Thanksgiving cheese curds

More cheddar today but it works out well because I was hoping to take cheese home for Thanksgiving so my family could try some. My mom always asks if I can bring home anything I made, but she forgets that most cheese has to age before it's ready to eat, with the exception being cheese curds, of course. So at this year's Thanksgiving we'll have turkey and the other traditional foods and we'll also have cheese curds…what could be better? I just hope my family likes them.

Today I noticed that even during the down times Gary is always running around doing something else and barely ever takes five minutes to relax, so today Gary had me update inventory sheets from the upstairs and downstairs coolers. I always knew he had a lot to do with inventory management but I never realized the amount of records he kept and the other inventory systems he had in place.

Every time Gary makes cheese he has to think about what he has in the coolers and how far along it is, what has been selling or not, what the dairy store needs and many other factors that will affect his decision. To me this alone seems like a daunting task especially because the dairy plant sells a majority of its cheese around the holiday season in cheese boxes.

So I could only imagine what it would be like to run an entire cheese plant like Gary did for many years. I always think of farmstead producers who are farmers first and cheesemakers second and the challenge it is to do both. The more cheese I make the more I appreciate all the work that goes into on the farmer and processing slide. It once again just shows that being a cheesemaker is more than just a job but something you need to really be passionate about.