Post by Tricia on Mar 5, 2008 7:55:48 GMT -5
Here is a nice article from the Cornell Small Farm Quarterly (same that did an article on us!!) about a local dexter creamery here making raw milk kefir cheese. I haven't had any yet but working on heading south to get some soon.
I posted the link and pasted the article below. If you go to the link there are some nice pictures. Enjoy!
www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/quarterly/archive/winter08/Page%2012.pdf
Page 12 SMALLFARMQUARTERLY January 7,2008
By Chanda Lindsay
Rose Marie Belforti and her husband, Tim
Wallbridge, dreamed about having a small
farm in the country.In 1999, this dream
became a reality when they purchased a farm
house and 12 acres in Ledyard, NY.Their
original thoughts were to have a large garden
and possibly a few animals.Never did they
think that they would soon be undertaking a
cheese making venture!
After building a barn and laying out a pasture,
they purchased a very small herd of Irish
Dexter cattle and started milking them.Today,
the farm is producing and marketing a unique,
semi-soft raw milk cheese cultured with kefir
grains.How did they get there? The Cayuga
County Local Foods/Local Markets Discussion
Group paid a visit to the farm in June to get
some insight and ideas.
The family developed a vision of what kind of
farm they wanted.They researched various
breeds of cattle and finally settled on Dexters.
Originally from Ireland, Dexter Cattle were
popular on small diversified farms of the 19th
and early 20th centuries for their multi-pur-
pose attributes as milk, meat and draft ani-
mals.Dexters were appealing to Rose and
Tim because they produce rich, creamy milk
excellent for cheese, and their small size
makes them suitable for limited acreage.Rose
believes very strongly in wholesome, healthy
milk produced with a minimum of inputs and a
low environmental impact.
Kefir grains are a type of living, beneficial,
microbial bacteria.They have been used for
centuries by traditional peoples to culture milk
and are renowned for contributing to health
and longevity.According to Rose, "Kefir grains
propagate naturally when immersed in milk,
making them an ideal, sustainable natural
resource".Rose discovered kefir when
researching alternative foods because of long
term food allergies.Prior to the Finger Lakes
Dexter Creamery, kefir grains had never been
used in commercial cheese production.
Rose and Tim applied for a producer grant
from the USDA Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education (SARE) program in
2005 and received funding for the project in
July of 2006.They worked with Cornell Small
Farms Program, Cornell Cooperative
Extension of Cayuga County and NY FarmNet
to develop their proposal.
Their plan was to scale up a home recipe to a
commercial process for Kefir cheese using
authentic living Kefir grains.In cooperation
with the Cornell University Food Processing
and Development Laboratory, they set out to
establish a standard for the new Kefir cheese.
The result was an authentic kefir cheese
made with raw milk, containing full cream and
aged for 60 days or more.
The process of transforming a home cheese
recipe into a certified commercial product
proved time and energy consuming.It had all
begun when Rose started producing too
much cheese for her family's consumption
and started looking into other possible outlets.
She began talking with NY State milk inspec-
tors about the rules and regulations for setting
up a cheese making operation.
As Rose and Tim started designing the dairy
and researching the cheese-making process,
it was clear that they needed help getting
started.Upon reading the instructions for the
SARE grant, Rose discovered the require-
ments fit with their desire to produce some-
thing that would both promote sustainable
farming and provide a model for other farm-
ers.
According to Rose, the most important ele-
ment to consider when seeking a grant is how
closely it matches your objectives."Each grant
has very specific ideas on what kind of proj-
ects it wants to fund, and if your project does
not fit, it may be a waste of time to apply," she
says.Another tip is to make sure that you
read all the instructions carefully and provide
complete and concise responses.
Developing a business plan was critical to
helping Rose and Tim prepare for writing the
grant.Defining their goals and projected costs
for the proposal helped them to provide realis-
tic and sensible plans that they felt confident
living up to.
Setting up a dairy was a challenge for some-
one who was not raised in the dairy life.Rose
and Tim worked extremely closely with the
NYS Ag and Market inspectors to adhere to
regulations at every step.As Rose says, "It is
better to get it right the first time than to have
to go back and do it again!" Along the way,
there were all kinds of set backs, delays, and
failures in cheese production.Because the
process is so new and different, there was no
template to follow and no recipe to consult.
One relatively unique management practice is
that Rose and Tim keep the calves with their
moms for as long as they can.That means
less milk and less cheese.However, they feel
the sacrifice is important, not only for the wel-
fare of the animals, but because they want to
promote a new model for harvesting milk.
According to Rose, "Cows are the ones who
make the milk, and we want to respect them,
and give them a quality life for as long as they
have been genetically designed to calve and
produce milk."
Since Dexter cattle are still rare but in growing
demand on small niche farms seeking a ver-
satile animal, the calves are typically sold to
people who are starting their own Dexter
herds.Rose prefers to sell to people who are
committed to keeping the breed in existence.
As far as the future goes, it takes a long time
to become a cheese maker."The more I
learn, the less I feel I know", says Rose.
Skilled cheese production not only demands
expertise in the science of culturing, acidifica-
tion, coagulation and ripening, but also
requires dedication to technique.Although
Rose is just getting started, she looks forward
to many years of hand-crafting kefir cheese,
perfecting her recipe and raising quality
Dexter cattle.
To see a step by step documentation of the
creation of Rose's Kefir cheese, visit the
SARE final report at:
www.sare.org/reporting/report_viewer.asp?pn
=FNE06-595&ry=2006&rf=1.To learn more
about Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery, visit
their website:www.kefircheese.com
Chanda Lindsay is an Extension Resource
Educator with Cayuga County Cooperative
Extension in Auburn, NY.She can be reached
at 315-255-1183 or cl43@cornell.edu.
