Cheese Making

[Woods]

Hello, I live in Takoma Park and have started exploring cheese making (I'm an unemployed baker). Is anyone familiar with a place in metro DC where I could find cheese making supplies? There must be a way to support a local buisness without resorting to the web.

Thanks to all, Woods

[takomabaker]

Hello,  I live in Takoma Park and have started exploring cheese making (I'm an unemployed baker).  Is anyone familiar with a place in metro DC where I could find cheese making supplies?  There must be a way to support a local buisness without resorting to the web. 

Thanks to all,  Woods

←

Hi Woods,

I live in Takoma Park as well and I like to make my own cheese. I have looked locally for cheesemaking products and finally gave up. I tried our own co-op for vegetarian "rennet" as well as Trader Joe's and Rodman's. Apparently, Trader Joe's sells it on the West coast, but not over here. I ended up buying soursalt/citric acid at a kosher spice store in Flushing (my s.o. is from Queens so I am up there about once a month). I started mail ordering from cheesemaking.com for everything else.

I do buy my milk from the TPSS co-op. They don't have non-pasteurized, but they do have organic milk that is not ultra-pasteurized that they sell by the gallon. I spoke to a dairy vendor at the Farmer's market on Sunday about getting non-pasteurized milk. He told me that it is illegal to sell in Maryland, but not in Pennsylvania if you can make "arrangements" with local dairies.

Maybe someone else knows something that I don't...

[Woods]

Hello,  I live in Takoma Park and have started exploring cheese making (I'm an unemployed baker).  Is anyone familiar with a place in metro DC where I could find cheese making supplies?  There must be a way to support a local buisness without resorting to the web. 

Thanks to all,  Woods

←

Hi Woods,

I live in Takoma Park as well and I like to make my own cheese. I have looked locally for cheesemaking products and finally gave up. I tried our own co-op for vegetarian "rennet" as well as Trader Joe's and Rodman's. Apparently, Trader Joe's sells it on the West coast, but not over here. I ended up buying soursalt/citric acid at a kosher spice store in Flushing (my s.o. is from Queens so I am up there about once a month). I started mail ordering from cheesemaking.com for everything else.

I do buy my milk from the TPSS co-op. They don't have non-pasteurized, but they do have organic milk that is not ultra-pasteurized that they sell by the gallon. I spoke to a dairy vendor at the Farmer's market on Sunday about getting non-pasteurized milk. He told me that it is illegal to sell in Maryland, but not in Pennsylvania if you can make "arrangements" with local dairies.

Maybe someone else knows something that I don't...

←

Thanks, Takoma. I thought that might be the case. I'll order from that site as well. I think the next one will be feta as my wife loves it. I did get some goat camembert at the SS farmers market last week. Its good. They also had a goat bleu that is excellent. We go to Philly at least once a month so I'll do some checking and let you know.

Woods

[Malawry]

The only way to get unpasteurized milk in Maryland legally is to own a cow yourself, unfortunately. There are cooperative arrangements through which people go in together on a "share" of a cow and then share the milk it produces, but such arrangements are hard to find and regarded as of shady legality by the authorities. A search on washingtonpost.com should turn up an article on the subject that ran about 3 years ago--you'd have to pay as it's archived or look for it at a library, but it may be helpful.

Some homebrew supply shops sell some cheesemaking supplies as well, or may have ideas on where to buy them. Check this page out for a few Maryland brew supply houses: http://www.beerinfo.com/vlib/homebrew.html

The TPSS coop is generally pretty responsive to requests. I belonged there until I moved out of the community this summer. The response may be slow, but it exists. Try leaving a note in the suggestion box--I managed to get them to carry Ride-On bus passes that way.

[takomabaker]

There's a new vendor that sells cheddar cheese curds at the Takoma Park Farmer's Market. I bought some last Sunday. Yummy! The vendor suggested putting them on a baked potato, but I'm thinking about the squash blossoms from another vendor, and some tempura batter....

I also thought they would be great in risotto.

[syzygy8]

The only way to get unpasteurized milk in Maryland legally is to own a cow yourself, unfortunately. There are cooperative arrangements through which people go in together on a "share" of a cow and then share the milk it produces, but such arrangements are hard to find and regarded as of shady legality by the authorities.

