Press Release – Eat Local Kalamazoo Cheese Making Workshop

From a Fair Food Matters press release…

Add some culture to your kitchen with “Eat Local, Kalamazoo” cheese making workshop

Find out how easy (and delicious) it can be to make cheese in your own kitchen when “Eat Local, Kalamazoo” presents “Curds and Whey: Making Cheese at Home.” This free event will take place Tuesday, July 13 at 7 p.m. at the Kalamazoo Public Library.

Lansing-based Gary Colles (“The Cheese Guy”) will demonstrate simple recipes to make at home, using nothing more than basic kitchen equipment.

Any cheese can be made safely in one’s home, said Colles, a process that takes no special skills or equipment – a large stainless steel pot, a slotted spoon, a meat thermometer, cheesecloth and a stovetop are the necessities.

Colles said there are around 1,300 different types of cheese in the world, but most stores carry only the 30 most popular varieties. “If you want to experience more than that,” he said, “you need to make them yourself.” The July 13 demonstration will focus on making cheese curds (“squeaky cheese”) from goat’s milk.

Colles fell in love with hand-crafted cheese after a trip to England introduced him to the world-famous Stilton Cheese. British laws require that Stilton must be made from locally produced milk. After that, he said, “I had to find out more about cheese,” and as he did, “I had to start to make the different cheeses.”

Cheese making is fun, said Colles, who has been doing it for 11 years, “and you can make it taste just the way you want.”

“Eat Local, Kalamazoo,” a program of Fair Food Matters, is a season-long series of events designed to increase the community’s awareness of and appreciation for local food. It is led by a coalition of area businesses and non-profit organizations, and is sponsored by Bravo Restaurant & Café and the People’s Food Co-op.

For the latest information on upcoming events, please visit www.eatlocalkalamazoo.org.