sterling college · chapter 6: lactic and soft cheeses technology • presentation of this family...

Sterling CollegeWorking Hands.Working Minds.

Artisan Cheese Programin partnership with the Cellars at Jasper Hill

Artisan Cheesemaking course Jan 2014 2b.indd 1 10/8/13 11:10 AM

Craftsbury Common, Vermont—Founded 1789


Overview.Sterling College is offering a two-week short course in artisan cheesemaking, offered three times a year—winter, summer, and fall. This intensive program is offered in partnership with the Cellars at Jasper Hill in Greensboro, Vermont.

The program, led by world-renowned master cheesemaker and educator Ivan Larcher, is designed to provide students the practical and scientific knowledge involved in creating small-scale artisan cheese. Students will learn the full process of cheesemaking, from milk production, lactic technology, and coagulants, to salting, tasting, ripening, and cheese quality.

At workshops offered on the Sterling College campus, at the Cellars at Jasper Hill, and at the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick, Vermont, students will also learn about the business of cheese making, sales and distribution, and marketing. The program will also include visits to local producers, an overview of the history of cheesemaking in Vermont, and its influence on local food systems.


CurriCulum.CHAPter 1: Milk

• Milk’s definition

• Milk’s compositions (physical, chemical, microbiological)

• Major dairy species (cow, sheep, goat): milk’s differences and geographical repartition

• Milking mechanisms: consequences on milk’s composition and labor

• Animal diet related to milk’s composition; lactofermentation

CHAPter 2: MiCrobiology

• Fundamentals in microbiology: bacteria, viruses, yeasts, molds, pathogenic flora

• Lactic flora: use of lactic acid in cheesemaking

• Ageing flora: roles of microorganisms in cheese’s aging

• Use of supplier’s catalogs to select starter cultures for cheese production

CHAPter 3: Curdling MeCHAnisMs

• Reminders on role of lactic acid and bacteria

• Rennet and other curdling enzymes

• Coagulation with acid

• Coagulation with enzymes

CHAPter 4: ClAssifiCAtion of CHeeses

• FAO—Codex Alimentarius

• Diagram of Lenoir

• Classification according to curdling mechanisms

CHAPter 5: HeAt treAtMent And Conse-quenCes on CHeeseMAking

• Raw milk

• Thermized milk

• Pasteurized milk: STST or HTST

• Sterilized milk (UHT)

CHAPter 6: lACtiC And soft CHeeses teCHnology

• Presentation of this family

• Milk’s preparation

• Inoculation of milk

• Renneting

• Curdling and acidification

• Drainage/choice of equipment

• Salting and yeast stage (hastener)

• Drying and ageing


CHAPter 7: HArd And seMi-HArd CHeeses teCHnology

• Presentation of this family

• Milk’s preparation

• Inoculation of milk

• Renneting

• Curdling and drainage in vat

• Acidification profiles

• Salting with dry salt or brine

• Ageing

CHAPter 8: Ageing tHe CHeeses

• Aroma biogenesis

• Enzymatic activities related to flavours production

• Identification of cheeses’ characteristics for a proper aging

• Cares and works in caves

• Ageing materials and procedures

CHAPter 9: orgAnizAtion of A CHeeseMAk-ing fACility

• Regulations

• Materials

• Dairy’s organization

• Identification and surfaces of rooms required

• Flows in the dairy: products, staff, equipment, packaging, etc.

• Networks: water, electricity, gas, pressurized air

• Cooling units

• Visit of existing units

CHAPter 10: troublesHooting

• Inflations

• Pseudomonasfluorescens

• Coliforms

• Mucor

• Blue defects

• Bitterness

• Coloration defects

• Acidification defects

• Acrid flavors

Totalduration:10days,with1dayontheweekendinbetweenforvisitstolocalartisancheesemakers


instruCtOrs.Ivan Larcher is a former tutor at the Centre Fromager in Carmejane, France, a college running programs for farmhouse cheese-makers. He also ran his own courses from his training facility, in the Limousin region of France. Ivan lecturers and provides technical advice to cheesemakers in North America, Israel, Slovenia, Croatia, Spain, Morocco, Algiers, and the United Kingdom, where he has organized courses with the Specialist Cheesemakers and Duchy College. He also works closely with individual dairies and groups of artisan cheesemakers.

Anne Obelnicki is the Director of Sustainable Food Systems at Sterling College, Vermont. There, she directs the college’s acclaimed local, sustainable, and health-focused food service, as well as teach part of the Sustainable Food Systems curriculum. She holds an MS in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from Tufts University, and is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.

