Barn Cleaning and Cheese Tasting

Spring has sprung in the U.P.! Most of our snow has melted (except for the huge piles from plowing snow) and our temps have been over the freezing mark for more than ten days.  We've accomplished quite a bit, indoor and outdoors, so I thought I'd share what we've accomplished.

Here is our barn in the "before picture!"

This is what the barn looked like when we purchased the property

In cleaning the barn and burning all the old straw (about 40 garden cartloads full), we discovered more damage than we thought we had, caused by what locals call "heaving."  That is when the ground moisture freezes (sometimes more than 9-11 feet below the ground), expands the soil around and under the building, and breaks the floor, walls, or both in the building.   This happens usually when a building is not heated - and there is no way to centrally heat a barn the size of ours. Our barn was heated with animals for almost 100 years but has not had animals in it for almost 15 years.  The barn heaved for the first time last winter and again this winter due to record cold temps. We have one door that will not open and one that only opens slightly.

 WELL,  We will now need to repair that damage so it can be heated with animals next winter.  The north side of the barn will need a new cement floor - at a cost we did not count on.  Mark will be breaking up the broken floor and hauling out the old cement.  A neighbor who works cement will be pouring a new floor for us in late spring.  Then Mark will be working on digging around the foundation on the end of the barn that heaved and pouring more cement support under that barn end and adding insulation to keep it from heaving again.  He has all summer to work on that project.

Here are the photos of the empty barn.  We still have a section to clear but we have to wait until the nights are above freezing as it covers our main water supply to the barn...and we think it then goes into the house, so we don't want to risk freezing or burst house pipes.

The temps have been perfect for burning all the hay - mid 40s with low winds.  Mark had to stay near the fire to rake the burning piles making sure everything burned thoroughly. Now
he has to cut out all the milking stanchions, sledge hammer the cement floor, (photo right) and haul it out.
I'll post more photos as Mark brakes up the floor.  

The photo below is the only stall that we will leave.  I think it was a holding pen for either sick or birthing cows...or maybe staging breeding bulls.  It is a sturdy stall with a great working gate, so we will keep it!

Now on to the cheese tasting!  After over two months of waiting for the cheese to age in our cheese cave, we went to dinner with the neighbors that provided the raw milk for the cheese so I bolstered my courage and took three cheese wheels.  See photos below.

The Cheddar wheel left was oiled and wrapped in cheese cloth - they call it cloth banded cheese.  It was the best of the Cheddars.  The second Cheddar was too sharp - it tasted like it aged a little too long or the mold that we cut off made the cheese sharper.  I now know which Cheddar I will make in the future.

 


The Colby was also waxed and, to my surprise, it tasted just like Colby cheese.  I know this sounds funny to all of you - but let me tell you - when you try something new like making cheese, you expect to fail.  I actually thought I'd be embarrassed and have to throw them all away and try again.

Here is what I've learned about cheese making.  If you can read instructions, buy cultures, molds and presses, you can make cheese comparable, or better, than store bought...but it does takes time and patience - you gotta wanna take the time and enjoy the experience. 

Since our neighbors cows will give birth in late April, they are not being milked at present, so I have tried to make the same Cheddar recipe with store bought homogenized whole milk and I'm now waiting to see the difference between the two.  Since I enjoy making cheese I will continue to experiment.  Next comes Feta!

As you all come for a visit, you will be able to experience a walk through our nice clean, updated barn, share our Cold Comfort Farm Cheese, and even take some home with you! Happy Spring!!!