Humble
Batch 1 Humble. 60 days. 2023.
We’ve been making this little love since our first season of cheese at Parish Hill. A simple washed rind tomme , Humble’s heritage lies in the cheeses of French and Belgian monasteries from as far back as the Middle Ages. Humble happens most Fridays.
The raw milk for our cheese is held no more than 20 hours. Evening milk is minimally cooled to preserve microbial activity for fermentation, and we are at the milk house as soon as the morning milk is in the tank. Peter hauls it back to the cheese house posthaste, gravity feeding into the vat, heating it just a bit before adding our autochthonous bacterial culture to boost the level of naturally occurring lactic bacteria. Back when we were getting started we were adding a quart or more, but it didn’t take long to figure out how lively our milk is. We don’t want precipitous acidification, and it only takes a bit for the pH to start to drop.
Calf rennet is our coagulant. Flocculation and cut. A brief rest and then a slow gentle stir until the curds are firmed up and ready for hooping. By the time we’re done cleaning up the wheels are ready for a flip. We’ll return for a final flip and pH. The next morning we unhoop and salt the lovelies. On Sunday they’ll be moved into the cellar where Alex will turn and wash them every other day for a couple months.
Yes. She washes them. Every October we glean apples from the orchard where Peter once picked and pruned. Friends gather for a party, to eat and dance, and to help press the fruit into gallons and gallons of sweet cider. Everyone has their fill, and there’s always plenty left to fill our carboys. Then we wait patiently for extant yeasts to spontaneously ferment the cider with which Alex washes each and every lovely wheel.
Humble has changed over the years. Nee Humble Herdsman, we shortened its moniker to quash confusion between a dear little 4 pound wheel and the 25 pound beast that is the Vermont Herdsman. These days we keep the hoops on overnight to rein in the urge to spread out: keeps the rind to paste ratio lower, and slows the ripening a bit.
And at the behest of some very smart mongers, we release batches after 60 days, instead of the 4 months I initially insisted on. Young Humble is pudgy, bright, and delightful. As it ages, the gentle funk escalates and low, vegetal notes take over. That said, I do still love an extra-aged footy, powerful rascal when one sticks around long enough.
