Adventures in Cheesemaking

Before you think I've totally lost my mind, let me explain!  I'd been meaning to read the book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" for a couple of years now, and I finally got around to it this summer.  It's about a family that moves to a family farm in Virginia, and documents their efforts to eat only home-grown or locally purchased foods for one whole year.  After reading it, I was totally inspired to find even more items that I could attempt making myself, rather than buying at a grocery store. 

Most surprising to me was the fact that they made some of their own cheeses!  My mind had never even gone there.  Who makes their own cheese?!  The author started talking about visiting The Cheese Queen while on a family vacation, and learning to make all sorts of great cheeses.  Now, I don't see myself becoming cheese royalty any time soon, but I was enticed by the promise of easy, fresh mozzarella in only 30 minutes!  I ordered the necessary mozzarella-making supplies from the Cheese Queen's website (rennet and citric acid), bought a gallon of whole milk, and as easy as that, I was ready to make cheese!

I won't go through all the steps (you can easily find them on the website), but you can see my results below.  I should have listened to my dad, and tried it with a gallon of FRESH milk (like, from the cow/goat fresh!), as I think mine would have turned out a bit better than with my pastuerized variety.  All in all, a very interesting experiment, and one that I'm excited about fine-tuning in the future.  And yes -- it was edible!!  Pretty tasty, actually :)