I have been making goat cheese for 10 years and The Cheesemaker's Manual by Margaret Morris is an excellent book to read if you are thinking of making cheeses. Margaret owns Glengarry Cheesemaking and Dairy Supply in Ontario,Canada. Her website is glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca. There is also a cheesemaking supply company in Massachusetts, New England Cheesemaking Supply. I would read as much as you can about the craft to see if it is for you. I started with the soft cheeses such as chevre and feta and now use my winter milk to make hard textured cheeses (Romano, Parmesan) that need to age 6 months at least. I sell my cheeses at a farmer's market in the summer. But, regulations differ from state to state, and running a commercial dairy is a pretty big undertaking. I am just small time but considered a larger operation until I saw all of the regulations and cost involved. Read as much as you can about the subject before you jump in. Cheesemaking is fun, but is time consuming like any hobby. Maybe you could go visit some goat farms near you to see what is entailed in owning and milking goats. Good luck. Bonnie

Hello Hamiltongardener, Thank you for taking the time to look up info for me! The lake is pretty clean and is always being tested. It is pretty normal for the geese to eat other than it's aquatic foods. People with grass have avery hard time here because they love to eat grass. That is why they usually hang around golf courses. I do not have grass, so I never really had them coming up on my yard before except to maybe cross my yard to get to someone elses grass. BUt I have been here for 2 gardening seasons now and they never bothered the garden, but I only had my tomatoes,peppers,pumpkins,squash and herbs. Like I said, the seem to like all the leafy veggies, because when this happened this year, they left the pumpkins alone. So I was hoping that they would not like the tomato plants, also because they have a strong oder to them. I thought I heard once that tomato plant leaves were posionous to some animals? I can always give in and get a goose repellent to make a barrier, but I really would like to avoid that so not to pollute my lake. So confused! Christy

DC, the idea of a wood plane actually sounds intriguing. Does it hold up to washing? Lars, I'm going to give the vegetable peeler idea a try. I'm with you about buying pre-sliced Swiss & Provolone. Actually, I buy the sliced Swiss for sandwiches and then use my food processor to shred a block of Swiss that I keep in the freezer. When I use grated cheese, I combine the naturally low sodium Swiss with Cheddar or Mozzarella. However, if I use fresh mozz, it's so low in sodium that I don't have to combine it with anything else. Thanks for your ideas. Maybe a trip to Bed, Bath, & Beyond is on the agenda. Otherwise, I could order the one from Amazon.

LOL Actually as much as I've changed our diets, I still indulge the children in a few things from Schwan's. This week it was the New Creamcheese/strawberry stuffed french toast and pancakes. My youngest one loves the pancakes. I also bought some peas. I'm sure they are delish..alot of Schwan's stuff is pretty tasty...and they've sure added alot of new stuff this new catalog.