Slow Food: Cheese Farm

The other week the program made a trip to a slow food farm south of Rome that specializes in a number of types of cheese. We learned, got to watch cheese being made and even have a little bit of a hand in the cheese-making ourselves.


Their Method:


One thing I found very interesting was that the farm has been essentially using the same method for hundreds of years. Specifically, I learned that in order to harden the milk into cheese it requires an enzyme to catalyze the process. The farms uses enzymes from the stomach of a goat which I found slightly odd and confusing because that doesn’t seem to be of what I would consider normal vegetarian practices. It only took a couple of minutes of the enzymes being stirred with the milk for the mixture to begin to harden into a jelly like substance. Then, mixture was broken up with a stick into smaller pieces and then strained to rid it off any excess water (this is a part of the process that we got to try ourselves).

The Taste:

We were also able to taste all of the types of cheese that the factory produces. It was apparent after the first bite the difference between the processed cheese I usually eat at home and fresh cheese. One of the main differences I found was that the fresh cheese was much less salty than your typical Kraft single. I also felt as though the majority of the fresh cheeses made at the farm had more of a muted flavor.

Trying the cheese/ezyme mixture

(Cheese after being drained)

Overall:

Visiting the cheese factory gave me a greater appreciation for slow food farmers. It’s simple, easy and most likely much more financially beneficial to succumb to the overuse of preservatives and fancy machinery in the production of foods like cheese, jams, or meat, so witnessing the factory’s respect for the animal, the philosophy and the traditional and antique process was refreshing to see firsthand.  Overall, I think our program's visit was extremely beneficial and most definitely fun.