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Bob Pastorio
 
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Default A day on the farm

Boron Elgar wrote:

> We discovered a small farm nearby that makes artisanal cheese from
> their own dairy herd and bakes wonderful bread in a brick oven (for
> those of you who are familiar with such ovens, this one is by Alan
> Scott of Ovencrafters).
>
> The farm offers demos/classes and on this beautiful Indian Summer day
> we drove off into the country to check it all out. (moon roof open)
>
> We got to watch (and taste along the way) the cheese making, from the
> fresh milk going into the vat (yes, we met the cows) to the curds
> being put into molds, were given a wonderful demonstration & talk
> about the entire process and were mightily entertained by the
> wonderful stories told by the owner, Jonathan White.


Jonathan was a partner of Charlie Trotter in another cheesemaking
operation a few years back. Amazing products, like the best of the
cheeses I've had around the world. Many wild-ripened cheeses and
several US-legal raw-milk cheeses.

He was involved in a very cool program a couple years back where he
went to Tibet and taught nomadic yak herders how to make cheese from
the milk. The resulting cheese was a very pale green and had an, er,
"interesting" taste. Everybody I gave some to said how much it was,
um, interesting. They all said they, uh, might eat more at some future
date because it was, uhm, interesting.

Jonathan brought some of his cheeses to an exposition in Europe and
got astonished praise from the attendees.

Pastorio

> The second part of the morning was spent near the wood-fired oven
> making rye levain epis and some foccacia and with a bit of the aged
> cheeses, making mozzarella from the curds we had watched being
> created in the morning and, of course, tasting our way through it all.
>
> The farm was lovely, with children (the oldest daughter, 15, sells
> eggs from the absolutely free-range chickens that wandered all over)
> around, cats & dogs lounging about and a charming herd of cows
> (several varieties) lending their lowing in the background.
>
> All in all, we had a wonderful day spent pursuing my favorite hobby
> (that being anything to do with food) and came home with some terrific
> breads & cheeses.
>
> I cannot recall how I stumbled on the web page for this place (it is
> in northern Sussex county of New Jersey, near the NY state border,)
> but heartily recommend a trip out for anyone who is in the area. (it
> is about 90 minutes from Manhattan). The only flaw in the day was when
> we locked the keys in the car, but we were rescued by AAA)
>
> If anyone wants to see pictures of the place (including the oven!),
> just click below:
>
> http://www.cowsoutside.com
>
> Boron