5:30 in the morning. That’s what time we had to be there to start taking pictures. We were designing a website for a local organic cheese producer and that included taking pictures of the milking process. It was a beautiful morning though, about a month ago. The air was fresh and it was actually great to see the sun come up.
One of the best parts of the day was seeing the calves. If you’ve never had a chance to be in the midst of a herd of calves, you don’t know what you’re missing. They’re sweet and curious. I took a ton of pictures, some of them a bit more close up than I had planned, like this one.
While I was taking pictures, I felt this sniffing behind me as one of the calves decided to investigate my jean jacket. I guess it must have smelled pretty good because a second or so later she tried to eat it. Fortunately, she didn’t bit down very hard. (Ouch!) The other excitement of the day was the electric fence. The one where the calves were wasn’t very strong and you could touch it without getting a bad shock. Of course, we encountered this one first, so were expecting the same at the other fence. O was in for a big surprise when he touched the other fence with his thigh. It was funny at the time until I crawled under with camera in hand. My hand with the camera in it slipped and I moved to quickly and “zap”, it got me in the back. It wasn’t too bad, just burnt a little bit. But then it was O’s turn to laugh. What’s the old saying, “he who laughs last, laughs best”? Well, he enjoyed it anyway.
The following week we returned for the cheese production. No description I give could do justice to the aroma as the cheese was being made. The laboratory was filled with what I call “milk fog” as they continued to stir and fold the cheese before hand forming it into the various shapes. For a cheese-a-holic like me, it was torture. I wanted to try it all. Just look at this stuff, doesn’t it make you want to just stick your hand in and grab some?
We did end up leaving that day with 2 containers of fresh ricotta along with some stracciata. I’m lucky though. They come by every Tuesday with their refrigerated van to the market here in town. You can bet I’ll be buying some today. I especially like to get some scamorza and sautee it really quickly in a hot pan. Cut it in half and put it in a hot non-stick frying pan. The pan has to be really hot when you put it in. Once it gets toasty brown on the one side, you flip it over and let it get brown on the other. That way it’s melted nice in the middle and crusty on the outside. Serve it up with a nice fresh salad, and it makes a nice summer meal. So, the site is done if you’d like to visit. There are lots of pictures along with a slideshow (if you’ve got broadband) of the cheese-making process. It’s www.labruna-piccirilli.it.
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Hahahah that’s a great photo!
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Which one, the calf or the cheese? Never thought you’d get to look down a calf’s nose, did you?
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What a shot! You should enter it in a photo contest.
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Thanks! Did you see the “Happy Cow” that was on the website? I think that one’s my favorite.
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