Laughing Thyme Farm: Living the Dream

I’m currently in the process of making some homemade cream cheese and whey.  While I’m gathering that MOST people would do this in order to get the cream cheese, I’m odd and am doing this process to get the whey.  No, I don’t want to be Miss Muffet.  I just want to be healthy. 

I’ve been somewhat of a cultured dairy product fan since last winter when we made it illness-free.  I REALLY believe that this is due to the kefir that I had the kids drink at least once a week or more if they “looked funny”.  Last winter I went on a venture of trying out piima culture for health reasons.  I only got to the starter culture process.  I can’t remember what prevented me from venturing further into it than I did.  It may have been my teeny-tiny kitchen at the apt. we were in.  Maybe it was my miscarriage?  I really can’t remember. 

But here are the processes that one can go through in order to get some cultured milk products:

1. Make piima starter culture.  Very easy.  Buy a packet of piima culture on the internet and stick it in some good quality cream that hasn’t been ultra-pasteurized.  It sits out on your countertop for a day or so until it gets thicker. 

2.  Take the said piima starter culture and make:

- piima milk

-piima cream

3.  From piima milk make:

-whey

-cream cheese

or from piima cream make:

-butter

-buttermilk

Of course you can always make a super-healthy smoothie too. 

Benefits of above cultured milk products:

- provides your body with the beneficial GOOD bacteria that kick bad bacteria’s butt. 

- vitamin B and C content are higher than in “regular” store-bought milk

-beneficial lactic acid is increased

-better bone structure found in cultures who have used fermented milk products

-whey helps with digestion

-whey is good for elastic ligaments and moveable joints

-whey is beneficial for stomach ailments

-whey is used in an ancient method of preserving food

That’s enough for now!  But what I have done this time around is make the piima culture and then the piima milk.  Then today I started the process to make the cream cheese and whey.  I put a strainer and CLEAN dishtowel over a bowl and then poured the piima milk on top.  The piima milk had been sitting out for a day.  It was a lot like yogurt in texture.  Today it’s been dripping away.  I have quite a bit of whey, which I’m happy about. 

I’m going to use the whey to make some lacto-fermented vegetables.  My first two trials in this will be Ginger Carrots and Pickled Daikon Radish.  The carrots are because it sounds good.  The radish is because I accidentally picked up the wrong vegetable at the store.  Long story…

But anyway, by the end of today I should have some cream cheese and whey.  I wish that I could post pictures, but once again no camera.  We hope to buy one in a month or so, depending on a couple of things. 

This is all stuff that I learned from the book, Nourishing Traditions.