It was 8am and my children were still sleeping, a phenomenon, that I was not used to. Sipping my coffee in peace, I opened up my computer and dialled into a zoom meeting. It wasn’t long after, that Susanna logged on and we began our chat; A chat between cheesemakers, and mothers, that has stuck with me since.
Susanna Glick, mother of 7, wife, and cheesemaker. Susanna grew up on a dairy farm in Northern, NY.
Growing up, Susannas father, a dairy farmer, kept holstein cows, and one Guernsey cow. This Guernsey cow, was mixed in with the bunch, but its milk was not meant for sale, rather, it was meant to be for house milk. With a dumping station milk system, they were able to keep this Guernseys milk for the family. Her father could taste the difference, plus, with a high butterfat content, her mother could make butter.
Susanna grew up learning to make butter and schmierkase from her mother. When she was 12 years old, the family sold all of the dairy cows, and got one jersey for house milk. Susanna and her father would share the hand milking responsibility, with Susanna milking in the evening and her father in the morning. She says, “that’s where I learned to just really enjoy milking, I’ve always enjoyed animals”.
It was 12 years ago, when Susannas second youngest son was born, that Susanna really started to take an interest in raw dairy.
A healthy baby boy, born at home, he had a standard PKU test done. Susanna says, “it came back really, really bad, according to them, he should have been dying”. They phoned and said that he needed to be in the hospital immediately. Susanna and her husband had not been concerned with his health at all. He was maintaining weight, and though he was a fussy baby, he was otherwise healthy to their eyes. In the end, it was a false alarm.
I laughed as Susanna recounted how it had accidentally had coffee spilled on it, and had been sent a few days late, all of which had contributed to a false test score. She said that they redid the PKU test and it was low, but still in a fairly normal range. While they were at it, they also did a DNA test on Susanna and her husband. What they found? They both had the gene for lactose intolerance. The doctors recommended that they stay off of dairy for the first two years of their sons life to give his body a chance to be able to tolerate the lactose.
Susanna had never noticed a dairy intolerance. She grew up consuming only raw dairy. The only hint that the gene could have been present in her family, was her brother. He had noticed that he was lactose intolerant later in his life after leaving the farm. Once he had left home and was buying milk, and consuming store bought cheese, he started to have problems.
Susanna said that this was where her interest in home dairy really started. It became apparent as we chatted, that raw dairy has helped the family in more ways than one over the years.
Susannas daughter struggled with health problems for many years. She gained little weight, had skin problems, and dealt with extreme pain. She was diagnosed with Fibre Myalgia and lactose intolerance, and the family started researching foods, that would help her with this. It turned out, that Raw Milk, is listed as one of the foods that is good for Fibre Myalgia.
Without access to raw dairy, the family made the difficult decision to go without milk.
Fast-forward to a few years later. After not having milk for 2 years, a friend of Susannas was looking into starting a raw dairy farm. He was still getting set up and ready when his first heifer calved and came into milk. He knew that Susanna was looking into finding raw dairy, so he offered this heifer up to the family to milk in the interim, while he finished setting up his dairy farm.
And just like that, Susanna started making cheese. She says, “When I started, I didn’t have access to the internet. It was just learn! I knew how to make butter from my mom, and schmierkase. Thats what I would make. Well, then I got a mozzarella making kit.”. Susanna learnt a lot from Ricki Carrolls book, “Home Cheesemaking”. A book she says, that is packed with information, and influenced by small scale production and homesteading.
After years of no dairy, I could hear the excitement in Susannas voice as she told me “We could actually have pizza for supper! When you can’t have cheese, you don’t have pizza!”.
Susanna started by making her mozzarella in the microwave and tweaked her recipe until she had figured out how to make her string cheese salty enough. We compared our mozzarella salting techniques, and I was excited to find that the brine salting method, I recently started using, was a method she started using years ago.
Even after their cow was returned to the dairy, Susanna was still able to get raw milk. While their friend started his dairy, he was still working through regulations. He was milking 10-20 cows, but could not sell any of the milk. Susanna says that this is when she really made a lot of cheese, with one month that she processed 120 gallons!
Today, Susanna lists her main cheeses that she makes as Mozzarella, Velvita, and Colby. For the most part, she stores her cheeses in the freezer. The family moved three years ago, and their new home does not have a great place to age cheese, one that is mouse proof anyway.
When Susanna started making cheese, her oldest was only 11. I asked if she had any tips for getting it all done with small children. She said, “They helped a lot. Especially with the schmeirkase. They would crumble the curds, but some of it was just taking the whey out to the pigs.”.
Time management was key to Susanna being able to make cheese with small children in tow, she says;
People think that cheesemaking takes a lot of time. But really, it doesn’t take anymore time then making bread. It’s just you have to learn to work it into your schedule. You start it, and you let it sit for an hour. You can go do something else while you wait. You don’t have to be there with the cheese all the time, You know, like bread. You mix it up, you let it sit for awhile, come back and you bake it”.
Susanna would line up her cheesemaking to have the stirring time land on nap times, or at less busy times of the day.
12 years later, and Susanna has still managed to maintain a raw milk source, something that is driven by both the families need for the milk, and her passion for cheesemaking. “I really enjoy making cheese, even if it’s just for my family. I know we don’t have a cow right now, but I find milk”.
Susanna now sources her milk from a friend that has a jersey who had twins last year. About once a week, Susanna drives the 45 min to pick up Raw milk from her friend. She says, “At $2 gallon, it’s worth it!”. This relationship works great for her friends, as otherwise they would dump the milk to the pigs.
Susanna is stocking her freezer full of cheese with hopes that when her friends cow goes down in production, or is dry, the family will have enough cheese to get them through to the next raw milk source.
As far as Susannas daughter goes, the raw milk has helped her. Susanna says, “she needs it. Like, she can’t cope without the raw milk. The fat from the raw milk helps her to digest everything else”.
Two years ago, Susannas second oldest son, Kyle, passed away from cancer. During Kyles diagnosis and treatment, the family focused heavily on feeding him whole food. Susanna says, “He had some good years, because by then, we had been far enough along in our journey to know that food makes a difference, you know, real food. Because I had been making cheese and butter and all of this stuff, he was allowed to have that because it was whole food”.
Susanna ended our interview with some encouraging words for home cheesemakers.
You learn something the whole way through. I look back, and I know it was really hard for me to go without dairy. And it was really hard for me to think of making all of our own cheese. I mean, I was excited about it, but it’s still something really hard. But, you know, that was a step on the way to making all of our own food for our son when he had cancer.
You know, it’s like you learn, there is never wasted time in your life, and no pain or hardship is ever wasted.
You can follow along with Susannas Cheesemaking journey on instagram @susannajoyglick
Thank you to Susanna for allowing me to share your story, and for submitting all of the photos in this post.
Happy Cheesemaking!
Robyn
Would you like to learn to make cheese? Check out my Homestead Cheesemaking 101 Course.