>>Our guest today says
the language of food

and farming is like no other.

With almost a decade of
experience raising goats

and making cheese,

Gail Hobbs- Page is
passionate about a livelihood

she describes as art,
craft, animal and science.

Join us today as we
visit Caromont Farm.

Come on!

So Gail, what inspired
you to start raising goats

and making cheese?

>>I was a farm kid
from North Carolina.

I had goats growing up,
had a great career in food

and I always told myself

if I ever got to a place
in my life when I was ready

I would have goats again.

But ah...

>>And here you go.

>>And here I am.

>>So, how may goats do you have?

>>I have a milking
herd of ninety.

>>Ninety.

>>Yes. Started out with thirteen

so you see how things happen.

>>Oh my gosh.

Okay, so for the milking
process, how does that work?

How many goats are
milked at a time?

>>Well we milk at
six in the morning

and at six in the evening

and we milk twelve at a time

and we have what they
call a milk pipeline

so everything's
done mechanically.

>>And, it's important to keep
that area clean and calm,

explain why.

>>That's the biggest
thing that we've learned

is keeping everything calm

because we want as much
milk as they'll give.

>>Right.

>>And so, if
they're stressed out

and if they're worried
about their babies

or any of that stuff then
they won't give it to us.

>>Right.

>>And so we just try to keep
it very, very stress- less.

>>So how long is a goat
able to produce milk

for making cheese?

>>We like to get six
or seven lactations;

that's the period of time
that they actually give milk.

>>Is that seasons? Years?

>>Seven seasons.

>>Seven seasons.

>>With that said I have some

that are on their twelfth,
thirteenth lactation.

So...

>>That's fantastic.

>>But you always
want to have a clean,

a new source of genetics, and
younger does coming online.

>>So what happens
with the goats though

once they can't make cheese?

>>Oh, we retire them.

they get to watch
their stories and eat.

>>Well and these guys,
these girls are so friendly.

So, why are they so friendly?

>>Well we bottle raise all
of our goats meaning that...

>>(Terri laughs) Hello.

>>Hello. I have to
be part of this.

>>We bottle raise them.

We take them in 24 hours,

we take them and feed
them cows milk actually.

>>Oh wow. Oh wow.

Because you have to do that

because otherwise they
won't produce... anymore,

the milk will be gone.

>>The babies drink all the milk

and then we won't
have any for cheese.

In the early days we
used to do all of this

with five- gallon buckets

and we would have to schlep
them in and pour them over

and so you can see
this is a lot quicker.

>>Okay, Gail, before we
talk about making cheese,

let's talk about our super-
fashionable outfits here

and the importance of them.

>>This is a controlled room,

everything has to be controlled
that it comes to this room.

This is the most important
room in the plant.

>>Okay, so now, let's
talk about cheese making

from start to finish.

>>Okay, well we go by this.

>>And that is a...?

>>This is our brain This
is our brain on cheese.

>>(Terri laughs). That's great.

>>It has all the
data that we need.

It's organized in a way
that will minimize mistakes,

maximize safety.

You'll notice that there
definite cheese making steps,

the pump over of the milk,
the arrival of the milk,

the culturing of the milk,
the taking pH of the milk.

>>So what's, explain the
importance of the pH,

taking the pH of the milk.

>>Well, essentially what
we're doing a base pH reading,

acidity, pH is acidity
and we will take a reading

at the beginning we know
that our milk is at 6.8

and we're going to carefully
channel this milk down to 6.4.

At that point we're
going to add the rennet.

And what that does

is that's when it
starts forming the curd,

the infamous, proverbial
curds and then the cutting.

And that's gonna release
the whey from the milk

and the stirring is going
to create the texture.

So as long as we follow
these steps on our make sheet

then we basically guide the
milk to the end process.

>>And so what is the most
important step, would you say?

You pump the milk in,

what is really the most
important part of it?

Or are they all
equally important?

>>Well, it's like a domino
effect they all you know,

when one thing goes wrong
then the next step is wrong,

so they're all really mutually
dependent on each other

>>And you taste the milk
regularly, don't you?

>>Oh, absolutely.

You know this is craft and
observing your ingredients

because if something's off
you need to know it sooner

rather than later.

>>And what do you do
if your milk tastes,

give me an example.

>>Well, we started milking
this year a little early.

We started in January.

And it was quite cold.

The goats were not on grass yet.

They were getting hay

that's not as vibrant
as local, fresh hay.

And I felt that the milk

tasted a little
vegetable and astringent.

You know just didn't
have a full sweet flavor

that I like for my cheeses.

And so we added some
sweet feed to their diet

and the milk started
tasting a little rounder,

a little smoother.

So that's an example of that.

It's just really knowing,

seasonally how your
milk is gonna taste.

>>Right and you take
the temperature.

What is that, what
is that about?

>>The culture develops
flavor at 25 degrees celsius.

That's our target.

And that's very cool.

If it gets too hot the
culture works too fast.

>>Oh, okay.

