# Why do you make cheese ? (butter too)



## Skittles2u (Apr 13, 2005)

I am curious why you make cheese, is it because you have the supplies to do so? 

I have made my own ice cream (I have to buy ingredients at the store)... but the taste is superb and its fun to realize you put the ingredients in an ice cream machine, and out comes ice cream....

So, I've been reading about making cheese and was wondering if it was just for the satisfaction or if it tastes better, is it just fun to play and make different kinds, what is the reason you would make it instead of buying it?


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

for me it is a natural extension of something I already do. My body craves milk. When I left my parents home, I knew I would eventually have my own dairy herd. Thought it would be cows, but it turned out to be goats.

Since I have my own source of daily milk, about 10 months of every year since 1977, I make a variety of products from my fresh, raw milk. I make yogurt, buttermilk, ice cream, soft cheeses only, make puddings, custards, gravies...bascially my diet and cooking style is based on milk. Right now I have 6 gallons of milk in my refrigerator. I need to make a cheese today!

I really like to have control over the foods we eat. We may be over the top on this, I know of no one who produces as much of the foods they eat, as we do. It is the focus of my life; to produce organic, or nearly organic, fresh foodstuffs. I buy commercially produced oats and sunflower seeds, so I don't consider my milk to be organic. But I sure will hate the day we sell our goats and I need to rely on the grocery store for my milk products.

oh, the butter, I do not try to make butter, I use way too much butter to even consider making it. I try to buy the two pound rolls of Amish butter, but will also buy butter from the store.


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## JHinCA (Sep 20, 2003)

Because we have cows and milk. Home made cheese is good and you know exactly what is in it and where it has been. Butter from our cows cream is the best I have ever had. If I had to buy milk to make cheese it wouldn't be worth it to me. Also, we have pigs and chickens to eat skim milk and whey and the occasional mistake cheese. If I had to buy milk, we would eat way less dairy products in general. If we didn't have animals to eat the by-products it would seem wasteful.

I do know people who buy milk to make cheese as a hobby. They enjoy experimenting.

Jean


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## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

I make cheese because we have a cow and always have way more milk than we can drink. We eat a lot of cheese and making it seemed like a good idea since it's so expensive in the store. That and it's made from raw milk from my cow. No artificial growth hormones or antibiotics in my cheese or milk. I haven't perfected it yet, but the cheeses we've eaten are yummy and much better than the store bought kind. I getting a second cow so I can make even more cheese. 

We grow our own food too. We just started last year, but we're trying to grow as much as we can for the health benefits of eating whole foods. We're trying to stay away from processed foodstuff as much as we can.

There's something very satisfying about sitting down to the table and realizing the milk you're drinking is from your own cow and the meat and veggies on your plate came from your own land. The butter and cheese were made in your kitchen and the fruit desert came from the orchard where you picked it yourself.


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## Guest (Jul 12, 2009)

I don't have cows or goats..but my neighbors do..
The price of cheese in the market is outrageous IMHO..not to mention all of the chemical garbage tucked inside the package.
I'd rather buy raw milk from my neighbors and make my own cheese..a lot less expensive and (if I may say so) a lot better quality.


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## Trisha in WA (Sep 28, 2005)

Aside from it being fun and a great way to use extra milk, butter freezes and stores a very long time. Cheese is also a fantastic way to store your "milk". If a person has only one dairy animal, there is a 2 month period every year (if bred on a yearly cycle) where the animal is dried off to prepare for the pending birth. During this time fresh milk isn't available, and the cheese and butter and other goodies made and frozen keep us fed with dairy even though it isn't fresh milk. I find that if I don't have these things available during that 2 months my digestive system gets all out of whack. BTW yogurt made with fresh milk lasts a very long time in a very cold fridge.


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## UUmom2many (Apr 21, 2009)

i don't yet but do plan to make our own cheeses. We're going to have a family milk cow and some milk goats. We eat a lot of cheese, butter, yogurt and milk. I just bought an ice cream maker and have been making that lately. Currently we use about 2lbs of butter a month, 10-15gallons of milk for drinking, 2-5lbs of cheese, about a gallon of yogurt, a gallon of ice cream. that's not including the other butter products we use here and there, cream cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, etc. So making our own would not only cut down on shopping trips but be more economical and healthy.


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## vancom (May 5, 2006)

why, you ask--the goats are in milk mode! 

I've made chevre, lots and lots of ricotta, and today, feta. Brined one-half the batch for later and the other salted to eat in 4-5 days. I'll be interested to see how that comes out--never did feta before today.

next, mozzarella!


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## bringselpup (Jun 15, 2009)

We have a local area organic farm group that meets once a month for a potluck dinner at a local farm or some sort of enterprise. Last month we went to a farm that has dairy cows among other critters. They make cheese and sell it commercially. He said matter of factly that the reason was economic. Milk brings $1.25 a gal on the wholesale market.

He turns his into cheese and it fetches $7.99 a lb. He does it because he makes more money than just selling the milk.


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## Jay (Feb 5, 2008)

When you have four plus gallons of milk a day...its what you do.
I, too prefer to have more control over what the animals eat, because I am either consuming the milk, meat from our steers or putting the manure on my garden. I know what is in it, and what is not--on all the things we grow. 

Its not just about cost, it's about the satisfaction of making your own, and knowing you can do it. 
When storms roll through here in the winter, who has meat, milk, milk products and eggs everyday? NONE of the nieghbors have any "consumeable" animals--just pets. I become very popular in those 'hard times', even if it is just for a few days. I am my own little store of sorts.

Its a daily commitment, yes, but I don't need to 'run to the store' because I am out of this or that. I'd rather stay home anyhow!


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## katydidagain (Jun 11, 2004)

I'm one of those silly people who buy milk with which to experiment. My 1st efforts were to prove to myself that fig sap could be subbed for rennet; it sure can! I've failed miserably at Parmesan, haven't tried Mozzarella, cheddar or anything "exotic", had 2 successful bleu cheese batches and scored well with feta 2x. Indeed, my last bast of feta saved me $$$--I needed some to make Spanikoptia for a family potluck and had some!


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## Ezekiel's Garde (May 10, 2009)

One, to preserve my excess goat's milk.
Two, because my dh is allergic to cow milk, and he loves to have cheeses that he can eat without a night of sheer agony.
Three, because I can. 

I can't wait until we can get a cream separator and I can try more cheeses and butter. My girls produce very nice cream, but it's hard to get to.


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## BeeDaisyRabbit (Jun 12, 2009)

When we lived in Colorado, making butter was such a mind-calming activity. sometimes we live in the past; sometimes the future. Doing things such a making butter, cheese, or spinning your fall shearing puts you in the NOW. I cannot wait to make butter and cheese from MY Jersey girl and live in the NOW.


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## dezeeuwgoats (Jan 12, 2006)

I make cheese because my son is allergic to cow milk products and there are very limited varieties of goat's milk cheese at the market. This is why I make goat's milk ice cream, etc.....I've even brought goat's milk mozzarella to a pizza place to use for his first restaurant made pizza! (poor kid was five)

Anyway - it is also a wonderful way to be in control of ingredients, it is a political choice in regards to current factory farming and it's treatment of animals, it is eating 'local' to save gasoline - no shipping. It is a personal choice about conservation and responsibility.

It is creative! Fun. It connects my kids to their food. They get to see each step that goes into producing a product. All the time, the effort, the planning, etc. It certainly has made us less wasteful. When you see the time involved with what goes into something - you learn to savor every bit!


Hey Vancom - I just made feta for the first time too! I put it in brine......having a hard time waiting to try it out!


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