Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

100th Post Celebration and Competition

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100th Post Celebration

Dear curd nerds,

This is the 100th post on this blog and a great milestone.  Cause for some celebration I think because, as a hobby, I didn’t think this blog would still be around after 3 years and would have received over 200,000 pages views!  I am so pleased that it receives over 300 visits a day, and that the readership is continuing to grow.

Looks like everyone loves cheese and wants to learn how to make it.  Which is great because I do too!

So to celebrate, I am holding a competition.

The prize is a free copy of my cheese making eBook “Keep Calm and Make Cheese – The Beginners Guide to Cheese Making At Home“, and two never-before-published recipes for Colby and Cotswold.  However, if you have already purchased a copy, I will let the winner choose from one my other 4 eBooks (and you still get the two recipes).

To enter this competition, all you have to do is tell me (via comment below), what is your most favorite and least favourite post on this blog and the reason why.  That is it, any post which includes podcast episodes, video tutorials and reader questions. Pretty simple really.  You can view all the posts via the archive gadget on the right hand sidebar.  Oh, and share the details of the competition with any like minded friends or family.  The more the merrier.

The competition will close on Friday 13th September 2013.  I will choose two winners at random and then send them through their prizes.  Don’t forget that you have to be in it to win it, and check back on Friday to see if you have won where I will announce the winners!

So to finish off the post, here is a reader question submitted via Facebook.

“Hi Gav,
Some friends and I are wondering if you can help us please we are wanting to know if cheese is considered a processed food.  None of us are really sure.  I always thought homebrand cheese slices were processed and the better ones like Kraft were ok, anyway I know you are the go to cheese guru so I was hoping you might be able to shed some light thanks in advance.  Annie”

Thanks for your question Annie.  The answer is quite simple.  When buying real cheese, look at the ingredient list.  If it has only a few ingredients like, Milk, Rennet, Cultures, Salt, and maybe some moulds (if mould ripened), then it is the real deal.  Processed cheese has all sorts of things added.

The definition of processed cheese via Wikipedia is; “Processed cheese, process cheese, cheese slice, prepared cheese, cheese singles or cheese food is a food product made from normal cheese and sometimes other unfermented dairy ingredients, plus emulsifiers, extra salt, food colorings, or whey. Many flavors, colors, and textures of processed cheese exist.”

So when you are next buying cheese, look for these other additional additives and reject them.  Artisan and home made cheeses are far superior in quality and taste, in my humble opinion.

Anyway, best of luck to everyone in the 100th post celebration competition.

The Winner Is….

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The winner is Darren of Green-Change.com.  He came up with the name Green Cheese, which I pitched to family and friends.  They thought it was a great title, and far better than the rude one that I came up with (think about it).  However it was already taken as a blog name and a link in blogger.  So I slightly modified it and came up with something I am quite happy with.

So here is the banner for the new blog, aptly titled “Little Green Cheese”.


I even managed to buy the domain name.  You can find the new blog at www.littlegreencheese.com.  The previous link will redirect.  I love it!

Darren, drop me your snail mail address, and I will send through your prize of about 100 gm of tasty Parmesan all vacuum packed via express post on Monday.

Thank you one and all who gave the competition a go.  I did try all the other names on the family, however they were stuck on Darren’s suggestion.

Gavin, now the proud owner of the littlegreencheese.com domain!

Introducing My Cheesy Self

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I have a confession to make.  My name is Gavin Webber and I am cheese crazy.  You would class me as an amateur cheese maker or artisan if you will, who is mad about making his own cheese at home.  In fact I like cheese making so much that I make at least 1 kg (2.2lbs) of cheese of various types every few weeks.

I started making cheese as a hobby back in March 2009 after attending a cheese making class at our local community house in Melton, Victoria, Australia.  It was an exciting day indeed, and I will be posting about it later on in this blog.

How does it taste, I here you ask?  Well, let me tell you that once you have made your own cheese, you will never buy store-bought stuff again.  The only problem you will have is keeping up with demand!

So far I have had experience making the following cheese types;

Feta, Wensleydale, Farmhouse Cheddar, Emmental, Stilton, Camembert, Parmesan, Ricotta, Romano, Pepper Jack Monterey Jack, Ossau-Iraty with green peppercorns, Caerphilly and Mozzarella.

Farmhouse Cheddar drying before waxing

 

I will be posting about each one of these cheeses every few days and others that I may decide to make in the future.  I will also be transferring the bulk of the cheesy knowledge from my other blog, The Greening of Gavin, which was the catalyst for all my greening activities.  You can pop on over there if you want to learn about organic food gardening, climate change, peak oil, chickens, solar power, fruit trees, composting and worm-farming and all other topics that make up the sustainable living ethos.

So break out the crackers and stay put for an exciting cheesy adventure.

Little Green Workshops