{"id":2848,"date":"2023-09-29T08:58:22","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T08:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/?p=2848"},"modified":"2023-09-29T08:58:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T08:58:22","slug":"discovering-the-art-of-french-cheesemaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/2023\/09\/29\/discovering-the-art-of-french-cheesemaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering the art of French cheesemaking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valley Cheesemakers is all about sharing our love of cheese and showing others how easy it is to make your own cheese at home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This means that, when we get the opportunity, we will attend other cheesemaking workshops so we can broaden our knowledge and experience of different cheesemaking techniques and learn from other cheesemakers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So when the opportunity came up to join a cheese tour to France, why would we say no?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The tour was organised and led by Graham Redhead of Cheesemaking (https:\/\/cheesemaking.com.au), who is based in Brisbane and runs cheesemaking workshops across Australia. Rosie had attended Graham\u2019s workshops and the itinerary looked great so, with little convincing needed, she and Glenn were booked on the tour for May 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The tour ran for eight days and was fully booked with 10 \u2018cheese tourists\u2019, most of whom had also attended Graham\u2019s workshops.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We started our tour of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comt\u00e9 region of France in Dijon, a medieval city full of beautiful architecture, history, and of course a polar bear statue in tribute to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fran\u00e7ois Pompon<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a famous sculptor who worked for many years in, and was seen as a son of, Dijon. We explored the food market, and the day was the start of tasting so many wonderful flavours through wines and food \u2013 and yes <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">moutarde<\/span><\/i> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2013 with a highlight being cooking ourselves a three-course French meal at a local cooking school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rest of the tour did not disappoint as we ventured further with bases in Les Rousses, in the Jura Regional Nature Park, and Ch\u00e2teau-Chalon, often cited as one of France\u2019s most beautiful towns, which meant we could travel around these areas for our cheese visits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our highlights included:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Visiting small and medium sized artisan <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fromageries<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where fresh and matured raw goat or sheep milk cheeses are made. We were able to see the process from milking of the animals through to tasting the delicious cheeses produced, and at some small farms we were able to assist with the cheesemaking processes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeing a mobile milking process, where the milking machines go to the cows in various paddocks, rather than the cows going to the milking buildings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sampling and buying from a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fruiti\u00e8re<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a Cooperative Cheese Dairy, where many award-winning cheeses are manufactured, including the famous French Comt\u00e9, Morbier and Raclette, and visiting their incredible, and large, cheese storage areas where cheeses can mature for years.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watching Comt\u00e9 being made in the traditional method of using a large copper pot over a wood fire. This method means that heat is regulated by moving the pot on and off the fire to retain an even temperature. We can assure you that <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Comt\u00e9<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> produced using this method of cheesemaking is delicious.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The use of a smaller copper pot cheesemaking method, with electricity rather than an open wood fire used to heat the milk.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We were in Raclette heaven one evening as our meal was at a restaurant that only serves Raclette, with each table having their own coal burner cheese melting equipment \u2013 so you melted your own cheese to go with your meal \u2013 best toasties ever!\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meeting the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pyrenean Mountain Dog used by one dairy to protect the goat herd.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A visit to several caves <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which store thousands of wheels of cheese on wooden racks for the many years that are required for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">affinage<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or maturing, which is a crucial aspect of cheesemaking.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A tour of the home of Louis Pasteur in Arbois \u2013 which fits nicely into the world of cheesemaking.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Street and food markets full of small <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fromagiers<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offering their local cheeses.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And we popped over the border to Switzerland for lunch by Lake Geneva.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout our tour there were also visits to vineyards, and the obligatory wine tastings, as well as many alfresco lunches sampling a variety of cheeses and local foods. Being driven through the countryside was also a highlight, as a passenger it was so good to be able to sit back and enjoy the scenery and small towns we passed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Would we do it again? We sure are! Stay tuned for details of our next cheese tour in the Normandy region in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Want to learn how to make your own cheese and dairy products?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valley Cheesemakers offers Cheesemaking Workshops in Kangaroo Valley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get in touch by email\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"mailto:info@valleycheesemakers.com.au\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">info@valleycheesemakers.com.au<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0or visit our website at <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.valleycheesemakers.com.au\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">www.valleycheesemakers.com.au<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rosie Johnson<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Valley Cheesemakers is all about sharing our love of cheese and showing others how easy it is to make your own cheese at home.\u00a0 This means that, when we get the opportunity, we will attend other cheesemaking workshops so we can broaden our knowledge and experience of different cheesemaking techniques and learn from other cheesemakers.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese"],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Kangaroo Valley Voice","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice","push-errors":false,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2849,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2848\/revisions\/2849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kangaroovalley.nsw.au\/valleyvoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}