Fording

We both paddled across the ford at Bortons Pond this afternoon on a lovely excursion away from Chez Mima. 

We haven't been able to get there for a few weeks due to road closures, so it felt a real treat. And I decided to give my feet an extra treat: refreshing icy cold water. 

(Actually it is the heat that emanates through your whole body from dried, resocked and reshoed feet after such a paddle which is the real treat.)

To my delight the recipe book containing Orkney recipes - including one for cheese - arrived in my mailbox today. 

It is a cheese recipe of the greatest simplicity, but with some elements which surprise me. For instance it is pressed for eight days. I haven't pressed any cheese for longer than 24 hours. 

And it includes no additional culture, and therefore relies on the natural bacteria in the (raw) milk for flavour. This means that the affinage (the development of flavours through ripening) of the cheese is very much dependent on the characteristics of the milk being used. 

I can follow a recipe to the letter, but I can't make North Otago pasture-fed cows produce milk that tastes the same as that from Orkney fields. But I will do my best to get a cheese which is recognisably Orkneyish.

That's next weekend's cheese-making sorted out.