Tag: goat cheese

Goat cheese and holistic grazing

‘Knark, knark, knark’. If you listen carefully, this is the sound of dandelions having their heads chopped off by eager goats.

A fresh piece of land has just been released for the goats. For the last eight weeks the land has rested giving way to new vegetation. This rotation of grassland is also called holistic grazing.

One Sunday morning, I visited Copenhagen Goat Milk, one of the newest farmstead dairies in Denmark.

‘My goats and holistic grazing are two of my favourite subjects,’ says Claus Christoffersen.

In 2017, Claus and Summer bought a house in the countryside with 13 ha / 32 ac. This is also the home for their two children who now are seven and fifteen. This morning we are sitting in the courtyard with the most beautiful and deliciously arranged cheese board with bread. For a moment I feel time has paused. Pure idyll!

Hard work

But it’s also pretty obvious that the dream about goats and dairy doesn’t come easy. Claus used to work as an accountant and this has taught him to gather and process information. Indeed the ability to acquire new material has proven vital when you decide to make cheese. With a background in the military and from elite cycling he knows how to opmitise things. As well as – at least this is what I believe – how to set a goal and fight to obtain it.

No doubt, it’s hard work to keep track of 130 goats, 100 hens, a dairy and recently also a farm outlet. And yet, a day still counts 24 hours.

Goats are cultural heritage

You need to start from the beginning, also when you want to create your own flock of goats. The breed is Danish landrace (‘dansk landrace’) which is currently on the UN list of endangered animal species. Right now there are 3-400 goats in Denmark. In the beginning, Claus and Summer bought a few goats here and another few goats there and now they have started to breed on their own animals. Right now they have four male goats, 48 milking goats and 78 baby goats.

This type of goat fits to the Danish climate, they loose their wool in the summer and can handle winter and snow with their winter fur. At Copenhagen Goat Milk, they goats decide themselves whether they want to be in or out. The less stress, the better milk quality.

Baby goats and their mothers

It’s quite rare these days that you see a dairy cow/sheep/goat together with their kids. But here they spend the day together and the nights apart. After the morning milking, they graze together again. The goats give of course less milk but this is how they have decided to do it until the kids are three-four months old.

Before every goat had its own name but this year there are too many…

What is holistic grazing?

When we talk about grazing, it is obvious that Claus has more at heart. He uses the tecnique called holistic grazing which means that you continously change the grazing area leaving some parts to rest.

The goats are only allowed to a new area after six to eight weeks of rest. This allows topsoil to come which again holds on the water. Roots get longer and new leaves grow. Actually, more CO2 is contained. The goats get a new fresh area every day which means more milk and higher quality.

Claus moves the poles a bit every day and invites the goats to fresh grass and dandelions. In return, the goats munch in concentrated silence.

Dandelion improves digestion, Claus tells. He likes diversity in the weeds on the fields.

Grass and ruminants is a match made in heaven!

Claus Christoffersen

Weeds, grass and branches is a treat for goats.

Habits and character

Goats are curious and fun animals. They watch us closely until one is brave enough to come over to pinch my hand and clothes.

Claus explains that they go the same place every time they are about to be milked which is every morning.

Swallows fly around inside the stable. They eat flies and thus help Claus to avoid insecticides.

This is not so easy. Finally, milk comes out, even though it points in all directions.

How to learn to make cheese

The original entrance of the house and a bedroom is now turned into a small dairy.

Summer was born in Thailand and nobody would have thought her future career was to be a cheese master. Nonetheless, here she is: Making cheeses and yoghurt in her own farmstead dairy. She learned by reading, talking to others and above all watching Youtube videos.

Gently she pours the curd into the moulds.

To test, observe and learn. Summer has now acheived her own expression.

The cheeses

Look at this amazingly beatiful cheese board:

Small round snack cheeses in oil and herbs are in the bowl. Followed by beautiful fresh cheeses decorated with thyme/chives/lavender & dandelion. Behind a moulded chèvre with two different ages.

Would you like to taste?

Right now you have to be in Denmark to taste the cheeses. Visit the farm outlet (find the address and opening hours on facebook. You may also find their cheeses at local markets and restaurants. At the farm, apart from cheese you can buy icecream and soap.