>>If the culture works too fast

then you're really not
getting the ultimate flavor

that you want in a cheese.

And so why go to all this work
if you're gonna rush things?

>>Right. What kind of cheese
are you making in here today?

>>Well, this is going
to be Esmontonian.

It's our American Cheese
Society award winner

and we're quite proud of it.

It's a raw milk cheese meaning

that we don't heat treat
the milk in any way.

It's got a long way to go
before it's Esmontonian.

It ages for a minimum
of sixty days...

>>Okay.

>>In a controlled humidity
temperature environment.

It's really at its
peak at 90 to 120 days

so you see we're
talking process.

What we do here is
really the blueprint

for how this cheese is
gonna taste 120 days

down the road.

>>So this process here is
called agitating, right?

>>Yeah.

>>So we're hanging out...

>>Having a chat...

>>Peaceful and nice.

>>People think you have
a dream job, right?

>>A lot of times I
say my dream job,

sometimes my nightmare
but, because it is a job.

We do have to make money

and if it were just about
hanging out with the goats

and living the farm life;

it's all great,
don't get me wrong

but there are days when
things don't go right.

You know, deliveries
don't get done

or chefs send you their
order twenty minutes

before you leave the farm

or a delivery in DC goes wrong

and there are twenty
people wanting to know why

and it's out of your hands.

So, yes, it's a great
job but it's a job.

>>Right. Okay, and you
make other cheeses.

Name the other
cheeses that you make.

>>Well, we make one
cow's milk cheese

from the Silky Cow Farm milk.

We call it Red Row.

We wash that cheese
in hard apple cider

from Albemarle Cider Works.

It's our little study in Terroir

and we talk a lot about that

but it's the only cow's
milk cheese that we do

because we really
wanna perfect it, so...

>>Right and you also, it
helps to keep you season,

so all year long
you can make cheese

because you have goat, right?

>>Goat milk at certain times,

you have cow's milk
at certain times.

>>One of the things I think
that people don't really know

is that goats don't
really like to give milk

in the wintertime.

And so they really cut back.

The components in their
milk change a lot,

it gets, you know, they
are seasonal breeders

and so they want to be bred

and they don't
want to be milking.

>>Right.

>>And so we make fresh
chevre up until December 31,

which is good you know.

It gives us all a
chance to take a break

and get our wits about...

>>Yeah, it gives you a
little window of down time

before you kick in again.

>>So, Cheeses are suited
to different seasons.

There's nothing like fresh
chevre in the spring.

It's perfect with the foods
we crave that time of year.

Asparagus, mushrooms,
softshell crabs.

You know early spring.

So as we get into the summer
we take most of that milk

and we turn it into Esmontonian.

We'll have a little
bit left over,

so then we just take a short
time, a seasonal release.

In the wintertime, it's
a cow's milk cheese.

In the summertime, it's
a goat's milk cheese.

And this one is Alberine Ash,

which is the little paving stone
with the ash in the middle.

>>Oh, yum.

>>So, that's one of the things

of being a farmstead cheesemaker

that you gotta understand
is that we make the cheese

based on what the best
milk is for that season.

>>Right, well that makes sense.

>>And not the other
way around so.

>>Right.

Talk about the importance
of making it here.

This is made in
Albemarle County.

This is local cheese.

>>Well, what we set out
to do, rather naively,

I must admit, in the beginning,

was to really make
cheeses of place.

I wanted to try to make a cheese

that was expressive
of this place.

And every year as I got
deeper and deeper into it

I realized that it
was so much more

about the place making the milk

and then the milk
makes the cheese.

And if you think about
that then that is your own.

That is your copyright,
that is your trademark.

That is how no one else
can make those cheeses

and no one can take that
away from your village.

>>Right.

>>That's really the way it
works all over the world

>>Talk about the
cheese cutting process

because you were
saying to me earlier,

every time you do it,
it just amazes you.

>>Every single time I
look at it and I think,

I can't believe that worked.

Because here we have this bit
pot of milk, let's face it,

it's just a big pot
of milk right now.

And we're gonna add the
rennet, which is an enzyme,

and it's going to transform it.

It's every time you
make cheese you,

it's alchemy, you've
transformed something

into something else
and I never tire of it.

>>And then if, where are
your cheese found these days?

I believe you have a
distributor now, so...

>>I do.

We're in our eighth season

and so I started out I
did a lot of everything.

This year we work with a
few distributors locally.

Cavalier Produce
does a great job.

The Local Food Hub
also does a great job

and then up in DC I
found a small distributor

who has a lot of restaurants
and specialty shops.

And we ship as far
as New York City,

as far south as New Orleans.

So what had started out
as this little local thing

has really grown into
a regional thing.

But I'm still very proud
of how Charlottesville

and this area,
Albemarle, Nelson,

really retains
ownership of Caromont.

They really feel like this
cheese belongs to them

and that really makes me happy.

>>Yeah, well it
makes me happy, too.

I'm glad you make your cheese.

It's delicious.

>>Well thank you.

>>Thank you, Gail.