Story
previously on farm stories
The Magic Behind Singing Brook Cheese
The magic behind Singing Brook Cheese comes from many different things all coming together. Artisan or Farmstead cheeses are often only four ingredients: milk, salt, cultures and rennet. When you only have a very small amount of ingredients, the quality of all those ingredients is impossible to hide. Therefore, we make sure we have the best and highest quality ingredients.
Another key point in our Singing Brook Cheese is that it is fun and interesting to watch one cheese change throughout the season. Many things can change the different qualities in the sheep’s milk, including the weather and the stress they endure, but most of the time the biggest factor is their feed. If the sheep are out in the Springtime and they just gave birth, they are forging on very rich, new growth in grasses and forbs. In the Summer, they will eat high heat vegetation such as crabgrass and Bermuda grasses. In the Fall, sheep sorrel and clover are very productive. These are just a few examples of what can cause different flavors in the cheese.
One of my favorite magic “secrets” is our brine that is used for the Singing Brook Cheese. We have been using the same brine for nearly three years, and it is only used for our Singing Brook Cheese. It is made from leftover whey and salted to a salinity of 90 percent with sea salt, so it is extremely safe. I think it takes on its own characteristics, much like a bread baker’s starter.
The final secret behind our cheese is the devotion of the cheesemaker in taking every opportunity to make sure the maximum quality is achieved in every step of the process, from pumping the milk to oiling and brushing the finished wheels.
– Dustin Busby, Preservationist and Cheesemaker