Mateo and Andy Kehler founded Jasper Hill in 2003. Mateo has a bachelor’s degree in economic development from Long Island University. He spent 1999-2002 working in the U.S.A., England, France, and Spain with farmstead cheesemakers producing both soft and hard cheeses, and developing recipes appropri-ate for local and regional markets in the U.S.A. He spent a year working in the cellars at Neal’s Yard Dairy in England, learning the aging and retail aspects of the farmstead cheese industry. He has worked on several

cow and sheep dairies and has the skills-base to develop and manufacture both soft and hard cow, goat and sheep’s milk cheeses. Andy Kehler is has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont in political science and philosophy. Andy worked on an agri-cultural sustainability project in Southern Chile in 1993, which included a dairy operation and piggery. He has lived in Greensboro for 12 years and worked as a building contractor and home inspector, which has given him the skills to design, build and maintain a state of the art processing facility. Andy is the Herd Manger at Jasper Hill Farm and is responsible for milk production, genetics development and grass management.


1-800-648-3591 • www.sterlingcollege.edu

living lOCal. Sterling students love living in Craftsbury Common. Our rural location is one of our most prized char-acteristics. The focal point of our iconic village is the “Common” and the quintessential New England white clapboard buildings that border it. This is also a place of innovation, and an important center for a revolution in rural food systems of small and large farms and enterprises such as Pete’s Greens, Hill Farmstead Brewery, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Jasper Hill Cheese, and Vermont Soy, just to name a few.

The “Northeast Kingdom,” as our region of Vermont is known, is an international destination for out-door sports and adventure. Downhill skiing, backpacking along the peaks of the Green Mountains, ice and rock climbing, canoeing, cycling, and fishing are just a few of the opportunities on and off the Sterling campus. The Craftsbury Outdoor Center is just a mile from campus, and is one of the leading Nordic ski and rowing centers in the nation.


registratiOn.To apply for this program, please fill out the Continuing Education application atwww.sterlingcollege.edu/continuing-education-application.html.We will then contact you about acceptance to the program, payment, and other information.

Tuition is $3,000. Room and board are not included, although we have secured special student rates at local inns.

If you have additional questions, please contact Laura Lea Berry, Coordinator of Academic Programs, at 802-586-7711 x107, or email her at [email protected].

The Jasper Hill Farm


abOut the Cellars at Jasper hill

Jasper Hill Farm was founded in 2003. The verdant agricultural landscape of the area is at the core of its economic and cultural iden-tity, typified by the small-scale family dairy farm. Unfortunately, the pressing need to preserve agricultural soils and Vermont’s working landscape is likewise punctuated by the dairy farms’ struggle to compete with a national, commodity scale market. Jasper Hill Farm was imagined as a ‘value-added’ strategy for earning a dependable and fair return on high-quality milk—a model for small-scale profitability.

Cellars at Jasper Hill is a piece of infrastructure designed to help farms reach and succeed in a national marketplace: a bridge between small-scale production and large scale markets. The building itself is a network of seven underground vaults—a total of 22,000 square feet nestled beneath the pastures where Jasper Hill’s forty Ayrshire cows graze. Each cave rests at distinct temperature and humidity lev-els, calibrated for different cheese styles. Developing wheels undergo a customized testing, tasting and affinage schedule before getting wrapped-up at their target age profile.

By offering a collection of professionally aged and marketed cheeses, Cellars at Jasper Hill allows its producers to focus on the most important aspects of their trade—quality milk production and cheesemaking technique. This focus on precision and specialization is the foundation of the Cellars aim to be the standard bearer for quality and innovation in the artisan cheese industry.


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learn mOreIntrigued? Great! You can learn all about our Continuing Education courses, as well as our undergraduate program, at our website, www.sterlingcollege.edu.

For more information on applying, housing, tuition and fees, or anything else about our Continuing Education courses, please contact Laura Lea Berry at [email protected] or at 802-586-7711 x107.

abOut sterling COllege

Founded in 1958 in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, Sterling College is a leading voice in higher education for environmental stewardship and the liberal arts. The College was among the first colleges in the United States to focus on sustainability through academic majors in Ecology, Environmental Humanities, Outdoor Education, and Sustainable Agriculture. Sterling College is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and is one of only seven federally recognized Work Colleges in the nation.


Sterling CollegeWorking Hands.Working Minds.

Po box 72Craftsbury Common, Vt 05827

www.sterlingcollege.edu

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sterling college · chapter 6: lactic and soft cheeses technology • presentation of this family...

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