Milk, much like other food, is in abundance at certain times of the year, and our ancestors had to preserve this abundance for the leaner times. Whether your milk comes from goats or cows, an animal can only give milk for so long before they need to be "freshened". Freshening is the term used when you breed you animal for the purpose of freshening your milk supply.

After a goat has had a kid it will give plentiful milk for months to come, but eventually, nature will start to reduce this milk supply and you will have to breed your goat again. When this happens you will have to let her dry off (not milk her) as she will need her energy to produce her offspring. Most animals have particular breeding seasons so you can see that even if you have more than one goat or cow, there is a good likelihood that at one time of the year you will have all your animals producing lots of milk and at other times you will have much less production from your animals or none at all.

So what do you do with all that milk when you have it and how do you ensure you can enjoy it when your cow or goat is not available to be milked? Why you make cheese and yogurt. Yoghurt will make your milk last weeks longer, and cheese will of course last much longer.

Today we can just go down the road any buy milk at all times of the year so we do not need to make cheese, but personally it is one of my favorite foods and it is much cheaper to buy milk, than it is to buy cheese. In addition cheese making is so much fun and very rewarding.

I started off making soft cheeses and this is still my favourite way, it's easy, and the rewards are instant, you eat the soft cheese that day. I love to add herbs and eat it as a dip with crackers or use it as a spread on sandwiches. There are also plenty of recopies that call for soft cheeses. Here is a soft cheese that you can do at home with what you can find in your kitchen, and here is a yoghurt recipe too.

Hard cheese making is a much more complicated process, with several steps and you will need some specialized equipment. The process is not hard but needs to be followed precisely, step by step, and a good reference guide is essential.

I started off with the Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll and this is a wonderful book for beginners. I still refer to it regularly and I can recommend this book to anyone who wants to try their hand at this most rewarding adventure. The beauty of the Ricki Carroll book is that it has directions for making cheese using either Mother Cultures or Direct Set Cultures.

Cultures produce acidity in milk, & add flavour to cheese. Mesophilic culture thrives at moderate temperatures & Thermophilic culture at high temperatures. Proper acid development is important in preserving cheese. Cultures come two ways; Direct Set and Mother.

Mother Cultures are made in advance. You incubate the milk that you are going to use to make your Mother Culture with the freese dried culture and let it sit for 15 to 24 hours. Once you have made your mother culture you can tip into ice cube trays and freese it for future use or use it right away.

Direct Sets Cultures are added right into the milk, with no need for time consuming preparation of making a Mother Culture. This saves you time and means that if you are a city dweller, or working full time, you can get up on Saturday morning and decide to make cheeses and just get started. I recommend Direct Set Culture for anyone just starting out in cheese making. I have continued to use Direct Set, as I work full time and the Direct Set method suites my busy life style. You cannot use Direct Set Culture to make a Mother Culture.

I use store bought milk and due to this I do need to add Calcium Chloride, which this is supplied to you in your Hard Cheese Making Kit, along with the Direct Set Cultures and everything else you will need. Those that have access to fresh, organic milk form their own cows or goats are to be envied, but it is not a prerequisite for making cheese successfully. And just like everything else, the more cheese you make, the better you get at it.