Capercaillie Cheesemaking Workshops

Offered by Caitlin Hunter, Capercaillie Consulting

Learn more about our workshops here.

Italian Fun – Mozzarella & Ricotta

October 1,2025 – 10 AM to 4 pmzPM  Italian Fun! Mozzarella and Ricotta are two iconic cheeses of Italy, and so easy to make! You will learn how to make both in this hands-on class, and go home with cheese you have made!

$100/person – Sign up here.

 

Basics of Home Cheese Making – Two day course

We are offering 3 dates for this popular course, and need at least three  signups to run each session- so convince your cheese loving friends to sign up too!

August 20 & 21, or   October 8 & 9 r November 5 & 6 –  10 AM – 4 PM — This hands-on workshop in basic home cheese making. In this two-day workshop we’ll be using simple equipment you may already have at home to make a jack cheese the first day, press overnight, then finish the second. In addition, we will also make feta, yogurt, a lactic cheese, quick mozzarella, and ricotta, depending on the interests of the class. This workshop will concentrate on basic cow cheeses using Springdale Farm cow milk but will also delve briefly into goat cheese. Basic use of ripening cultures and rennet and milk chemistry will be covered. You will go home with cheese that you’ve made!

$300/person, $500/a couple.Sign up:  Here for AUGUST – – Here for  OCTOBERr  –Here for  NOVEMBER

 

Intro to Hard Cheese – Day and a half course

Intro to hard cheeseSeptember 24 & 25, 10 AM – 4PM & 10  AM – Noon. – In this day-and-a-half class, we will spend the first day making one hard cheese, but along the way we’ll discuss the different steps that go into making a hard cheese, and how a slight   change here or there will result in a totally different cheese. We’ll discuss the differences between milks, starter cultures, rennet, pH, aging and rind development. We will press it overnight, then finish the next morning.

$200 – Sign up here.

 

 

Location: 18 Spring Street, Belfast Maine.

Learn more and sign up at Capercaillie Consulting.

Caitlin Hunter, former owner of Appleton Creameryhas decades of experience as a cheesemaker operating a farm and creamery in Appleton Maine until several years ago. Tody she offers consulting as Capercaillie Consulting, consulting and cheesemaking classes as well as working for Springdale Farm/State of Maine Cheese in Waldo Maine. Caitlin  envisioned and  was a founder of the Maine Cheese Guild in 2003.


LEARN

Washed Rind Cheeses with Fons Smits

 

Washed Rind Cheeses with Fons Smits

Monday May 26th from 2:00-5:00pm
Roots Down Market
54 Farmington Falls Rd, New Sharon, ME 04955

*Will have coffee and light refreshments*

Join us for a relaxed, discussion-based workshop to walk through the production of washed rind cheeses. Using a makesheet as our guide, we’ll go step by step, with plenty of room for questions, sidebars, and real-world cheesemaking talk. This isn’t a formal lecture—it’s a collaborative session where we explore the “whys” behind each step, troubleshoot together, and learn by doing. Great for cheesemakers who prefer conversation over instruction, and who want to understand the process, not just follow a recipe.

Fons Smits – Tulip Tree Creamery – September, 2024
Fons Smits, a dairy technologist and nationally recognized cheese maker, owns and manages
Tulip Tree Creamery LLC in Indianapolis, IN. In 2014 Smits founded the creamery, together with
Laura Davenport, and since then has managed the business and is the main cheese maker.
Smits was born and raised in the pastoral dairy region of the Netherlands, where he completed
advanced, specialized studies in Dairy Technology, and holds engineering degrees in Food
Science, Biotechnology, and Water Purification.

Smits has won several awards and kudos in the U.S.A. and in Europe for his aged and fresh cheeses, yogurts, and ice creams at various companies including
Cowgirl Creamery, Traders Point Creamery, Ludwig Farmstead Creamery, and now at Tulip Tree
Creamery.

MORE INFO & SIGN UP HERE