I posted the link and pasted the article below. If you go to the link there are some nice pictures. Enjoy!
www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/quarterly/archive/winter08/Page%2012.pdf
Page 12 SMALLFARMQUARTERLY January 7,2008
By Chanda Lindsay
Rose Marie Belforti and her husband, Tim
Wallbridge, dreamed about having a small
farm in the country.In 1999, this dream
became a reality when they purchased a farm
house and 12 acres in Ledyard, NY.Their
original thoughts were to have a large garden
and possibly a few animals.Never did they
think that they would soon be undertaking a
cheese making venture!
After building a barn and laying out a pasture,
they purchased a very small herd of Irish
Dexter cattle and started milking them.Today,
the farm is producing and marketing a unique,
semi-soft raw milk cheese cultured with kefir
grains.How did they get there? The Cayuga
County Local Foods/Local Markets Discussion
Group paid a visit to the farm in June to get
some insight and ideas.
The family developed a vision of what kind of
farm they wanted.They researched various
breeds of cattle and finally settled on Dexters.
Originally from Ireland, Dexter Cattle were
popular on small diversified farms of the 19th
and early 20th centuries for their multi-pur-
pose attributes as milk, meat and draft ani-
mals.Dexters were appealing to Rose and
Tim because they produce rich, creamy milk
excellent for cheese, and their small size
makes them suitable for limited acreage.Rose
believes very strongly in wholesome, healthy
milk produced with a minimum of inputs and a
low environmental impact.
Kefir grains are a type of living, beneficial,
microbial bacteria.They have been used for
centuries by traditional peoples to culture milk
and are renowned for contributing to health
and longevity.According to Rose, "Kefir grains
propagate naturally when immersed in milk,
making them an ideal, sustainable natural
resource".Rose discovered kefir when
researching alternative foods because of long
term food allergies.Prior to the Finger Lakes
Dexter Creamery, kefir grains had never been
used in commercial cheese production.
Rose and Tim applied for a producer grant
from the USDA Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education (SARE) program in
2005 and received funding for the project in
July of 2006.They worked with Cornell Small
Farms Program, Cornell Cooperative
Extension of Cayuga County and NY FarmNet
to develop their proposal.
Their plan was to scale up a home recipe to a
commercial process for Kefir cheese using
authentic living Kefir grains.In cooperation
with the Cornell University Food Processing
and Development Laboratory, they set out to
establish a standard for the new Kefir cheese.
The result was an authentic kefir cheese
made with raw milk, containing full cream and
aged for 60 days or more.
The process of transforming a home cheese
recipe into a certified commercial product
proved time and energy consuming.It had all
begun when Rose started producing too
much cheese for her family's consumption
and started looking into other possible outlets.
She began talking with NY State milk inspec-
tors about the rules and regulations for setting
up a cheese making operation.
As Rose and Tim started designing the dairy
and researching the cheese-making process,
it was clear that they needed help getting
started.Upon reading the instructions for the
SARE grant, Rose discovered the require-
ments fit with their desire to produce some-
thing that would both promote sustainable
farming and provide a model for other farm-
ers.
According to Rose, the most important ele-
ment to consider when seeking a grant is how
closely it matches your objectives."Each grant
has very specific ideas on what kind of proj-
ects it wants to fund, and if your project does
not fit, it may be a waste of time to apply," she
says.Another tip is to make sure that you
read all the instructions carefully and provide
complete and concise responses.
Developing a business plan was critical to
helping Rose and Tim prepare for writing the
grant.Defining their goals and projected costs
for the proposal helped them to provide realis-
tic and sensible plans that they felt confident
living up to.
Setting up a dairy was a challenge for some-
one who was not raised in the dairy life.Rose
and Tim worked extremely closely with the
NYS Ag and Market inspectors to adhere to
regulations at every step.As Rose says, "It is
better to get it right the first time than to have
to go back and do it again!" Along the way,
there were all kinds of set backs, delays, and
failures in cheese production.Because the
process is so new and different, there was no
template to follow and no recipe to consult.
One relatively unique management practice is
that Rose and Tim keep the calves with their
moms for as long as they can.That means
less milk and less cheese.However, they feel
the sacrifice is important, not only for the wel-
fare of the animals, but because they want to
promote a new model for harvesting milk.
According to Rose, "Cows are the ones who
make the milk, and we want to respect them,
and give them a quality life for as long as they
have been genetically designed to calve and
produce milk."
Since Dexter cattle are still rare but in growing
demand on small niche farms seeking a ver-
satile animal, the calves are typically sold to
people who are starting their own Dexter
herds.Rose prefers to sell to people who are
committed to keeping the breed in existence.
As far as the future goes, it takes a long time
to become a cheese maker."The more I
learn, the less I feel I know", says Rose.
Skilled cheese production not only demands
expertise in the science of culturing, acidifica-
tion, coagulation and ripening, but also
requires dedication to technique.Although
Rose is just getting started, she looks forward
to many years of hand-crafting kefir cheese,
perfecting her recipe and raising quality
Dexter cattle.
To see a step by step documentation of the
creation of Rose's Kefir cheese, visit the
SARE final report at:
www.sare.org/reporting/report_viewer.asp?pn
=FNE06-595&ry=2006&rf=1.To learn more
about Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery, visit
their website:www.kefircheese.com
Chanda Lindsay is an Extension Resource
Educator with Cayuga County Cooperative
Extension in Auburn, NY.She can be reached
at 315-255-1183 or cl43@cornell.edu.