←

If I recall correctly, cow sharing is completely legal in Virginia and not at all considered shady. There are a number of dairy farms out west of DC that do this. A simple google search should find them. It's the only way I know of obtaining raw milk locally without having to travel to PA.

[foodgeek]

Flushing? Are you sure? Maybe Kew Garden Hills or Forest Hills, but Flushing doesn't have kosher stores that i know of. What si the name and where is it?

Hello,  I live in Takoma Park and have started exploring cheese making (I'm an unemployed baker).  Is anyone familiar with a place in metro DC where I could find cheese making supplies?  There must be a way to support a local buisness without resorting to the web. 

Thanks to all,  Woods

←

Hi Woods,

I live in Takoma Park as well and I like to make my own cheese. I have looked locally for cheesemaking products and finally gave up. I tried our own co-op for vegetarian "rennet" as well as Trader Joe's and Rodman's. Apparently, Trader Joe's sells it on the West coast, but not over here. I ended up buying soursalt/citric acid at a kosher spice store in Flushing (my s.o. is from Queens so I am up there about once a month). I started mail ordering from cheesemaking.com for everything else.

I do buy my milk from the TPSS co-op. They don't have non-pasteurized, but they do have organic milk that is not ultra-pasteurized that they sell by the gallon. I spoke to a dairy vendor at the Farmer's market on Sunday about getting non-pasteurized milk. He told me that it is illegal to sell in Maryland, but not in Pennsylvania if you can make "arrangements" with local dairies.

Maybe someone else knows something that I don't...

←

[laniloa]

Hi Woods,

I live in Takoma Park as well and I like to make my own cheese. I have looked locally for cheesemaking products and finally gave up. I tried our own co-op for vegetarian "rennet" as well as Trader Joe's and Rodman's. Apparently, Trader Joe's sells it on the West coast, but not over here. I ended up buying soursalt/citric acid at a kosher spice store in Flushing (my s.o. is from Queens so I am up there about once a month). I started mail ordering from cheesemaking.com for everything else.

Maybe someone else knows something that I don't...

←

I've found vegetarian rennet at the Glover Park Whole Foods and sour salt/citric acid in the kosher food section of the Social Safeway and the newish Bethesda Giant.

[takomabaker]

Flushing? Are you sure? Maybe Kew Garden Hills or Forest Hills, but Flushing doesn't have kosher stores that i know of. What si the name and where is it?

Yes, it is in Flushing. My s.o. lives in Kew Gardens/Forest Hills so even though I don't know Queens really well I KNOW it isn't in that neighborhood (well, we live together in Takoma Park now, but her home is still in Kew Gardens). It was a little kosher spice store next to an Amazing Savings. I'll try to find the name of it. I'm an Irish Catholic Floridian who only knows Queens from weekend visits from DC so I don't know the street names or Jewish business community very well, but I googled the Amazing Savings store in Queens and I found out it is on Main Street in Flushing if that helps. There's a restaurant on the other side of the spice store that we used to like but it burned down. The new one that replaced it is fancier, more expensive and, in my opinion, not as good. I can't remember the name of the restaurant either. Sorry, I'm not much help.

Edited to say that I found the restaurant. It is called Grill Point. Its address is 69-54 Main Street in Flushing. So the spice store is between Grill Point and Amazing Savings. It is worth seeking out. They had some very neat stuff. I also bought some rose hip tea there, and this really yummy tahini-honey spread. MMMM....

Pretty good sleuth work from someone who has never actually lived in Queens, if I may say so!

Edited September 16, 2005 by takomabaker (log)

[slarochelle]

There's a new vendor that sells cheddar cheese curds at the Takoma Park Farmer's Market. I bought some last Sunday. Yummy! The vendor suggested putting them on a baked potato, but I'm thinking about the squash blossoms from another vendor, and some tempura batter....

I also thought they would be great in risotto.

←

Who at the TPFM sells cheese curds? I was there Sunday and couldn't find them. The goat cheese & tart people, who set up on one of the ends, directed me to the cheese vendor. I asked them and they said they can't sell their cheese curds because they are from non-pasteurized milk, and the curds are not aged 60 days. Both of those vendors have been there all summer though. I didn't anyone I would consider new.