Hi folks, new to this forum and thought I should introduce myself.
I live with my family on our small farm in Topaz, Queensland Australia. We are at altitude and so even though we are in the tropics it is still cool enough to be an excellent location for dairy. We grow most of our own food- vegetables, meat, fruit and dairy. Needless to say we make a lot of cheese! Thus my interest in this forum.
From making cheese to simply use the excess milk form the cow I began to get more adventurous and now make a variety of cheeses. Cheddar, Haloumi, Wensleydale, Ricotta, Camembert, Fetta, Quarg, Brie, Blue, Parma, Farmhouse and most recently Stilton.
To feed my ambition and to properly store the cheese we purchased a fridge for cheese alone and I have since installed an altered thermostat so I can set the temperature to 12 to 14 degrees (Celsius, sorry I am unfamiliar with Fahrenheit). Most recently I have purchased a 20 litre Baine Marie for use as a dedicated cheese vat! I will install a digital thermostat for accurate temperature control and it will make a world of difference to making cheese on the stovetop. I am very tempted to take it to the engineers and have a whey drain installed but that would probably blow the budget…
Anyway enough from me. I will see you all throughout the forum.
Ulf.
(ps: I am an Australian obviously, and tend to use Aussie spelling and metric measurement. If it ever causes confusion please feel free to ask what the blazes I am talking about, I don’t mind.)
