You know the family, the story, and that the song says, “the hills are alive with the sound of music.” It’s true. I’ve been singing since I got to Burlington on Sunday, 9/11/11, the day before I started my cheese making certification program at the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, University of Vermont.
OK, OK. I had to use the first day of intense class work and just a slip of time in the lab to get oriented. Kill off the nerves and savor where I was. With whom I was sharing classroom space with, and what this would mean three or six months from now, remains unknown. Where this will take me I’m not 100% sure. All I know is that a very large door has opened. It’s no longer a useful metaphor to say that the window is slowly being pushed up, inch by inch. The whole freakishly monster-sized door has just swung open. The threshold is feet high and yards wide. I’m climbing and jumping through the door that opens up into the marvelous world of cheese making. Of cheese makers. Of cheese talk. Of issues. Of nights lost wondering if I did the right thing; of checking records, logs, feeling water logged and loving the result of the incredible, beautiful world of cultures, rennet, casein, proteins, pH checks, whey, curds, mold – cheese!!
I didn’t know what I would love, or if I would love this work. But as soon as the books opened to today’s section, Day 2, I couldn’t stop smiling. It’s an intimate world, the world of cheese making. I’ve been bitten by the cheese making bug. The idea that I can take something in one form and create something with it.
Truly — it’s the ability to modify the molecular structure of milk to make cheese that amazes me.
Originally Posted September 14, 2011 on The Little Bleu Cheese Shop Web Site