I leaned in close to hear, our zoom meeting was crackly and broken at best. Barely able to decipher a word, I interrupted Kaitlyn, as she told me her husband was a corn farmer, to move our meeting to the phone.
The problem resolved, and able to hear Kaitlyn speak, I sighed a breath of relief, settled into my chair, and listened intently as Kaitlyn Goodrich, mother to three young children, homesteader, expert gardener, and new cheesemaker, recounted her tail of milk cow owning and cheesemaking.
Kaitlyn says that up until 2019, she had never had cows before. Her milk cow journey started unexpectedly when she was looking to buy some sheep. They visited the farm to buy the sheep, and ended up coming home with a milk cow.
Unfortunately, shortly after bringing their cow home, they lost her when they were on vacation. Determined to have a milk cow, a little over a year ago, they brought 2 new milk cows into the family. One is a brown swiss, but Kaitlyn describes her breed as being “more of a mutt”. The other cow, a Jersey, which is the one they are currently milking. Their master plan, is to be able to arrange breeding and lactation between the two cows, so that they have a milk supply throughout the year. When I asked about breeding, Kaitlyn described how the first cow, which they lost, had a bull calf. They have kept him intact, and hope to use him to breed their cows.
In the morning, Kaitlyn or her husband will go out to the barn to milk their cow. They have worked out a schedule, where they milk once a day and Kaitlyn will milk one day, and her husband the next. They use a machine to milk, and Kaitlyn described to me some of her struggles using the machine in the cold weather they have had in the last few weeks. They have been bringing the machine into the house in between milking’s to keep it from freezing up, she says “it has been iffy if it wants to run or not, but so far it has been fine”.
Kaitlyn had me laughing as she described some of her trials and tribulations of milking a cow. She recounts one particularly gross incident where her cow was so dirty that she had to wash her off with the hose. While washing her, the cow swatted her with her tail, and the entire milking, Kaitlyn was swatted with a poopy tail. By the end of the milking, she was covered.
I was excited to hear that the family just created a milk room off of their breezeway. They plan to process the morning milk here, and enthusiastically she says “now we don’t have to do it in our kitchen”.
Juggling cheesemaking into her day, has not been an easy task. With three young children, ages 4, 3 and 6 months, Kaitlyn says, “I just try to fit it in when I can”. Often, she makes cheese one handed, a baby on her hip or nursing, while she makes cheese. She tries to make use of her time at the cheese pot, and describes how, though her children are young yet, she will loosely homeschool them while she is stirring curds.
Since the winter, she has been trying to do a wheel of cheese a week. She says, “I don’t have a schedule at all, if I have a lot of milk in the fridge, I will be like, what can I make now?”
After her cow calved, Kaitlyn started experimenting with simple cheeses such as mozzarella, and ricotta, and just this winter, she has branched out into making hard pressed cheeses.
So far, she has made asiago, parmesan, gouda and Monterey Jack. For aging, she has been both waxing and using natural rinds, and ages them in a wine fridge.
Kaitlyn has taught herself to make cheese by following home cheesemakers on Instagram. She is also a member of Kate from Venison for Dinners insider club. She describes how both Kate and Gavin Webber, have been helpful in her cheesemaking journey. She says that she has tried to just follow recipes, but she finds it to be much harder, than actually watching someone making cheese in a video.
She laughs as she says, “I don’t know if they really even taste like they are supposed to, but so far they have been really good”. Gouda, has been her favorite so far.
When I asked Kaitlyn if she has any advice for new cheesemakers, she said, “Be ready for a big commitment, and lots of bumps along the way”. She recommends the New England Cheesemaking website, as they have a lot of good recipes.
Kaitlyn is eager for a future of cheesemaking, and she says, “I am excited for summer milk, and being able to have more milk!”.
You can follow along with Kaitlyn’s homesteading journey on Instagram @fallenoaksfarm_mn
Thank you to Kaitlyn for allowing me to share your story, and for submitting all the photos in this post.
Happy Cheesemaking!
Robyn