MILK ~ Hande with Care
You can find all kinds of references about milk chemistry and milk components and cheese making in general. Here is a link to a really good one that discusses the basics of flavor in cheese.
If you landed on this page you are probably reading this because you are curious why we at Jollity Farm do the things we do with milk. Why we choose to NOT use a pipeline system, not use any pumps to move milk, and not use a Bulk Tank.
It is pretty simple really. Milk is made up of proteins. Proteins break down into amino acids which, for better or for worse, is where much of the flavor in cheese comes from. Two things that denature proteins are heat and mechanical agitation. So here at Jollity Farm Goat Dairy, we do all we can to get and keep the milk cold and to not agitate it any more than necessary. It might not be the easiest way to do things, but it is how we do it.
In most commercial dairies, milk is moved via a pump in a pipeline. It is pumped into a bulk tank where it is cooled. If a bulk tank is used for storage of milk, it has to be agitated while stored. If it is moving from the farm where the milk is produced to the creamery where the cheese is made, then the milk gets pumped 3 or 4 more times: out of a tank and in to a truck, then out of the truck and in to another tank, then out of the tank and in to a giant cheese vat.
The milk we produe at Jollity Farm is made in to cheese right here. After filtering and chilling, we store our milk in 5 gallons stainless steel cans. It sits quietly in the walk in cooler until we use it to make cheese. Our cheese is always made with milk that is less than 72 hours old. No bulk tank = less agitation of the milk. Less mechanical agitation and pumping means fewer funky flavors in the final product.
On a cheese make day, the cans of cold milk are poured by hand in to the pasteurizer. When the curd is set, it is hand ladled in to cheese cloth or forms.
Does it really make a difference? We think it does. For the same reasons that store bought tomatoes never taste as good as home grown tomatoes. Shipping has a cost, not just in dollars but in freshness. You will not find fresher chevre than what you can buy at Jollity Farm.