A great interview with a passionate home cheese maker who lives in NSW, Australia. Carole Castles has made over 150 kinds of cheese from the milk produced by 
her two very own Jersey Cows.
We have a great chat about how she began her cheese obsession and the methods she uses to make some of her favourite cheese. We also touch on how she gets the best milk from her two girls and what she does with the excess if there is just too much.
It was a lovely conversation that probably could have gone on for a lot longer. Thanks for your time Carole.
Here is a picture of Carole’s two lovely Jersey Cows
And look at all the cheese in her cheese fridge. Carole calls herself a ‘Dairy tragic’. I just think she has been well and truly bitten by the cheese bug, like most of you!
So, if you are a home cheesemaker like Carole or any of the other passionate home cheese makers that I have talked to, I would love to have you on the show. Drop me an email to set up an interview!
JohnandJean, I'm told there are commercial dairies in NZ that only milk once a day. You get about 25-30% less production than TAD but the labour overheads are halved and it's apparently viable to do it. I reckon the Jersey ladies are happy to be milked at any time as long as it's fairly consistent, lol. I get up at 6:30 and milk about 7:30 because the time suits me. My friend milks at 9:30 when the kids have left for school. On the cream issue, if I leave the skimming bucket to sit in the fridge for 24 hours, the cream sets so firm that it 'wrinkles' regardless of how thick the layer is. I've finally mastered lifting it off with a perforated skimmer and using a ladle to remove the thinner 'pouring cream' from underneath. Trying to ladle skim the solid layer doesn't work because it just wrinkles so badly that it remixes the pouring cream underneath with the milk. Who knew there were so many 'knacks' to get the hang of.
Hi Gavin and Carole, I just re-listened to the podcast today. Just an observation on milking times. I used to think that it was best to split the milking into 12 hour breaks but not so. The dairy farmer I worked for was up at 5-5:30 and milk 6-6:30. I would get up at 4 and milk at 5. The dairy farmers where I now get my milk stroll in to the dairy about 7:30. It seems that they just nominate your own time. A couple of local dairies also milk three times a day 4am 12md and 8pm. I think they get a reasonable increase in production but not much enthusiasm in the relief milkers.
Thanks Carole. The reason I asked about AM and PM milking was that I found there was a consistent difference in the level cream between AM and PM cream levels. The PM milk would produce so much more cream that it would wrinkle as it was skimmed and would produce a larger quantity. That wrinkling did not occur on the AM milk. This is milk from a random number of cows being diverted before it hits the vat. I was curious if this phenomena also occurred in a house cow or whether it was just an oddity in commercial dairying.
Hi JohnandJean. Other than the first three weeks after they've calved, I only milk my cows once a day. I keep the calves with them during the day, separate the babies at night and milk in the morning. It's pretty common for cows who are still feeding calves to 'hold up' their hind milk and you don't get all the butterfat. It's not a bad price to pay for having little 'relief milkers' available if you need to go away overnight.
The USA forum that I found helpful was actually 'Keeping a Family Cow'. It's great for advice on all things 'cow' and I use a slow, room temperature method for a washed-curd and a 'not-washed/easy cheddar' that I found on their recipes section.
Thanks Carole for your answer!
Gav x
Hi Gavin,
Can you supply the name of the USA cheese forum Carole mentioned as being helpful?
Also a question for Carole: Have you tried comparing afternoon milk to morning milk for cream content?