She works a somewhat stressful job as a psych nurse, so she appreciates the peacefulness of the cheese making process. She made her first cheddar a couple of months ago.

It was supposed to age for 8 weeks, but she wanted to serve it at Easter dinner, so you know how that goes.

After only one month in the "cave," it was delicious and, of course, her family was impressed. She even made ricotta with the leftover whey.

I just wanted to send a quick note to tell your SUCCESS!

I always wanted to try to make cheese - and was really inspired and encouraged when I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and found reference to your site in the book.

I ordered the Mozzarella Kit, read the directions, promptly went out and bought milk, set everything up and failed miserably! Was so sad, but decided I would try once more before trying the other options, the dry milk and then the more expensive (for our area) raw milk. I thought I was going down failure path again but kept stirring the pot and low and behold everything started coming together. Still a bit cynical (never in a million years did I think I would be successful) I persevered, in the bowl in the microwave and started stretching the cheese and IT ALL STARTED HAPPENING! I was making CHEESE!

I was so excited I could barely concentrate, finished up with 2 lovely balls and just as the instructions said, sampled the fresh warm cheese. What an amazing project- in 1 hour I made cheese. I was home alone and could not wait till the next morning, I burst into work and waited for someone to ask, How was your evening so I could say, I MADE CHEESE!

Thanks so much for the great directions and helping me to learn a great thing, I am hesitantly looking at trying some others, I feel like I really accomplished something!

Celia Myres

Dear Ricki,

Thank you for your cheese books and online store! I started making cheese last year after a home cheese making class with some friends. Then I went to a hard cheese class at Homestead Heritage in Waco. I've ordered all your cultures, hard cheese press, cheese cloths, and molds. I love them all!

My husband and I are city people who left our jobs and moved to the country. I experimented with some soft cheeses and then hard. I loved making cheese so much we bought a Jersey cow and milk her twice a day.

I recently came up with the idea that a wine cellar's the perfect place to age cheese because it get's warmer than a fridge and is just the ideal temp for cheese! I can keep the temp between 50-55. I had a cabinet maker cut me some maple shelves. I put two bowls of water and sponges in the bottom to help the humidly. I'm still trying to figure out how to get to at least 70%, I'm not there yet.) Thanks for including what types of woods are good for aging in your book, I would have never known!

Also, I use your cultures for buttermilk to culture our butter. I recently made a home YouTube video about it and sourced your online store as the resource for the cultures. Thank you for your online store, it's where I get all my cultures!

Many thanks for all you do!

Rashel Harris, Palestine, TX

If you haven't heard of PayPal, it's a very convenient way to shop online because when you buy, there is no form to fill out.

Ricki's daughter, Sarah, has done it again! She found us these vats and we think they are the sturdiest and best built vats on the market today.   Each one is stainless steel, both inside and out, with a strong box tube internal frame.