Have no extra milk right now-getting lots of Holstein bull calves and they get first preference over me for milk.

When I do have extra milk, would like to try make cheese. Anyone have any thoughts? My daughter makes mozzarella (sp) and I guess that is easy.

Son and friend are collecting sap and cooking down in my old garage-renamed "the Sugar Shack". I tend the fire during the day. First batch got a bit thick. Still good but there is a learning curve. Sap hasn't been running all that well but maybe weather will get more cooperative.

Seems like we made cottage cheese years ago, but it's been too long ago to remember how

The wife made cottage cheese back in the 70's. I remember the taste wasn't consistent. Most was better than you got in town but some was weird. Hogs always liked it.

Don't know a thing about making cheese, but have been sugaring for quite a few years now. Just sold our equipment as we are possibly moving to another farm. Now we get to help the neighbors with their operations. Get yourself a Hygrometer, it will help you become more consistent. The one for syrup, not sap.

Mozzarella is relatively easy, but ricotta is even easier. Basically, you heat milk with salt to 185 degrees, remove from heat and add a little lemon juice or vinegar. Let it sit for 10 minutes and with a slotted spoon remove the curds to a colander lined with cheese cloth. Drain and you have ricotta. The firmness can be varied depending how much liquid you drain or squeeze out. I can dredge up an exact recipe if you'd like, you can probably find one online, or you can just wing it. The chemistry is pretty simple so it's hard to mess up.

We make cottage cheese and farmers cheese, both are very easy to make and not to time consuming.
If you think your syrup is to thick you can add some sap to it bring it back up to boil and adjust. It might darken some but will be fine. My wife prefers it thick it's easier an quicker to make jack wax. The grandkids love it.

You can have fun taking some thick syrup in to your cook stove and making candy. Gooooood sugar!

We bought a Gem Dandy butter churn, sure makes butter-making a breeze. I rob our milk of cream, feed out the skim, but make ricotta from lower fat milk too. Jersey milk has lots of solids.

There's a pamphlet, titled, "Making Cheese, Butter & Yogurt", by Ricki Carrol, that we have. It costs about 2 or 3 bucks, if I recall correctly, and you can find it online to order. You can find all kinds of books for higher prices, too. But for getting started, this one is very practical.

OK, I see on the back of it, the publisher's info:

Story (publisher)
Www.story.com

The price on the one I have says 3.95 US

There are some good web sites and most cheeses are easy. I have tried cheddar, Mots, cottage, and blue and all came out pretty well. If the milk is cheap it is a fun experiment.

Boys put an old bucket seat from a car on an old corn planter press wheel in the 'sugar shack'. I can sit with my feet up and watch 'cooking'.

hows the sap runs?

I heard that box elder trees sap is good for making thing out of. has anyone tried it? it was said the old timers in the NE sand hills planted box elder trees for that reason just wondering.

I haven't had box elder, but have had black walnut. It tastes like cotton candy.

Past Sat the temps finally cooperated and the sap ran very well. Has been very slow. Boys finished 2 gallons of syrup last evening. Very good. First small batch solidified after cooling. Seems they hit it just right with this batch.

My only task is firing the stove in the 'sugar shack'. It is nice and warm in there and smells good, too.

Boys ended up with 5 gallons of good syrup. It was fun, but like I said before, my main function was to stoke the fire in the sugar shack. And that was located in my old Model A/T Ford garage about 50 yards from the house.

Fun, interesting and tasty.