Hello all how’s it going
This is the best cheese forum over the www

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Not very active any more, Nabil. I hope to make a few batches this winter.

I’ve been off the forum for quite a while.  I wasn’t getting any responses, so it didn’t seem to make much sense to continue.  Good to hear from you Nabil.  Are you still actively making cheese?  And Rick, are you now retired?

I’ve been making about 15 pounds of cheese a week.  Cheddar, Colby (plain, or with bacon or ham), Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack, and Gouda are the main ones.  The favorite among my customers has been Colby with 1 1/2 cups of bacon bits added.  Good stuff!

So how can we get the forum re-activated????

Yes, retired and living at the off-the-grid mountain cabin. I made my first cheese in about 8 years last week. It is a Derby Cheddar. Had to leave it for a week before waxing and it got a little mold. I’ll clean that off today and let it dry some before waxing it. Want to try to re-create a fantastic blue cheese I made years ago, too.

I think the number of resources for people has grown in recent years. So, this forum has slowed down a lot.

Years ago, I went the waxing route; but I had lots of problems with mold - even under the wax.  I’ve now gone to vacuum sealing, for about 5 years now.  I find it to be a far superior tech for cheese making.  No more mold problems.  No messy waxing.  Aging results are the same.  The cheese doesn’t dry out as much.  Also, you don’t need to open air dry for days in order to get a surface that’s dry enough to hold wax.  Also, I’ve been drying my wheels in my cheese fridge instead of in the open air.  It’s better in my opinion, less sagging of the wheel.  And, since my cheeses are vac sealed, I don’t have to worry much about contamination.  Nor do I worry about the humidity in the cave. 

Great idea. I scraped the mold off, rubbed the outside with salt and vacuum sealed the cheese round. It will now go into the crawl space in a plastic tub for at least 4 months.

Four months sounds good.  Should be nicely sharp by then.  I tend to go at least 3 months on mine.  You need to make a shorter aged cheese do you’ll have something to munch on.

Havent made any for a while, hoping to get back into it soon, bought a house so I got room now

Great to hear from you again, Neil.  Happy cheese making!

Thanks!
Was hopping to start something for Christmas but time flies lol.
My supplier is no longer in business so have to find new source for culture, still have blue

I’ve been using New England Cheesemaking for supplies.  They are really fast.  Don’t know if they ship to Canada, though.

its the shipping cost thats highway robery, us purchases have drasticaly dropped overall by Canadians, uness you want 20-30$ shipping for simple items. Allot of companies no longer ship to Canada because of the Border crap now. Ive always liked New England Cheesemaking, great site.

Hi Neil, good to see you here.

Rich, do you think the vacuum packing technique would work for blue cheeses? I usually wrap them tightly in foil.

Thanks Rick
Bloomed cheeses need to breath I found or they become runny.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/04/how-to-store-cheese-wrapping-fridge-storage-should-you-freeze-cheese.html

I have to yield to Neil on the bloomed cheeses.  I don’t make them at all.  I just can’t bring myself to eat mold.  Yuck!  But that just leaves more of it for you guys who like it.