Chapter Three: Moving Milk

It was cold; the earth frozen solid and still dark outside when Joe opened the pipeline to move milk into the cheese vat. I’m bleary-eyed, but Joe is at his most cheerful this early in the morning I don’t know how that is possible - I haven’t even had coffee yet. I didn’t think to grab a cup when I was with Asa.

There’s a lightness to the air in the creamery this morning. Joe, David and I are all abuzz to create something new. We know we want the shape of a large square wheel for Bon Anniversaire, so we pull out the Bluebird molds. We open up a small fridge in a side room where Joe stores the cheese cultures - he pulls out a mix he’s put together. This mixture is an homage to Prufrock, our award winning eight ounce, washed-rind cheese.  But Joe has added a bit more funk. He empties the culture into the vat.

As the contents of the vat warm, the scent of fresh milk and warmed butter rises up through the air. As the milk warms, we laugh and clean.

There is always cleaning to be done, but we soon decide to take a break from the creamery, head over to the employee kitchen for coffee and share a bite of stale donut left over from the day before.  I really needed this cup of coffee. Isn’t it time for second breakfast yet? I look at my watch. Nope. Not even 8am.

Sincerely, until next time when we will give the milk a little culture,

Molly