The
milk from our cows comes into the plant early in the
morning. It is then run through a pasteurizer which
heats the milk to kill any bacteria. After it has
been heated, it is emptied into a large vat.
After a couple hours of adding ingredients and
cooking, the curd is formed and is cut into small
pieces.
The
curd then has to cook a little longer to make it
tough enough to be pumped over to the drain table.
The whey is then drained from the
curd. As this is happening, the curd is worked into
a large slab of curd which is then cut into small,
easy to handle pieces. It is rotated over and over
many times to remove any remaining whey.
After the curd has been properly turned and stacked
and all the whey has been removed, the slabs of curd
are put through a milling machine which cuts the
them into small pieces.
The
finished curd is then stirred while salt is added.
After the salting of the curd, it is time to put all
the cheese curd into molds to form one large 40 lb
block. This is done by taking a large bucket and
moving the curds from the drain table to a mold to
shape the cheese.
At
the end of the day, the blocks are pressed. They
will then sit over night. The next day, they will be
bagged up and vacuum sealed so they can be put into
boxes and stored away in a cold room for aging.
Three months later, it is brought out and cut into
bars for us to sell.
