5-day Natural Cheesemaking Class at Bullock Lake Farm
Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada
June 24-25-26-27-28
We are partnering with our longtime farming friends Molly Wilson and Zack Hemstreet of Bullock Lake Farm to offer a natural cheesemaking class on Saltspring Island.
From culture propagation to rennet coagulation and on to affinage, this comprehensive and hands-on course covers many aspects of a natural farmhouse cheesemaking. Students can expect to learn how simple traditional methods can lead to a safe, effective, and delicious raw (or pasteurized) milk cheesemaking; and how the philosophies of fermentation of natural wine, beer, sourdough and dairy are all inter-related. There will also be discussions of the implications of raw milk cheesemaking for human health, and the complicated ethics of animal agriculture.
On the first day we learn to create and care for the cultures of our cheese. We begin with a session on dairy fermentation, covering Clabber, Kefir, Amasi (an African milk beer) and a traditional cream-top yogurt.
On the second day we use our cultures and rennet to make fresh lactic cheeses such as Cream Cheese, Chevre and Faisselle as well as Geotrichum-candidum ripened, French lactic goat cheeses such as Crottin, Valençay and Saint Marcellin.
On the third day we look at rennet cheeses, preparing, in the morning, the basic curd that can become many different styles of cheese. By the afternoon, the curd’s acidity will have developed, and we’ll be able to stretch the cheese into Mozzarella, Queso Oaxaca and Burrata. We also explore the rind ecologies that can transform the fresh cheese into a ripe Camembert.
On the fourth day we make a French Blue Cheese, Bleu d’Auvergne, and explore the cultivation of blue fungus that gives this cheese its beautiful blue eyes. On this day, we will also prepare rennet the traditional way.
And on the fifth and final day we make an Alpine cheese, and see how this one method can evolve in many different directions including Tomme and Raclette. We explore the concepts of rind washing and how it influences the hard cheese’s evolution. And with its leftover whey we prepare a batch of traditional Ricotta.
Five days of learning allows students to see many styles of cheese through the many stages of their evolution, and provides insight into how all cheeses can evolve from the very same milk, with the same cultures and the same rennet. The course will focus on natural methods and a full circle, small-scale cheesemaking: no freeze-dried cultures or synthetic enzymes will be used in any of our makes.
The cost of the class is $1,000 CAD. payment can be made in full; or 50% now to reserve your spot and 50% 1 month before the class begins.
The course fee includes mid-day meals by Haidee Hart, snacks, coffee, tea and cheese tastings.
Class will take place from 10:00am to 5:30pm daily, and will include wood-fired pizza (featuring a sourdough crust and our handmade mozzarella) and movie on Wednesday evening.
Class size limited to 18 students.
Please contact davidasher@theblacksheepschool.com for more info and registration, or click the link below to pay.
Camping spaces available at Bullock Lake farm.
Bio:
David Asher is a Natural Cheesemaker, and a leading advocate for raw milk cheesemaking. A former farmer and goatherd from the west coast of Canada, David now travels widely, sharing a very old but also very new approach to cheese. Through teaching about the use of in-house starter cultures and natural rennet, David helps cheesemakers around the world reclaim their traditional cheeses. He also explores the relations of all food fermentations, and the important role of small scale and traditional cheese production in our modern world. David is the author of 'The Art of Natural Cheesemaking' and the upcoming 'Milk into Cheese'.