We have goats, and currently have milk pouring out our ears with milking 5 mama goats! Our mini nubians give a quart to 1/2 gallon on 12 hr separation from their kids, so we get almost 2 full gallons each morning. And now 1 mama’s kids have left the farm, so we’re getting another 1/2 gallon at night too!

Soap only uses a small amount of milk, so while I will be freezing some milk for soap making, I am going to be making chevre cheese for fresh use and for freezing to use during the winter.

I started by filling our kitchen sink with hot tap water. I then took my 6 quart insta pot bowl and filled that with 1 gallon of chilled raw goats milk. Then placed the bowl of milk in the sink full of hot tap water. It only took a couple minutes for it to get to 80 degrees. I let it to get just below 85 degrees Fahrenheit, then pulled the bowl out of the hot water.

I sat it on the counter and added 1/4 tsp mesophilic culture front standing stone farms and used a wooden spoon to mix in a up/down motion. Then I took a measuring cup, added 1/3 cup cool water, and dripped 2 drops of rennet into that. Then I poured the water/rennet mix into the bowl of warm milk, and mixed that gently in an up/down motion.

I placed a towel over the bowl and left it over night.

This morning it was quite thick, like a very solid yogurt (cheese curd!). I got my cheese cloth out and spread it over a strainer in the sink, and gently poured the cheese curds from the bowl into the cheese cloth/strainer. Then wrapped up the cheese cloth and knotted it at the top to form a bag for the cheese curds, and used a shower curtain hook to hang it on a cupboard know above the kitchen sink.

Next step is to let it drip for 4 to 6 hrs, until it stops dripping. Then we can add salt and seasonings if we want to use it right away, or we can package it up and stick in the freezer (do NOT add seasonings if putting it in the freezer, I added the salt before freezing last year and it was gross!).

I wrap in parchment paper, then label with a marker that it is Chevre and the date it was made, then wrap in plastic wrap and stick in the freezer. Or, I’ll season to taste with pink Himalayan sea salt and serve with salted almond crackers. Mmm, SO good!