Emergency cheese

We are slowly making progress in setting up our lunchroom and cheese factory. The architectural plans for the renovation are finished. We are in the process of selecting a contractor for building the extra floor on top of the house . Under Michel’s supervision improvements are made to the exterior of the gardens. A huge wall of 4 meter high and 25 meter long is being build to make sure the back garden does not end up at the neighbor yard, which is much lower than our place.

At home we are making yoghurt and fresh cheese to try out the milk. Also we try to get goat milk, which is very difficult. In the mean time everyone is asking when the cheese will be available. Specifically the local pizzeria, who now gets all his cheese from Kampala (300 km away). On his specially request we made mozzarella. We tried several times to get it right and proudly we let the pizzeria test it. The Italian owner is very happy with the cheese. We agree we would only start to make big amounts when the cheese factory was finished, but can make 6 kg in our kitchen in case of emergency.

Four days later… the pizzeria has an emergency. The mozzarella, send deep frozen by bus from Kampala, got lost. When found back the next day, it was spoiled. At 13.00 we get a call if we can make 6 kg of mozzarella, otherwise they might not have enough.

Our first order! We are so proud. Eight hours later we are less proud. We are not equipped to handled big amounts in our small kitchen. We are completely exhausted and the kitchen is a mess, whey and curd everywhere. With headlamps on (since the electricity was cut half way) we made in three batches of 20 liters of milk the mozzarella. At 21.30 we drive off to the pizzeria , who is very happy to see us, since the mozzarella just got finished 15 minutes ago. But we tell him we are never going to do this again unless the cheese factory is finished. The rest of the evening we spend at least half of our profit on pizza and drinks.

Very proud we tell everybody, they are eating our cheese. Victory and a big lesson on making larger amounts of cheese. We keep the cheese activities low profile for the time being.