Category Archives: Learning

The Art of Natural Cheesemaking class, Feb 2016

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DATE: Thursday, February 11, 2016 to Friday, February 12, 2016
TIME: 9AM-5PM Daily
LOCATION: Shelburne, VT
FEE: $225 (Includes lunch both days; Optional accommodations available at $65/night-double occupancy- tax included)

David Asher approaches farmstead cheesemaking from a traditional viewpoint, avoiding the use of unnatural additives and laboratory raised cultures; instead he uses only natural ingredients, keeping his own starters, growing his own fungi, and working with the indigenous microorganisms of raw milk to help cheeses evolve their best possible flavor. This is a rare opportunity to learn with David, who will be visiting from the west coast of Canada.

For more information, and to register, click here.

Notes on Water Buffalo Cheesemaker from ACS 2015

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Notes on Water Buffalo Session at ACS Conference 2015
7/31/2015 10AM
[photo courtesy of Zhangzhugang through Wikimedia]

Quattro Portoni: Water Bufala in Northern Italy? A Transition That Worked!
by Bruno Gritti, moderated by Michele Buster

190 million Water Buffalo in the world; less than 1% are in Italy (370,000), 2.9% in Africa, 2.4% elsewhere in Europe and North and South America combined; the remainder are in Asia. [Reference: U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, 2012]

Italian Bufala is considered a sub-species; its geneology is tracked back to 12,000 animals that survived WWII. Most are found in Campania (278,000), followed by Lazio (66,000), and then Lombardy (only 6,000).

Quattro Portoni is in Bergano Province in Lombardy, which is the alpine region of norther Italy. They have 60 Hectares of pasture and fields that grow wheat and tritcale as well as hay. They generate 99% of their feed on the farm. They maintain 250 milking cows, 100 “non-dairy” animals, 300 heifers, and 170 steers at any one time.
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