The process of making 4 wheels of Danish white Castello Style Cheese,
now in the Cave

we had a taste of the first Brie\Camembert at Lunch to day, the cheese is 30 days old normal maturing is from 30 - 45 days, it is ready.
to mu surprise the cheese has developed extremely well and the texture and flavour is perfect.
I will be making many more of that one!!!!!!!

Fynbo Danish style Cheese

6 litter Milk next time use 8 litter for the Square Mould
Calcium Chloride
¼ cup of Thickened Cream
Italian Parmesan couture
Flora Danica culture
Thermofilic Couture 092
¼ teaspoon Lipase
1 tablespoon Salt
For Caraway cheese 2 tablespoons , boiled in water for 10 minutes
Then added the seed and waterto the maturing milk
Vegetable Rennet cut after 1 hour slowly elevate temp to 100F over 20 minutes stir occasionally
Then elevate temp to 124F over the next 20 minutes, stir often!!!
Leave at 124F for 5 minutes before straining the curd in a cheese cloth then mix in the salt
Before placing in to the square mould
2 kg pressure for 15 minutes
Redress! 5 kg 30minutes
Redress! 10 kg foe 1 hour
Redress! 11 kg for 12 hours
Please in salt brine for 24 – 36 hours
Then dab dry and air dried at room temp for 3 days
If not dried for waxing after 4 days
Place before the fan and dry before waxing
Age for 12 – 14 weeks, longer for stronger taste

Well the Veggie garden again, the new beds is going from leaps to bonus all is growing well, and we ave had a warm spell the last couple weeks or so, 18 low to 24 high, not bade for winter temps.!!!

I A lot of Scandinavian Cheeses is square, for what reason I don't know, perhaps it is to make it easier to use the continental cheese slicer.

I have created a square cheese mould yesterday and then made a Danish Fynbo style cheese with Caraway seeds, next week I will make plane one with out the seeds, Gemini is not all that fussed on Caraway seeds,
I love the seeds in my cheese perhaps because that I grew up having that kind if cheese.
the weather is perfect to day so now into the garden.

I have made a wider cheese press mainly for a bigger wheal like for the Parmesan that I have made this week, Italian Parmigiana Reggiano style, it will have to be aged at least 10 months, so I will make an other one in about 4 months time and so on to keep us in Parmesan cheese, by the time that I waxed the cheese it all ready had the charicturistic of a Parmesan smell to it, I am very pleased!!!!
I have had the Parmesan cheese on the drying rach for 5 days, and not drying, we have had weather with 95% humidity so I resorted to sit it in front of a slow fan, that worked!!!

we had a visit from GJT and AT., from Hervey Bay earlier this week, they both are connoisseur of Blue cheese, we had a little test of the NZ Danish Blue, and the flavour and colour was there, I will let it sit an other 3 weeks before I cut it into wadges and wrap in foil for the final aging.
The Blue vain is a great success!!!, I was told by David at Green Living that it is extremely difficult to make a Blue vain cheese successfully, it took his wife 3 years to perfect the process?

two of my Orchids liking the cold winter weather and flovering profuesly

The cheese cave is looking good
we now have a variety of cheese we like,
it is now just a matter to keep producing as we go
to keep up with the aging process.
the Blue Cheese is kept in a seperat fridge to avoid cross contamanintion.

between making garden beds
Wrapping the first batch of Camembert, they will be ready in 4 - 6 weeks
and made a Caraway seed Edam this afternoon

an other new garden bed emerged yesterday
mainly for bigger plants, Corn Cabbages etc.

The new garden beds being filled with cane balls and covered with polythene and news paper.

The soil in the beds ready for planting, 11 days of planting by

the Moon calender!!!

Building an other 2 garden beds, this one is .9 of a meter high
and after that I will build a shallower one .4 of a meter at the end of the existing 2, mainly for cabbage cauli etc. as well as potato and Corn, any thing that needs a little more space, that bed will be done tomorrow.
in between I have made several more varities of cheeses, and below a Danish Havarti,
I have a Danish Blue in the colder fridge maturing, first go I am very pleased, it looks like a Danish Blue and smells like one, I tasted a few crumbs when poking it with the chewier and the taste was there!!!

Danish Havarti Cheese.

I started making a Brie cheese 2 days ago it has shaped up pretty good,
it will stay in a sealed container on a mat for a few days till the rind forms, then it will be wrapped in Camembert wrap for aging about 30 days when it is ready to eat.

I finally made the start of Cheese Making, a couple of weeks ago I got
Ricki Carroll's book on cheese making and all the equipment and cultures etc. to start

the process going, so far I am very pleased with the results, I have made the varieties of cheeses that we prefer and will make an other batch once a month till we get a build up in the Cheese Cave.

Above the milk being brought up to tempurature, I am in a position of a very adequate F. thermometer a friend gave me years ago, he was a Thermodynamic Engineer.

the cheese press in action

the first 3 cheese drying:- plain Gouda, Caraway seed Gouda and Swiss style,

I have since then made Farmhouse Cheddar and Edam.

the 2 Gouda have been waxed ready for aging in the cave

Picked a nice crop of Beetroot for pickling


The Blue king Beans and the string less green is starting to crop

The winter crops in the Veggie garden is cropping well

Yesterday I planted some more Carrots, yellow beans. brolotti beans

and transplanted some more Celeriac seedlings as well as some more Leek seedlings

so far I have 2 raised beds, being so successful I will build an other shortly, and a 4th one before summer.