My husband and I are looking at getting a milk cow. I'm partial to the Jerseys...but somewhere I heard that you can't make a good hard cheese (like cheddar)with jersey milk?!? This isn't true, is it? My kids LOVE homemade cheese, but the people we get milk from right now have Holsteins. We don't need that much milk...are there any other alternatives besides goats? Hubby won't touch goat milk or cheese.

-- Aleta McOmber (philipandaleta@juno.com), May 24, 2000

Answers

Gurensey cows produce a milk that makes a fine, hard cheese. High in fat, it is also great for yogurt and creme fresh (sour cream). True Cheddar is a project best left to the experts! Happy milking!

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), May 25, 2000.

We have a Jersey, but haven't tried any hard cheese. We make bag cheese and add different spices for different flavours. I prefer the kind with just salt, but anyway...We've also made cream cheese, which is really good for cheesecakes and dips. Just be careful, because some Jersey's are quite prone to milk fever. We lost one to that and our current Jersey isn't prone to milk fever, but instead lost two teats to mastitis and an incurable staff disease. My parents had a Guernsey when I was very little and really liked her!

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), May 29, 2000.

Jersey milk makes fine cheese! One thing you will want to do though, is skim the cream off first. If you just let it seperate naturally, and don't try do get every last speck of cream, the milk is still very rich, and you get the butter, too. Also, there are different feeds that affect the texture of the butterfat. I would have to look it up, but some feeds make the fat harder than others.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), May 29, 2000.

I have a Jersey cow and I made cottage cheese and Neufchatel which is delicious. I also made cheddar cheese, aged it 4 months and thought it was great too. There is a place in Vermont that makes all their cheese from Jersey milk. So give it a try, you'll love it. I can't wait for my cow to freshen in 6 weeks so I can have some goooood milk again.

-- Marlene Leiby (mleiby@caprock-spur.com), January 18, 2001.