Dairy to the left and outlet to the right.

On their list of future projects they have organic and raw milk cheeses and I can’t wait to follow them along their future road. Good luck!!!

28. June 2019
A fresh goat cheese snack
At Easter we celebrated a big birthday in the family. We started outside in the late afternoon sun with cool white wine in the glasses, small goat cheese snacks and tasteful sausages I had bought in Amsterdam.

I mixed the fresh goat cheese with honey and crème fraîche / sour cream. You can adjust the taste and texture as you like by changing the amounts. Furthermore, I was in the garden to find dandelions which I have decided to embrace this summer and enjoy in salads and snacks in stead of getting stressed about it.

Fresh goat cheese snack
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Ingredients (snacks for min. 20 persons)
- 200 g / 7 oz fresh goat cheese
- 50 g /1.75 oz crème fraîche / sour cream
- 1 tbsp honey
- freshly grind pepper
- crispbread
- blue berries
- fresh thyme, leaves from
- dandelion, leaves from
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method
- Mix goat cheese with sour cream and adjust the taste med honey and pepper.
- Break the crispbread into the sizes you want. Add the cream on top (you may want to use a piping bag).
- Decorate with blue berries, leaves from thyme and dandelion.
The sausages come from a small Dutch company called Brandt & Levie. Three friends who were also chefs began eight years ago to make their own sausages and other meat products from pigs. They went to Italy to learn how to make dry sausages. All pigs are organic, free range and from the Netherlands. Every single part on the pig is used for something. For instance the pig hoofs are used for soap. Their vision is to make as natural and homemade products as possible. Needless to say, the taste is great.
1. May 2019
Goat cheese collab
With the arrival of baby goats, spring is back and the new season for goat cheese starts. Typically, fresh goat cheeses are more creamy during spring.

A group of cheese influencers decided to pay tribute to goat cheese by posting simultaneously on instagram on April 24, 9 AM CT.

Instagram collab

The idea was simple: Post a pairing or a recipe. Of course the results are as different as the persons behind – take a look at the photos below. I invite you to visit the instagram profiles and read about the goat cheese post and see more cheese shots.
26. April 2019
Spanish goat cheese with pepper

Or: There is always a cheese moment around the corner.

My husband and I were on a short getaway in Andalusia (south of Spain). We were driving around in the mountains when he suddenly stopped the car and pointed at a sign. It was a little rusty but the words were clear: Four kilometers (2.5 miles) away was the farm dairy Cortijo Júrtiga. Of course we had to check it out and turned onto a dirt road.

Cool mountain air and silence met us when we stopped. A dog was barking somewhere and a motor was running. We saw several buildings and found the door to the cheese shop.

Welcome

Julia opened the door. She invited us into the small shop and told us about the family farm where they make goat cheese of unpasteurized milk from their own goats. They produce the Spanish fresh cheese requesón (ricotta style) as well as small round cheeses matured for 60 days. The cheeses mature as they are or with black pepper, paprika, thyme, rosemary or in olive oil.

While we tasted, she explained that the farm had been in the family for many years and they had always had a few goats and produced cheese for their own consumption. Six or seven years ago they started to make cheese to sell and it has grown year by year. She is the one who converts milk to cheese every day at 7 am in the small dairy.

Goat cycle

Today the family owns 1400 goats of the local breed Granadino-Murciano, renowned for its milk. They give 1½-2 liters milk pr milking (0.4-0.5 gallons) for 5-6 months a year (in total 500-600 liter per year or 130-160 gallons). In order to have milk all year round they make sure the cycles are parallel.

Every single day two shepherds take the goats out to feed in the area among oaks and olive trees. In the late afternoon they head home for the second milking. The cheeses don’t have an organic label but they might as well…

Notice that the goats have eaten all they have within their reach

Grass turns to hay and is given to the goats. Everything is made by the family.

Cheese and pepper

Of course we bought several cheeses. The combination of the fresh acidic goat cheese and warm pepper is quite interesting.

Do you want to see the farm dairy?

If you are in Andalusia you can find your way to the small diary. Check out how right here.

You can also read more about the dairy here.

5. April 2019