Say Cheese!

As of January 2009, I resolved to feed our family as much as I possibly could from food we had grown, frozen, preserved, etc. Since I was out of work, the budget was my primary concern. However, upon being unemployed, I had time to read and I began reading farming magazines such as Hobby Farms, Organic Gardening, Morther Earth News, and I joined Georgia Organics just to get the monthly newsletter. The Market Bulletin published by the Georgia Dept. of Agriculture was also (and still is) a good read. In addition, I read cookbooks of all types. Poring over recipes for breads got me started on making our own. Now I seldom buy storebought breads. Occasionally I will give in to my grade schooler"s request, since ours is a bit thick for sandwiches. Cheesemaking was also something I wanted to do, so after reading lots of articles on the internet, I was convinced this was something I could do. Only problem, I didn't have a source of milk. I began learning on store-bought milk with some good results and some failures, but here is waht I concluded: store bought milk will make fine yogurt, cottage cheese and buttermilk. Consequently, I stop at every grocery store I pass when going to a big city, looking for organic milk that is marked down!! Believe it or not, organic milk does not sour nearly as fast as regular commercial milk. Furthermore, mozzarella cheese will turn out quite well from it.
About once a week, I make a gallon of milk into yogurt. Strained yogurt becomes semi-soft, like spreadable cream cheese and is quite good as a substitute for sour cream, too. Another gallon can be made into cottage cheese. I never ate cottage cheese before last February. It always looked gross to me. Somehow, making it myself makes it taste good and we enjoy it in many of the pasta dishes we eat. I can't wait to have some with fresh tomatoes this summer. Buttermilk can be cultured or not. Most of us know we can "sour" milk with lemon juice or vinegar, but cultured buttermilk is also easy. It just takes some planning. First of all, you will need some cultured store bought buttermilk to begin with. After you begin, it is perfectly OK to use your homemade buttermilk as starter each time, so don't use it all! Simply heat the desired amount of milk until very warm and bubbles form around edges of pot. Add the correct amount of cultured buttermilk for starte-(I use 1 cup per gallon of milk)-whisk in well and cover . Leave on counter at room temperature overnight then refrigerate.
One of the by-products of the cottage cheese and the mozzarella is whey. I have lots of chickens, as well as a couple of dogs and some cats. They all like whey. But, I always keep some in the fridge for making English Muffin Bread. It is terrific!! In the summertime, whey is good mixed with Kool-Aid powder for a quality soft drink. Who needs that expensive whey powder from Wal-Mart???