stately
stature of six-month old cheddar. And I have quietly thrown the idea
around in my head for years. Why not just come on out and be straight
with myself: I should make cheese.
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| It all begins with the milk |
What has held me back for so long? The answer is simple: Time. Or lack thereof. With a full-time job, college and musical ambitions, time was always of the essence. For many in this busy modern world, starting the ancient craft of artisan cheese making seems too big of a mountain to climb.
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| Shawn’s press |
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| His cave |
Up to this point, I’ve made many mozzarellas, ricotta and the stirred curd cheddar cheeses and I have even learned how to infuse flavors into my cheeses. I have been using the cow’s milk from our family’s organic dairy farm in Maine and this foray into cheese making has inspired us to start planning a creamery for the farm in the near future. Makes sense!
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| Feta in brine |
In the beginning, there were lots of emotional ups and downs,
existential internal dramas, and lessons learned throughout my
trial-and-error period. Surprisingly, they all ended in certain
successes. I believe fully that I am indeed becoming one with the curd.
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| Shaun’s first cheddar |
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| Bourbon soaked cheddar |
So far, I’ve loved the making of pressed cheddar cheeses the most. I
don’t know why this is….is it because I get an intense feeling that
I’m making something…important? Something akin to a piece of art?
Something that when people walk into a room, as soon as they see the
cheese wheel, you can hear them say to each other: Now, there’s some
fine craftsmanship.
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| Brew soaked curds |
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| Brew soaked curds pressed |
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| Finished brew soaked cheese |
I feel that a good hard cheese travels through time whilst undergoing an
amazing physical and chemical change. At the end of its long journey,
the aromas and flavors do victory dances through your senses as it tells
your palette the tale of its epic adventure through the ages. Or maybe
it’s me. It’s simply really cool to look in the cheese cave and see
these wheels on the shelves. Like trophies. There’s a certain level of
self-fulfillment and pride when you step back and say, “I made that….I
nurtured those.”
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| Final press of garlic-chive cheddar |
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| Garlic-chive air drying |
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| Two cheddars |
What’s new since you wrote the essay?
I started making cheese with a kit my wife bought me last year and
it’s spiraled into this passion for making cheese. So much so that I
started taking classes and now I’m working with Winterhill Farm in Freeport,
Maine that makes cheese with milk from a rare breed of cows called
Randalls. We are making Blues, Camemberts, Feta, Tommes, etc…
This fall, I’m heading to
Italy for a few months for classes and (hopefully-figures crossed) an
internship with a cheese maker to learn old world styles on a first hand
basis. When I get back, along with my wife, we plan on opening a small
scale cheese production room and try our hand at selling at farmers
markets.
Seriously, I never knew that the cheese making kits she bought me as a Christmas gift would open so many other doors.
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| Flipping Camemberts at his internship |
How’s your internship going?
The internship is going well! I get to wash dishes and clean A LOT! haha! But I guess that goes with the game.
But, I really do get a chance to be involved with so many cheese making processes for many styles of cheese.
I’m learning a lot about what it takes to work and operate a small scale creamery in Maine, too.
The cheese cave is getting quite
full with amazing blues, raw milk tommes and manchego style cheeses. I
find myself in awe of their beauty every time I open the door and see
these moldy works of art on the shelves. The cheese maker, Sarah, and I
have been doing 30-40 gallon batches of hard and soft cheeses. The soft
cheeses have included Feta, Ricotta, Brie, Blue Brie, Camembert style
and a Ashed bloomy rind.
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| Piercing blue cheeses at internship |
I also have been involved with the general
maintenance of the cheeses such as flipping the bloomy rinds, piercing
the blues, washing the washed rind cheeses, and hand rubbing the hard
cheeses with olive oil.
It’s been a great privilege to be involved
in the processes of these cheeses – to see them through from start to
finish. When I’m working on a cheese, I still think back to the first
cheese kit I received as a gift (30 Minute Mozzarella Kit) and I cannot believe that it’s taken me into the whole world of cheese making.
What else are you doing besides making cheese?
I still have a year left in my business degree of which I should be
finished with next spring. I still work full time at my job at a lobster
company in Portland, Me.
I work for a seafood company called
Maine Lobster Direct (www.mainelobsterdirect.com) and I am the Wholesale
Sales Director. I supply lobster, fish, shellfish and other seafood to
Maine chefs, seafood markets and caterers. Buying direct from the
fishermen and selling direct to the customer. I also manage the crew and
delivery drivers. It’s a very different world to cheese making, that is
for sure.
I haven’t really dabbled in making beer yet but my
wife has started making wine at home. I’ve been using her wine in my
wine soaked cheddar cheese (lucky me!).
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| Cheddar soaking in wine that his wife made at home. |
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| Final wine soaked cheddar |
I am also a
singer-songwriter, too, and enjoy writing pop music. I have a little
project studio at home that I record my ideas. Here’s a link to one of
my past projects – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7OyB9A6JUI
What are your goals?
Well, this fall my wife is teaching in Perugia, Italy and while we are
there, I want to find a few cheese makers in the region to learn from. After
that I hope to start producing my own line of cheeses back here in
Maine using the organic milk produced at our family’s dairy farm.
