I thought you might enjoy a day in the life of a cheese maker preparing for the Farmers Market! John has it easier than some folks, because we have an abundance of GREAT farm markets close to Tecumseh. Four Corners Creamery currently attends Saline, Ann Arbor, Canton and Blissfield at Hathaway House, all of which are 25 miles or less away. These are nice markets that are committed to offering locally made goods.
At Four Corners, John makes about 450 lbs of cheese per week, but we bump up Fresh Mozzarella production in the spring and summer months another 100 lbs. Our production runs Tuesday-Friday every week. John makes both cow milk and goat milk cheeses and yogurt. Some of our cheeses age up to a month, but we focus on fresh. The philosophy behind this is simple: fresh cheese is healthy, tastes great and remains affordable. We want everyone to be able to afford a round of fresh goat cheese every week! Ounce per ounce, we are about the same price as a large scale (think millions of lbs!) goat cheese producer!
When milk prices fluxcuate (it's on the commodity market) we can keep our prices the same.
So, the cheese is made, drained and packaging begins...each fresh goat cheese round is hand formed, sprinkled with a mild herb blend and wrapped in plastic. About 200 of them, each at approximately 6 ounces!
Each aged goat log is inoculated, drained and hand formed into a triangle shaped log and set to aging for about 3 weeks in a separate area. The already aged logs are weighed and cut into 6 oz. pieces and wrapped for sale.
The "Northern Lights" is a fresh cow milk spread that is drained, mixed with salt, garlic, paprika and ground peppercorns and is ready for sale 12 hours later.
Our cream is allowed to ripen overnight and our butter is lightly salted with sea salt.
It's a busy week during the farmers Market season, we love it! The people, the recipes, the vendors, the FOOD! It's an amazing process to be involved in!
Thanks for buying our cheeses and enjoying them...we make them just for you!
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