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A Picture Tour Through Our Operation
I have had many requests and questions about our family operation here at Morningland Dairy and Cheese Plant. We took over the operation from the orginal owners (who did all the hard work of start-up 20+ years ago!) about a year ago. I thought a picture tour might be fun and give people an idea of what we do here and why we seem to stay so busy. Hope you enjoy the "tour".
We will start out in the dairy barn. The bulk tank room at milking time. You can see the line is in the tank and we are ready to go. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...lkTankRoom.jpg We are milking 70+ cows at this point. Holstein and Holstein/Jersey crosses. Some of the cows being milked. As you can see, the smaller Jerseys get along very well with the large Holstein gals. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...lkingcows2.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ilkingcows.jpg Five days a week the cow milk is pumped from the bulk tank, down to the cheese house where it will be made into raw milk cheddar and Colby cheeses. Twice a week goat milk is delivered from our two suppliers and on those days we make raw goat cheddar and Colby. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...heesehouse.jpg The milk is pumped directly into the sanitized cheese vat where it is slowly warmed by hot water that is circulated under the floor of the vat. Milk is heated to 86 degrees. Machine-driven paddles are used to stir the milk and insure even heating. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...lcheesevat.jpg Upon reaching proper temperature, starter is added. After a certain period of start time (which varies depending on which starter we use), vegetable rennet, which is diluted in cold water, is then added. The paddles briefly stir in the rennet and then are removed. The milk begins to set up (gel.) When the milk is fully set up it is time to cut the curd. Two harps are used to cut the curd, a horizontal and a vertical. Horizontal: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...rdlongways.jpg Vertical: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...dshortways.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...uttingcurd.jpg |
Here you can see the curds as they begin to separate from the whey.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ngfromwhey.jpg Paddles are put back in because it is time to heat and stir. Being a raw milk cheese, it is only warmed to 100 degrees or less (100 in the case of cheddar, less if it is Colby or goat cheeses). During this process the cheese maker uses a rubber scraper to prevent the curd from sticking to the bottom of the vat. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...dstirstage.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ageupclose.jpg After reaching the desired temperature, the heat is turned off. The paddles will stir for a total of 90 minutes. The paddles are then removed and laid aside. The process of draining the whey then begins. Up until this point, the process is the same for Colby and cheddar. Since we are making cheddar today, the following applies to the making of our cheddar cheeses. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ainingwhey.jpg The cheese maker uses the rubber scraper to divide the cheese in half on either side of the vat, allowing extra whey to drain and then he uses a knife to cut the curd into approximately 10”x 10” squares. These squares will be alternately flipped and flipped/stacked for two hours. At the end of this process, the whey that continues to drain from the curd should test to a certain acidity, the curd becomes shiny and its texture becomes firmer. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...heddaring1.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...heddaring2.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...heddaring3.jpg |
The cheddaring process is complete and its time to introduce the cumbersome cutting machine we fondly dubbed, “Ironman”. Ironman is placed over the vat and the cutting begins.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...eadytochop.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ithIronman.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...onmanagain.jpg All the curd is now chopped and Ironman is removed. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...darchopped.jpg Machine-driven stirrers are now attached to stir the curd as we prepare to salt it and drain even more whey. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...andsalting.jpg Salt is added and stirred in, stirrers are stopped and the curd is parted to either side of vat for draining. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...saltedcurd.jpg Salting helps release the whey. The salting, stirring and draining process is done three times. |
The last time the curds are divided to drain, it is time to begin scooping the curd into the forms, which have been lined with cheesecloth-like material (called “bandages.”)
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...urdfromvat.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...urdinpress.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...rdinpress2.jpg The bandages are folded across the top of the curd. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...e/Wrapping.jpg The lids are placed on top, the form is turned on its side and a handyman jack is then used to begin pressing the forms. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...tingonlids.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ofpressing.jpg Once the jack has begun pressing the cheese forms, the cheese maker stops to remove the spacer pins that allow the molds to adjust down as the cheese is pressed. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...spacerpins.jpg The cheese maker then tightens the jack as far as it will go. As the cheese compresses, the jack will be tightened several more times. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ytotakeout.jpg |
The cheese will remain in the press for 6 to 18 hours. Then it will be removed, bagged, vacuum-sealed, boxed, weighed, dated, and then refrigerated in the cheese storage room for at least 60 days.
Bagging the fresh 40 lb. blocks of cheddar. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...reshcheese.jpg Vacuum-sealing the fresh cheddar. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...h40lbblock.jpg The cheese storage room, where the cheese is aged for at least 60 days, is kept at a temperature of 42-45 degrees. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../Agingroom.jpg At the end of the aging process the cheese, weighing approximately 40-43 lbs, can be taken to the cutting/packaging room. It will be cut into ½ lb., 1 lb., 5 lb., 10 lb, , 20 lb or left in its 40 lb size, depending on our customers’ needs. |
Cutting/packaging room:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...st-cutting.jpg Block of aged cheddar: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...Aged40lber.jpg 1 lb., 5 lb. and 10 lb. pieces (or “cheese Stonehenge” as I like to call it.) http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...Stonehenge.jpg The pieces are then bagged, labeled and weighed. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...ndweighing.jpg Goat cheese: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...goatcheese.jpg They are then vacuum-sealed: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...berssealed.jpg The cheese is packed in insulated boxes and shipped out all over the US via UPS. |
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../MugShot90.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../MugShot61.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../MugShot56.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../MugShot52.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../MugShot51.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../Mugshot30.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61.../MugShot22.jpg |
And we can't forget Lee.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...0Dairy/Lee.jpg Cows after milking: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...inggrazing.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...nggrazing3.jpg http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...nggrazing2.jpg And the end of the long day: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a61...inggrazing.jpg |
That was really neat - thank you for sharing! How would I go about finding some of your cheese?
