I didn't get a goat for my birthday, but this cute little thing is one of the goats at Heidi's place in Maienfeld Switzerland. It was taken on our trip there in May of 2006.
I don't know why I exactly got interested in cheesemaking, but I remember reading Heidi when I was a little girl. I think the description of her sitting on a rock with her goats overlooking the Swiss mountains drinking her warm milk and eating her cheese curds left an image on me. Or maybe it was all the stories my Grandma Wagenknecht told me about her goats. Uncle Emery had an ulcer and the recommended treatment at the time was to drink goat milk. Johnny and Edna had the land so they bought some goats and milked them for Emery. I don't know if she ever made cheese, but she sure had some memorable moments with her goats.
When I was in my twenties I bought a book about cheesemaking. At that time there was no Internet and trying to find a place to buy cultures and rennet, building a press and getting cheese molds must have seemed near impossible. And I remember the book suggested making yogurt cheese as the first step. Yogurt cheese didn't sound all that good to me and the whole book sounded like a lot of work. So it ended up on a shelf. I wish I could find it now, but I imagine it got sold or lost along the way leading up to my 47th birthday.
I was reading a magazine a few weeks ago and the feature article was about home cheesemaking. The article described the explosive growth in artesian cheesemaking in the United States, it included a few recipes and a table describing the various types of cheeses (cow, goat and sheep), their characteristics and differences. And there at the end of the article was a web site that sold "cheesemaking kits" for the beginner. Jeff's comment was, "Don't you think that sounds like something you should try after you retire?"
I was totally surprised when my birthday present was a Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit. So here's to you Heidi!
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