New Cheese Making Series Starts January 11

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Rupert Photo

Our next series of cheese making classes, which will begin in January, has been posted to the Institute of Domestic Technology web site. Which means registration is now open! The series makes a great holiday gift for that person you want to inspire to make cheese for you! To learn more, click here.

bloomy cheese photo

And if you can’t wait for January, there are still a few spots in this weekend’s classes, just in time to skill up to make cheese for the holidays. Show up all of your food-crafty friends by giving beautiful jars of home made feta as holiday gifts, or showing up to a party with beautiful bloomy rind goat cheeses to share. We’ll teach you both in this Saturday’s Milkcrafting 102 class. You’ll also make a quick batch of mozzarella, and enjoy it for lunch on pizzas from our wood fired oven.

In Sunday’s Foodcrafting 102 class, you can learn to make the multi-seed crackers to pair with your cheeses. We’ll also be making chevre, hard apple cider, and pickled carrots. The cider is especially easy and makes a great shelf-stable gift, and is a great pairing with cheese.

At Mariposa Creamery, we don’t sell any cheese. Our goal is to teach you to make your own! To that end, we have spent a lot of time testing commercially available milks for cheese making. We recommend Summerhill (available at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods) for goat cheeses and Straus Organic Cream Top (available at Whole Foods) for cow’s milk cheeses. And here’s a tip: that Straus Organic Cream Top milk is also available at Trader Joe’s and is less expensive there–it’s just private labeled for Trader Joe’s. Although we don’t know why anyone would want to live without goats, it’s not necessary to be a successful home cheese maker. We are blessed in California with the availability of high quality and humanely produced milks in our grocery stores.

Poppyseed Buckwheat

Proceeds from our cheese making classes support our herd in Altadena, our Dairy Internship program, and our project to build a regenerative goat dairy in the Angeles National Forest at Angeles Crest Creamery. Thank you for supporting our goal of developing local, sustainable and humane dairying in Los Angeles!

If you have any questions about our classes, Farmstay, Internships or other projects, send us a note at mariposacreamery@yahoo.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Gloria & Steve

Next Series of Cheese Making Classes Posted!

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3 ladies cheesemaking

Every quarter we repeat our series of 3 day-long cheese making classes covering everything from yogurt to Gouda. Our next series will start with Milkcrafting 101 on October 12. Sign up for an individual class, or for the whole series.

Goat Milking Lesson - Cella

Want to stay overnight and help milk the goats in the morning before class? Check our Farmstay calendar and book your stay in our Airstream Bambi.

Any questions? Just send us a note at mariposacreamery@yahoo.com.

Our classes and Farmstays help fund the Mariposa Creamery Internship program and our project at Angeles Crest Creamery. Thank you for your support!

Come Hang with the Herd!

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Come Hang with the Herd!

We are opening our gates Saturday December 29th from 1pm-4pm for a free community open house. Come play with the goats. Attend a cheese making demo in the Creamery at 2pm. There will be a short talk about suburban goat keeping at 3pm, also in the Creamery. Forecast shows a chance of rain, so wear your boots!

Mariposa Creamery at the Zane Grey Estate – 396 E Mariposa Street – Altadena, CA 91001 – Parking on Mariposa Street

Where did this year go?

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Oh my. I’ve been busy on our facebook page but not very diligent about posting here. In fact it’s been almost a year to the day. Here’s a very brief review of what’s going on around here:

  • Our cheesemaking classes have been packed and keeping us very busy. We continue to teach our 3-part series through the Institute of Domestic Technology. The fall series is mostly sold out at this point, but there is a new series starting in January 2013.
  • Our cheesemaking classes have recently been featured in both Bon Appetit and Los Angeles Magazine! See our Press page for some links, but both of these complete pieces are only available in the print versions of the magazines.
  • We had 4 perfect babies in the spring: Apple (in image), Poppyseed, Honeybee, and Chewy. There are many many photos of all 4 on our facebook page.
  • We have been working toward opening our new restaurant in Altadena and recently finished the drawings for our Conditional Use Permit Application. We expect to file our application with LA County by the end of the year.
  • We bought 70 acres in the Angeles National Forrest where we plan to expand our goating and make cheese for both of our restaurants. The new project is called Angeles Crest Creamery, and you can see photos here.
  • Also, I continue to go to work every day as Director of Sales for Truesense Imaging.

When I review this list, I don’t feel so bad for not posting more!

Milkcrafting 102 this Saturday

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We are super excited to be preparing the menu and cheese makes for this weekend’s Milkcrafting 102 class. This is the 2nd class in the 3-part series, and the class in which we teach anyone who wants to learn how to make our award-winning Mariposa Bijou mold-ripened goat cheese. Here’s the full text on the class. As of this morning, there was exactly 1 spot left. If you want it, go here. Its okay if you haven’t taken 101 yet.

The Institute of Domestic Technology: Milkcrafting 102

Mariposa Creamery, Altadena

Saturday, November 12, 2011, 9:30am – 2:00pm

9:30am                 Check in & continental breakfast

Snack                  Monkey & Son coffee served with fresh goat’s milk

                             Oatmeal scones served with chevre

                             Service will take place in the Solarium

9:45am                 Introductions

10:00am               Feta make using pasteurized goat milk from Summerhill Goat Dairy

Taste                  Fresh goat milk vs chevre vs mold ripened vs feta

                            (a lesson in flavor development)

11:00am               Mozzarella make using Organic Pastures raw cow milk

12:00pm               Lunch

Meal                     Salad of seasonal greens, garden arugula and feta cheese

                             Roasted red pepper soup with crème fraiche from The Press

                             Vegetable dish TBD based on locally available ingredients

                             Pizza with class-made mozzarella, basil from our herb garden

                             Famous Press Restaurant chocolate chip cookie, served warm                

1:00pm             Demonstration of making Mariposa Creamery’s award winning                                              Mariposa Bijou, a mold-riped goat cheese in the spirit of the typical                                        cheese of  Provence

Taste               A selection of mold-ripened goats and camembert-style cheeses                                 with both classic and unexpected wine pairings; discussion of                                     basic pairing and tasting methodologies

2:00pm                 Graduation

We will provide a tour of the goat farm and answer questions about goats and urban dairying immediately after class for any interested students.

Saturday Workshop: Goat Keeping for Dairy in Los Angeles

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I have this fantasy that 5 years from now we have a dozen or more families in Altadena operating homestead dairies. We buy and store hay collectively, share breeding stock, document local best practices, and coordinate vet visits so we can convince a real goat vet that its worth his time to come all the way out to Altadena. A girl can dream, right? Also, a girl can hold a workshop.

Here are the details:

Goat curious? Live in LA County? Interested in providing your family with milk, yogurt, cheese and butter from your own homestead dairy? Come learn more at this introductory workshop at Mariposa Creamery in Altadena. We will cover the legal and practical aspects of suburban dairying—from zoning to fencing and feed. Learn about the time investment and the benefits so you can decide if home dairying is right for your family. Tour a working home dairy in action and meet the goats.

This workshop is free and registration is not required. But you can rsvp on our facebook event page if you like:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135516213216348

10am – 12pm, Saturday, October 29th
Mariposa Creamery at the Zane Grey Estate
396 E Mariposa Street, Altadena

Mariposa Industries, Charcuterie Division

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Last week while I was in Rochester, Steve and Kazi made sausages. This is our second sausage make here this fall. We have started to enjoy the chorizo from the last make. The sopressata looked great fermenting in the pantry. Last night they moved it into the basement to dry.DSC_0316