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Jim Nunley’s heart is in the country, and so is his business. Jim owns Farm Country Cheese House and oversees the production of 4,500 pounds of cheese a day. Fourteen miles north of Greenville, the facility makes cheese from milk supplied by small dairy herds on 100 farms in the surrounding Amish community.
Since 2006, when Jim bought the farm, he has learned from the Amish workers at the plant – some of whom were among the original staff when it opened 25 years ago. He has also kept the artisan cheese–making tradition going strong while adding to the long list of tasty flavors offered.
Production of 100,000 pounds of cheese a month begins with the delivery of 600 of the old style 80-pound cans of raw milk per day.
The milk is tested promptly for bacteria and antibiotics, then pasteurized before being poured into one of the old English-style open vats in the cheese-making room. The largest vat holds 20,000 pounds of milk, which becomes 2,000 pounds of cheese; the other two vats each hold 12,000 pounds of milk.
Each vat will take about six hours to process, first being filled with milk, then stirred for about 10-15 minutes with rennet and Farm Country’s own starter, cut into small curds with large wire cutters, and then cooked for about one hour to 101 degrees.
The Amish men who work at the factory dip the cheese curds out of the vats 33 pounds at a time, using traditional cheese buckets. Two buckets of curds go into each hoop, which are then pressed overnight into about 42 pounds of Cheddar or Colby cheese.
“It’s important to have a good cheese maker, an artisan,” Nunley says. “Our cheese maker Henry, will monitor the cheese as it’s shirred and he has to pick just the right moment to take the cheese curds to the next step in the process. Too soon or too late, and the flavor and texture won’t be as good as it could be.” |
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Excerpted from “Cheese Biz” by Jayne Graham, Michigan County Lines and Farm Country Cheese House by Sue Osgood, Food For Thought
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