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Thanks OJ! That is such a lot of work! I will have my mom look for some of your cheeses. Where do you sell them?
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Wow! I love all the pictures! I'm interested in learning to make cheese, now that I have a cow, but on a much tinier scale.
Thanks so much for sharing! |
AWESOME! Tks for the pictures
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We sell to individuals, stores, resturants, co-ops, etc. It is considered a health food as it is raw milk cheese made from milk given by pastured cows.
We have a few local customers who pick it up here at the farm, other local buyers(stores) we drop their orders off when we are in town. Most we ship too. If the cheese isn't carried at your local health food stores, the best bet is to order it. A lot of people get together and order as a group because you save on shipping and also price breaks come with larger orders. We only ship out Mondays and Tuesdays to make sure it is recieved by the weekend. |
I thoroughly enjoyed your tour Ozark Jewels! That was very educational for me. I just started making hard cheeses and so far my favorite is the colby. Your cheese looks great! Yum yum.
Thanks for sharing. |
I know that you put in outstandingly long and hard days, my hats off to you.
P.J. |
That was awesome. It is neat to see how the home cheese making process compares. Those pictures make me want to taste your cheese!
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I really enjoyed reading this thread. Thank you for taking the time to show us your family operation. I greatly commend you for the efforts and your hard work. Thanks again!
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*Most Excellent :goodjob:
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question - are the slabs and cheddared curds kept warm in the vat while acidifying? How do you calculate/regulate pressure on the bandaged cheeses with that jack? Do you need a dairy and a cheesemaker's license to do what you do? (we need both is wisconsin) Are your cows pastured year-round?
very fun to see- thank you so much for taking the time to put it together for us! |
That was very neat!!! I have just started making my own cheese!!! You look to have a great set up!!!!
Thanks for sharing!!! |
That's one squared away operation, labor of love I'd say. Great to see young entrepreneurs these days, sadly few and far between...Emily consider yourself special, keep up the hard work…....Topside
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I'm virtually speechless - awesome! I noticed you could see the curd pattern in the 40lb aged block, which I never would have noticed if I hadn't just seen the process. Very cool - thanks for sharing!
Kim |
Wow that was great,thanks for taking the time to to put that together.
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The slabs and curd are warm, but not too warm as they have to cool some for the process to work. Mainly they are slowly cooling through the entire process. But if they get too cool, the pressing will not work properly. Timing is important. The pressure is not regulated, we just keep it as tight as we can. It is jacked down several times during clean-up of the cheesehouse, and then when I start evening milking, I jack it again and then again after milking is complete. We must have a dairy and a cheesemaking license. We are state and federally inspected. We do intensive grazing all spring/summer/fall and into the winter until the cold kills back all the grass. The cows get a new strip of pasture every morning and every night. We grazed through December last year. When it gets too cold, we start the cows on hay. The cows get some grain when they come in to be milked. If you look at the last picture I posted, you can see the graze line in the pasture the cows are in. They have grazed for several nights on the pasture to their right, the pasture on their left is fenced off with a strip of polywire and hasn't been touched yet. Every day that polywire is moved back for another strip to be available. Hope that helps, more than happy to answer any questions!:) |
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The Morningland number is 417-469-3817. We *sometimes* have a strong/sharp goat cheddar(think we are about out now). Otherwise, we rarely manage to keep the cheddars around long enough for them to become sharp(sharpness depends on how long it ages). Our biggest sellers are medium sharp cheddar, mild cheddar, and colby. We also make some hot pepper colby and garlic colby, but not too often due to the demand for the regular cheddars and colby. I love the hot pepper colby, but my all-around favorites are probably the mild cheddar and the goat colby. |
How cool ! Thanks for the pictures. I wanna order some cheese! Probably not cost effective to ship just one big block, huh? I bet that we could get enough people to go in on it and make it worth it or do you just ship to markets?
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Oh oops - I should have read above. I'm going to call and order some. How fun. I've ordered some of Max's syrup and we love it so this should be awesome.
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mmmmmmmmmmm.........cheese curds! Don't even worry about pressing them together, just scoop 'em into a bag to sell, them scoop 'em out of the bag when ya get them home and enjoy! Really fresh cheese curds have a neat lil squeak to them when you bite into one.
(originally from Wisconsin, doncha know?) :) |
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Unfortunately we are required by law to age our cheese 60 days since it is a raw milk cheese. So no selling cheese curds for us. You wouldn't believe the amount of requests we get though.:) |
Wow Emily, thank you for sharing those pictures. What a neat operation you have going on! Super cool! ;)
~Ashley |
wow! That is so cool of you to share with us. Thanks!
A little thing~ but I'm just really impressed with how very full to the brim that vat is with milk.......and there is not spilled milk all over the outside and the floor! I can't even fill a cup of milk without spilling some! LOL! That is very cool~ thanks for sharing! |
That is really, really cool. I can't even keep my kitchen clean enough to make cheese, and you keep an entire room clean enough to do it? My hat's off to y'all.
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ok now I am hungry.
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Wow, so awesome. Thank you for going to the trouble of posting all those pics! I kept thinking Yummy! Curds!! lol
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Very cool, OJ. Thanks for sharing!!
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Nice photos! This thread should be a sticky. :) Thanks for doing the work to put it all together--you look like you've got a nice operation.
I'm curious, and if you don't want to answer this question feel free to tell me to jump, :), but do you have a ball park idea of what your milk sells for per cwt, marketed through your own cheese? Jennifer |
excellent post, Ozark_jewels.
thank you |
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