It’s new. It’s fresh. Like the whey slipping from the just born, recently formed curds – it really is all about what’s left behind after a good soaking.
What I realized after I got things rolling in February was that, aside from the fact that it’s a beastly month in Upstate New York with some of the most unpredictable weather found on the continental US, February is the shortest month of the year. Why I continue to shortchange myself by launching things in February is beyond me. I’m recalling a particularly rough year in the decade of my thirties when I deemed the month of February the “Month of Ann”. That month was filled with a smattering of special treats I’d leave by my bedside, a tea cup placed out the night before in order to surprise myself the following morning first thing, and of course the days I’d pick up a bouquet of my favorite flowers to brighten my day… all in a sad attempt to lift my spirits over a particularly rough patch in my personal life. How pathetic.
I deserve more. I deserve better. Yet, here I am keeping a diary of each days events through the shortest, meanest, most unkind month known to Upstate New Yorkers.
What began as a preliminary discussion with our accountant to ask some basic questions about the next steps for my husband and I as he approaches pre-retirement, turned into a list of things to do that became as dizzying as a run-on sentence … get a DBA, open a checking account, send out an e-mail to the New York State Farmstead and Artisan Cheese Makers Guild, call the Health Department, register a trade mark, call your attorney, contact the Rochester Public Market, call Cornell Cooperative.
But what a delightful time! So many hours of my life have been consumed with dreaming of, thinking about, talking through and hoping for my own cheese business that suddenly it all started to take shape.
So this is my diary of the people I meet and the things I experience along the way (or whey… because hey, I simply can’t resist interjecting the sadly anticipated dorky and ridiculous pun).
I hope that something you read here helps you get a little closer to your dream. Where there’s a will, there’s lots of whey.
Originally posted May 17, 2011 on The Little Bleu Cheese Shop Web Site