Vincent and his wife, Nandita at the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.
My wife and I are located in Fulshear, TX, which is a suburb, west of greater Houston.
I retired at the end of June, 2019 from one of the largest US oil & gas companies in the Houston area where I was involved with Marine Risk Assessment and Process Advisory.
Soon after I retired, we traveled for 3 weeks to the Arctic and the Norwegian fjords and later that year spent a week at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Sadly, everything related to travel came to a halt thereafter, thanks to the pandemic!
The start of a memorable trip at Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, July 1, 2019.
Coasting in the Arctic waters aboard National Geographic Polar Explorer.
Fairly close to one of several glacier edges.
A polar bear at sea enjoying her meal! Sadly, with global warming, these animals are being found way out at sea on ice floes hunting for their food source.
How I got started making cheese:
I started on this cheese making journey in mid-December, 2020. As a convenience and for better management, I restrict the batches to 2 gals of whole milk each time.
At first, I was always under the impression that cheese was typically made with milk procured directly from a farm! But, from reading, I realized I could gamble with store-bought organic whole milk. So that’s what I get. We live in an area that has a lot of farms in the vicinity but I’m not sure they would bother selling me 2 gals of fresh milk.
My first attempt was Gouda. Happy to say, we did a tasting after nearly 3 months when we caught up with friends 2 weeks ago. Everyone really liked it, thankfully!
My first attempt at making cheese (Gouda) just before brining.
Gouda wheel in brine
Gouda at 3 months, all waxed!
Then, I felt ambitious enough to try making some cheddar, also waxed. This came out really good (so good that I was encouraged to give one ball to my neighbor, as a goodwill gesture!).
Cheddar
Next, I made some Manchego, followed by Asiago, both of which are vacuum sealed.
Manchego and Asiago
This last weekend, I completed the brining for my attempt at Gruyere. As of this morning, those wheels are drying in my wine cooler, as are the rest.
Gruyere ready for drying after brining.
A brief exchange with an old work colleague who is a professional cheese maker, kind of started me on this journey. I must admit, I was a bit apprehensive at first. I gained some confidence from watching quite a few YouTube videos.
My improvised press:
Since I wasn’t too sure I wanted to invest in a cheese press, I took the leap of improvising a press with spare backyard paver bricks. Maybe someday I will invest in a proper cheese press!
My cave:
Since my end product is kind of small, my 36 bottle wine cooler appears to work! Hopefully wine and cheese go together!😀
As of now, my cheese cave has Cheddar, Manchego, Asiago and Gruyere.
Advice for beginner cheese makers:
My recommendation for folks interested in cheese making, would be to watch some YouTube videos like cheese nerds. (I find those videos very interesting and easy to follow.)
Find a good cheese making supply company like New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. to source one’s material.
Keep equipment like your stainless-steel pots clean, including improvised gear like the press. I suggest you start with a small batch of milk, so you don’t hog the kitchen and small batches are manageable. Finally, follow a recipe. You cannot wing it!
My Goals:
As for my cheese making goals, it’s certainly only a hobby on a rather small scale. Just having fun! For the near term, I have to try making some with farm fresh milk. We see a lot of farm land in the area, but not sure any of them sell fresh milk. Hence, I make do with store bought pasteurized whole milk.
My other hobbies:
Some of my hobbies include gardening; predominantly seasonal vegetables, citrus fruit and roses.
I dabble with growing roses for fun and vegetable gardening, while my wife is a serious bonsai hobbyist and knitter.
We harvest rain water and have 3 such contraptions (it rains a fair bit in Houston).
Also, honing my culinary skills including baking bread and seasonal baking (traditional Christmas baking).
Plain Bread with whole wheat flour. I bake bread fairly frequently.
In 2019, since we had quite a few grapes in the backyard, I decided to make white wine and that turned out pretty good! Again, the internet is a great tool! I also enjoy assembling Lego brick models (I have enjoyed doing this for years, ever since my son was growing up). These are some recent models of a Harley ‘Fat Boy,’ a replica of a large container ship and a Fiat500.
I am always fascinated with LEGO.
I also volunteer with a well-known foodbank in our county. I assist them by doing remote data entry work, which is a no brainer, but very rewarding given these challenging times in our country. I help get client recipients’ details into the foodbank’s database. I volunteer about 18-20 hours a month and have the advantage of my ex-employer providing volunteer grant dollars to the registered foodbank in exchange for the hours worked. My humble way of helping out!😊
Lastly our little dog is the center of our lives since we got him a little over 3 years ago, as a puppy.
Our little dog and me with competing beards!
He just insists on sitting beside me whenever I am at the computer.
He is very sweet and a great companion and he loves following us around.
As I like to say, all this is my new found freedom, aka ‘retirement!’ 😊
