It all started in 2005 when FarmHER Kate Johnson and her family moved from suburbia to a small five-acre farm in Longmont, Colorado. Her daughter began showing goats in the local 4-H, and their goat herd grew over time. With plenty of milk, Kate started to make cheese.
In addition to being an award-winning artisan home cheesemaker, Kate is a Board Certified Life Coach with a B.S. in psychology and an M.A. in counseling. She stays involved in the community as an active member of our local 4-H program, co-leading “Goats & Galore” (Boulder County’s largest 4-H club) and serving as the Utility Goat Superintendent for the Boulder County Fair. She is also an active member of the Colorado Dairy Goat Association.
The Story of a CheesemakHER
Farming and food go hand in hand….or maybe they are more like a hand and a glove. You have to have one to have one to have the other. Our visit to Kate Johnson took this food and farming partnership to a whole new level. Kate, who moved from suburbia to a hobby farm on the outskirts of Longmont, Colorado, with her family years ago, got started in farming when her daughter started showing goats with 4-H.
As we’ve heard before, those goats led to more, and the hobby became more of a profession. Finding herself with plenty of extra milk from the family’s goats, Kate decided to start making some cheese. Just like the goats, that cheese led to more cheese, and she didn’t stop there. Soon, Kate found herself in the role of teaching others about her craft and formed The Art of Cheese, a school in which she teaches regular classes on creating all kinds of cheeses for all levels of chefs, from all types of milk.
On the day we visited Kate at her farm, we met up with her just as she was getting ready to milk a few of the new mothers. We followed her through the milking and then watched and even helped a bit as she bottle fed those cute new kids (this is something I could do all day long - sign me up as a full-time kid nanny!!).
As she was finishing up milking, her friends started to arrive for the Cheesemaking 101 course she was about to teach in her kitchen. Kate carried in the milk as her friends followed her inside. As everyone washed hands, I could hear the buzz of excitement in their voices about the fact that we were going to make our very own CHEESE! The group was seated around the kitchen island, and we listened as Kate told us some of the basics of making cheese. From pasteurization to homogenization, we learned just enough to get going. We started in with the Chèvre cheese, adding the rennet and cultures to the milk before letting it sit to drain.
She jumped us forward in the process with a batch that had been draining overnight, and we each formed our own little log of Chèvre - some mixing in honey while others rolled it in a mixture of herbs. I have to tell you, it was GOOD. Probably the best Chèvre I have ever had! Next up was ricotta. I had been working with my neighbor to stir the goat’s milk as it heated up to 263 degrees, so it was pasteurized. As soon as it hit that point, Kate put in the vinegar—and boom—we had ricotta. She added her magic trick (BUTTER), and we all enjoyed a cup of warm, fresh, and delicious ricotta. What she did next was nothing short of wonderful - she took half of the ricotta, added some melted chocolate, introduced it to a food processor, and we had ourselves a wonderful dessert!
This was hands down the coolest farm-to-kitchen experience I have ever had - from the goat to the cheese and every step in between!
Kate talks about teaching a cheesy lesson here.
