Monday, May 22, 2017
Today I was able to go with Sophie, Mariah, and Hagan to the Lost Lake Farm Dairy. It is the only dairy in Hardin county Iowa. Kevin and Renee Dietzel live with their two children on a dairy farm that they have built. Kevin has a herd of grass fed milking cows that he gets all his milk from to make the cheese. We first went to get the cows and bring them back to the milking parlor for milking. Kevin explained how a lot of his acreage actually used to be a lake that was drained in 1890 to be turned into working farmland. When we finally walked over to the cows a baby calf had actually just been born! It was so cute. We then took the task of actually getting the cows back to the milking parlor. We had to follow them all through endless mud and cow poop but we did eventually make it to the parlor where we hooked the cows up to milking machines.
After we milked the cows, our hard work was rewarded with the wonderful smells of the cheese making room. This room was full of wonderful smells. Every part of the cheese making process we were able to taste that stage of the cheese. We started with the raw cheese curds. We cut the cheese curds into smaller one inch squares. We then heated up water and poured the hot water into a large bowl with the squares of curds. This is where the process gets fun. We used heat protectant gloves to stretch the cheese and slowly mold it into a tight ball form. I myself could not actually ball the cheese into the proper shape. However, the rest of the group got the hang of it. Once we were done with making the mozzarella cheese balls Kevin used the vast amount of leftover cheese curds to make different flavored curds to package for the farmer’s market. Kevin also showed us his more expensive cheeses that he allows to mold in a special room.
Overall I was very impressed with the cheese making process. I never knew how many steps and how time consuming it was. I have a lot more respect for cheesemakers. It is not an easy job and is very demanding. However, If you can make the demand, It is worth your while