cheese making forum

[Spuddy]

I was thinking of starting a cheese making forum too as (apart from being another hobby of mine) I have loads of available mySQL databases on my site and have a system setup now that allows VERY quick setup of phpBB but if Franco's going to do one I guess I won't step on any toes.

[Rik vonTrense]

Hi Spuddy.....

It is funny but seven or eight years ago when I became interested in cheesemaking there was no one around that seemed interested in this country and every one that was interested was in the States. But I weeded them out one by one but they were all professional or semi professional cheesemakers

I got very friendly with James Aldridge at he was about to present his case to the House of Lords against the Government who condemmed his stock cave of Tornegus valued at over sixty thousand pounds.....they had effectively ruined him and I firmly believe it was this action that caused his early demise.

I was looking forward to the invite to spend a few weeks with him on his dairy farm to learn the secrets of the Affineur he would have made a great teacher.

A ghostly tale I tell of the night about four years ago some time after Jame's death that my Hewlet Packard 850C started chattering anf messing about in general but I was busy on the internet and not doing any printing I thought it was something that had been left in the machine that had now decided to come out. It was an age printing itself and I never looked at it for more than an hour.......

I took it out of the machine and it was an upside down full sized A4 portrait of someone.....

When I turned it up the right way it was like someone had stabbed me in the heart with a cold knife for it was a portrait of James.

I had never seen this before and only a long search of the internet did I find the picture it was from. It was taken fron a photo of him on holiday in France or Spain and just coming out of a bar or similar.

No one had sent this to me by email.

I still have it packed away with my cheese notes and I go cold every time I see it.


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I understand that Franco is going to use his cheese site to sell cheese commodities as he does with the sausage site. There is no reason why every one can't contribute as with the banger one.
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[Franco]

Before I staretd the sausage making site I originally planned to do a cheese making one thinking that there would be more demand, but as sausagemaking supplies were easier to come by I started the that one first.

The cheesemakig website and forum are now under construction and should be up and running soon.


Of course I expect to see everyone from here over there


Franco

[Rik vonTrense]

I think that Cheesemaking is one of the basic skills that at least one person in each family/community should be proficient at .....it goes the same with Breadmaking and Sausagemaking and is as important to the family group as being able to cook or grow vegetables etc.....or make your own booze.

After all cheese is just a way of keeping the surplus milk that would go off naturally if we didn't use it.

The same way as making sausages is using up the odd scraps of the carcase that we can't use for some other dish.

If you have these skills then you will be a survivor should it become necessary.


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[Spuddy]

I completely agree.
It seems that we have forgotton more in the last fifty years (thanks to supermarkets and convenience foods) than we learnt in the last couple of thousand.
All the skills and knowledge that every household once had and passed down to their children has been cast aside because of the ease and convenience of popping down the shop in the car.
It is satisfying though to see a renewed interest in artisanal food crafts with more and more people starting to make their own and grow their own food (as is visible in the popularity of this forum and others such as HFW's and Omlet etc.).

[Rik vonTrense]

And also Spuddy.......

You damn well know whats in them or it. There need be no chemicals unless you class salt as a chemical. I was thinking more so of the fringe E numbers or preservatives that goes into our processed foods now.

I am not saying that I am against genetically modified foods as I intend to keep an open mind on that one. I believe it is better to protect these foods from diseases and blights etc., but I am keeping the open mind for their effect on the other fauna and flora.

After all we have evolved with our cross breeding of animals and plants to improve the strain and I see this as just another way of doing things.


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[aris]

So what is the cheesemaking site going to be called? I see that cheesemaking.org and cheesemaking.co.uk are already taken

[Rik vonTrense]

Aris......

Franco has it all organised and he has purchased a domain with supplies in the title......but I will let him launch his project.

#In the meantime I may pop a couple of thingsd appertaining to cheesespeak on here so that you are not completely in the dark when it is launched.....Franco can always put them on the new site.

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[Wohoki]

I'm very happy that the consensus on this site is for a hands-on approach to the skills that kept our grandparents full of good food.

I recently stated the opinion to friends (OK, I was drunk ) that at eighteen every citizen who wishes to eat meat should have to turn a live chicken into a roast and participate in the slaughter, butchery and processing of a sheep, a pig or a cow. This would stop the easy contempt that we have developed in the West to meat, and bring home to people just what is required of slaughter-men and butchers. It would also (I feel) end factory slaughter and the long distance transport of beasts prior to slaughter, as people would understand that they are living animals, not furry vegetables.

You never look at a McNugget the same way after you've killed, drawn and dressed a fowl for yourself.

[jenny_haddow]

Wohoki,

Couldn't agree more. I like to know the meat I'm cooking has had a decent life before I turn it into steak and kidney pud etc. and I'm happy to pay more for that. Difficult if you live in the city I know, but the web is full of sites for great meat producers, so you can go that route if you need to.
I grew up in London, but my dad was a country man at heart. He taught me to pluck and gut a chicken and paunch and skin a rabbit when I was quite small 6 or 7 years old, and food was treated with the great respect that those who lived through the Depression, as he did, accorded it. He always said 'someone's worked bloody hard, and the rabbit died for that dinner, so you eat the lot'. Even today I find it difficult to waste any thing.

Cheers

Jen