Tuesday, February 28, 2012

a dairy class

This past weekend was awesome.
I got to hang with one of my all-time favorite people on this planet, I had an incredible dinner at Toro Bravo in Portland, and I took a home creamery class at Kookoolan Farms in Yamhill, Oregon.

Truth be told, we don't consume a lot of dairy in our house. Joe is lactose-intolerant (although somehow that doesn't prevent him from eating ice cream and brie) and, while I love cheese, I mostly eat it when we have company.

This class, however, made me excited about dairy again.
A huge part of that, though, was that we had the opportunity to use raw milk, which is about a million times more healthful (and flavorful) than anything you will find at the grocery store.
In 3 hours, we learned how to make butter, creme fraiche, (I never want to eat store-bought again), fromage blanc, yogurt, kefir, ice cream and cottage cheese.

After learning the process for all of these, I can't believe I haven't tried making them sooner. They are all so simple!


Nikki making butter, (ie: shaking up heavy cream in a big mason jar)
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Straining the buttermilk off the butter
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The best butter ever!
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Ice cream
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Kefir
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Creme fraiche, fromage blanc, and cottage cheese
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The farm sells lots of great products other than delicious raw dairy products, grass fed beef, vegetables and poultry. Featured below: kombucha, green walnut wine, and eggs.
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3 comments:

Tess Hardwick said...

I couldn't love your photos more. I could look upon them all day. Thank you.

Joan Leonard said...

I haven't been to your website in a while,...been moving...but oh how awesome is this post. Dairy, good nutritional raw dairy, is such a gift of Mother Earth, and so difficult to find. It's wonderful to know it's gifts are available to us as "simple" processes. Your photography teaches us so much.

Frau Haselmayer said...

You learned all this in 3 hours!?! WOW! I want to learn how to make my own dairy products, too!