I’ve been busy sowing over the last few weeks. My cold frame is full of orderly seedlings. This year I’m taking great care of these tender shoots. Having talked to lots of gardeners last year I’ve realised how important it is to get your plants off to a good start. This year I’m sowing into good quality seed raising mix. Once the seedlings are of a decent size I’m repotting the best into compost and then I’ll be repeating this again before they finally go into the ground. This way they should get the chance to develop good roots and strong stems. The less stressed a plant is the less it will get attacked by insects and disease. It makes a lot of sense.

Raised beds are a great option for gardens with limited space such as mine.  They allow you to control and change the quality of your soil, are easier to maintain (less bending), the soil heats up quicker and your crops should hopefully suffer less attacks from slugs and snails.  We’ve put in three, constructed out of old fence posts and corrugated iron (we are recyclers to the core in this household). I’ve filled them with a layered mix of newspaper, pea straw, sheep manure and good quality compost. They’re looking a bit empty at the moment but it shouldn’t be too long before I can plant out my first crops.

The words of the popular nursery rhyme come back to me as I stir my own, rather large bucket, of curds and whey. Unlike Miss Muffet though, I’m not eating these curds and whey. Instead I’m cutting them. I’m learning how to make cheese and the contents of this bucket will later become creamy, delicious feta.

I’m a big fan of cheese and I’ve always harboured a desire to learn how to make the stuff.  But cheese making has always struck me as a complicated business.

Turns out I was wrong. “It’s really not difficult” says cheese maker Natalie Carrad, who’s taking today’s class. Natalie has only been making cheese for two and a half years but her enthusiasm and knowledge for the subject is infectious. After attending a course led by artisan cheese maker Katherine Mowbray she was instantly hooked and quickly started experimenting at home. Admittedly living on a dairy farm has given her a natural advantage but she reckons she’s never yet had a complete failure. Now she makes cheese regularly, including a particularly good cheddar that she makes on the request of her English husband, and passes on her knowledge through days such as these.

“Cheese making is really trendy at the moment,” she says. Artisan cheese makers are springing up throughout New Zealand and even celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon. In the UK Blur bassist Alex James turned his back on the life of a hell raising pop star to make cheese in the Cotswold countryside. Ex-Coronation Street actor Sean Wilson (he played Martin Platt) is another who’s been bitten by the cheese bug.

Today’s class has been organised by The Traditional Kitchen, a Hamilton-based business run by Brianna Fitzgerald and Rebecca Rogers. Their aim is to promote good, healthy, traditional eating. The pair are also Hamilton chapter leaders for the Western A. Price Foundation, an organisation that promotes a return to a more primitive diet. Bri and Rebecca don’t just run cheese courses – they also cover yogurt making, lacto-fermentation and back-to-basics cookery and act as a resource for people wanting to find out more information on healthy eating. “We’re trying to get a message across,” says Bri. “We need to learn how to be back in the kitchen and cooking for our families.”

Today we’re focusing on soft cheese and we start with mascarpone. In New Zealand it’s extortionately expensive to buy yet is made with just three ingredients – milk, pouring cream and lemon juice. It’s simply a matter of heating the milk and cream to 90º, adding the lemon juice and stirring well. You then leave the pan to cool before pouring into a sieve lined with muslin and hanging to drain. It all seems too easy.

Next Natalie demonstrates yoghurt, yoghurt soft cheeses, cottage cheese and butter. There’s nothing complicated about the processes involved and the results are mouth-wateringly good.

Both Natalie and Bri are advocates for raw milk and all the milk we’re using today is straight from the farm gate. Many of the world’s most famous cheeses, including Roquefort and Parmigiano-Reggiano, are made with raw milk and fans of fine cheese believe using unpasteurized milk allows for greater flavour to be created. Up until last week commercial cheese makers in New Zealand were unable to use raw milk in their products – our countries strict food safety laws currently mean all dairy food products manufactured and sold must be made from pasteurized milk. However the law has just been loosened and cheese makers will be able to use raw milk from October.

For the home cheese maker you can legally buy 5 litres of raw milk at the farm gate. It might take a little sleuthing to uncover a farmer happy to sell his milk but suppliers are out there. You can, of course, also use pasteurized milk.

For Natalie using raw milk isn’t just a matter of flavour but of nutrition. “Pasteurization doesn’t just kill off bad bacteria, it also kills good bacteria.” She believes the process destroys essential vitamins like C, B12 and B6, reduces the availability of calcium and makes the milk proteins harder for the body to digest. 

After a wonderfully healthy lunch that no one has any trouble digesting we learn how to make feta and halloumi. The process for both these cheeses is a little more time consuming although the ingredients list is still minimal. Halloumi requires just milk, rennet, salt and water. Rennet, which is obtained from the stomachs of calves, is the enzyme needed to break down the proteins that keep milk a liquid, enabling it to coagulate and form cheese. I’m beginning to feel like I’m back in science class.

Refreshingly you don’t need masses of expensive equipment to start cheese making. There are a few essentials –a glass thermometer is one since temperature control is an important element and it’s impossible to guess.  Most items, though, are things any good cook will already have around the kitchen (like assorted pots and pans, colanders and sieves) or won’t cost the earth to buy (muslin and plastic buckets). Inventiveness is highly recommended and hygiene is also important – sterilization of all equipment and utensils is a must.

By the end of the day I’ve got a huge amount of knowledge just waiting to be put into practice. “The mystery is taken out of it on a day like this,” says Natalie. “What I’d really love is for you to go away and make your own cheese and then show your friends.” I suspect I’ll be hosting plenty of cheese and wine nights in the near future.

Thankfully in my neck of the woods spring has officially forged ahead.  Turns out we’ve just had the warmest August on record – hopefully the next few months won’t be cold and wet to make up for it.

To celebrate spring’s arrival I planted my potatoes. I’ve put two different varieties in – Cliffs Kidney and Jersey Benne. Now I’m hoping the frost doesn’t return!

Nothing says spring like a yellow daffodil bursting into flower. I spied the first one just this morning. I’m still convinced this is a pseudo spring and winter will return with a vengeance. Probably right  after I’ve packed away the winter woollies and starting sowing the tomatoes.