Last Cheese

I made the last cheese of my professional career yesterday. It was a nearly perfect cheesemaking day; I began at 6 am sanitizing equipment and the milk line, began the transfer of the fresh milk from the bulk tank, and was joined by Melinda who prepared the buckets of frozen milk to add to the vat, plated the milk samples and washed the buckets and the bulk tank, while I added cultures and rennet. I had some quiet meditative time alone, cutting, stirring, cooking and hooping the curd, before being joined by Lisa for cleanup, flipping of cheeses and getting them into the brine. It was a bittersweet but satisfying day.