Cheese Road Trip Day 6

Monday morning came really early, and it was the day we were going to watch the cheese company we went up there to meet make cheese.  We met them at the factory at 6am and didn't leave until 6pm.

The factory was in an old packing house that they had refurbished.  It was the perfect set up for them.

The guy closest is the cheese-maker, George.  He was really great to answer all of our questions and to tell us his own tips.  That is a 17,000 pound cheese vat.  That means that they fill it up with 17,000 pounds of milk, which will make approximately 1700 pounds of cheese.  Their big product is cheese curds.  What?  Curds, like curds & whey from Little Miss Muffet.  Yup.  Yankees eat a great cheese snack called curds.  Basically, they start out as an a Cheddar cheese; however, the curds are not pressed into molds to make a block or round of cheese.  They are recut, fluffed and seasoned and turn into a great snack.  We went up there to learn their secrets, because we are going to start making curds.  There are not very many people that do these in our area. 

This is bags of cheese curds waiting to be seasoned.  There were customers coming in the store waiting on the hot cheese curds to be released for sale.  And hot curds are awesome.  Out of all of their flavors, mine is the plain.  Craig said that his favorite is the Sour Cream & Onion flavored.  I think Shorty's favorite is the Garlic & Dill.

We ate supper with the owners and then headed out.  We only drove a couple of hours, because we were so tired and wanted a good night's sleep.  But on our way to a hotel and the NY and PA border we drove through this tunnel.  It was at least a mile long through a mountain.