With my recipe perfected at last, it started making sense to freeze our excess milk in preparation for a big batch of chevre. Two weeks and twenty-three cups later, I thawed the milk out in the fridge (and on the counter for the last couple of hours) and then whipped up the big cheese.

It looks like each quart of milk gives me about a cup of goat cheese...and a big batch is just as delicious as a small one! Five of those cups of chevre will go back in the freezer for the winter and the sixth cup will go into our bellies ASAP. (No, really --- I barely managed to put the lid on the container long enough to write this post.)

What's up next? Dr. Fankhauser's cheese tutorial suggests a basic pressed cheese or American mozarella, while my milking trainer instead recommends trying feta with the lipase she's giving when we pick up our annual lambs. Since we haven't yet rigged a cheese press, we'll probably try the feta or mozarella next, but I'm open to suggestions. What do you recommend as an easy beginner cheese?