Sage photo

I love the taste of fresh cut sage with chicken. I grow this behind a 24" poultry wire fence to keep the dogs off.

I love sage. My next cheese will have sage in it... the last one had thyme and it was great!

Oooo, oooo! Darius, what kind of cheese do you make? Hard or soft, fresh cheese? I got into making fresh cheeses and yogurt. I just made quark--really easy and tasty. I'm making ricotta tomorrow to prepare a Greek lasagna for Easter! Janet

Janet, mostly hard cheeses although I made Feta yesterday. The ones with herbs are a Lancashire, sort of a mild cheddar to be eaten young, and a Caerphilly. I still in the early learning stages.

your sage looks great! something is nibbling on mine....and some of my other unlikely candidates like the mint of all things! lol I think culpret may be this little grasshoper looking guy.

bariolio & darius, where can I find your cheese making recipes? I would love to make some cheese...do you use pasturized milk from the store?

Yes, I use pasturized milk, but you'll need to add calcium chloride to make up for the calcium lost in the pasteurizing process, or it won't ever make curds.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/cheese.html
http://cheeseforum.org/articles/
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php

thank you so much! those are excellent sources!! I've gotten overwelmed trying to find a beginner cheese making.

thanks again
Christine

Christine, I started with the Fankhouser recipes and directions. They weren't too bad for a beginner. Then I bought Rikki Carrol's book, Home Cheesemaking... waste of my $.

Slowly but surely, I read all the articles on the Cheese Forum site above, and tried a couple... however, they are just general guidelines. But with a little knowledge under my belt, I tried a cheese from the Forums on the cheese site. The help there is as incredible as here on DG, and now I'm making some decent cheese.

I'm about to try to make a Stilton for "re-payment" of the mini wine cooler someone on DG gave me to use as an aging cave.

Thanks for the links, Darius. I'll have to wait until after the holidays to pour over them.
Allwild, I got my info mostly from The New England Cheesemaking Co. They have lots of supplies and info for the starting cheesemaker. I love their Y5 yogurt culture--very mild and sweet. As for using milk, the main thing is you DON'T want to use ultra pasteurized milk and that includes most all organic options. Look for the freshest local milk you have. And since this is not a cheesemaking forum, I will stop here! But you can D-mail me anytime with questions. I make fresh cheeses and dairy products.

darius - Caerphilly cheese is my favorite, but I've not been able to find it here in America.

Murray's Cheese Shop in NY sells it online, mail delivery.
http://www.murrayscheese.com/searchprods.asp?txtsearch=Caerphilly%2C+Gorwydd&x=8&y=5

I started making it just because it is a Welsh cheese and my father's grandparents were both born in south Wales. Plus, it's an easy cheese to make.

Thanks for the link, darius.

hi honeybee! I guess we did get off track!

Here's a pic of my sage plant! ^_^

thank you all again for the info, though. I do have a local source for getting minimally pasturized organic milk; just wondering about the other because most or all of the milk in the stores IS ultra pasturized these days, around here...and I'm in dairy country!!!!

I love Sage! Mine are still seedlings who are just getting their true leaves. I figured it's cheaper to start from seed and I tend to have better luck with them from seed than other varieties. They were winter sown so I'm hoping they'll survive better.

I love your pictures!! I haven't experimented with sage enough but man I love that smell.

this is my third year with this sage plant & it has come back from rather cold/snowy winters. it got a bit leggy last year so I cut it all the way back this spring, after last frost. I grew it from seed in 2008.

I trim-back the sage each spring, too. If I don't it tends to get "woody."