{"id":47375,"date":"2024-04-03T13:53:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T17:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=47375"},"modified":"2024-04-11T17:32:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T21:32:46","slug":"french-cheesemaker-making-goat-cheese-in-soligny-la-trappe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/french-cheesemaker-making-goat-cheese-in-soligny-la-trappe\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet The French Cheesemaker Making Goat Cheese in Soligny-la-Trappe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Explore the process of creating supple and creamy lactic cheeses.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a drizzly gray day in the fall of 2019, yet everything remains picturesque in a way only a French landscape in the most abysmal of weather can manage to appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m in Soligny-la-Trappe, a small town in the Normandy region of France<\/a> visiting my aunt, who lives here with her French husband and children. I\u2019ve asked to meet the cheesemaker who created the most delicious goat cheese I\u2019ve ever tasted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mylene Raoult is the woman behind this delicious cheese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We drive up a gravel path to a stone house, a barn, bales of hay, goats, and a great deal of cheese. Mylene is standing near her goats preparing to milk them, speaking concisely (in French) to her assistant who leads the goats out of their pens and up a ramp to the milking platform. While hooked to machines, their beady eyes flit towards a trough of food intended to distract them from what\u2019s going on near their hindquarters. Mylene works with deft precision as a half-smoked cigarette dangles from her lips. The fresh goats\u2019 milk snakes its way up a pipe from the barn over a wall into the make room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Mylene and her assistant, Vicki, start their work at the same time every day: one in the goat barn taking care of the animals and milking, and the other in the fromagerie, salting and turning wheels of cheese. Mylene takes care of paperwork and deliveries, and during kidding season, their work days can easily stretch to 14 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their hard work and dedication is worth it when you taste these supple and creamy, lactic cheeses. If traveling to the region, you can find her cheeses at the Abbey of La Trappe, the mini markets of Soligny, Crulai and Bazoches, the Gaec de l’\u00c9toile in Courgeon, Super U in Mortagne, la Viennerie in Irai, Carrefour in Tourouvre and Coccinelle in Mortagne. Myl\u00e8ne also supplies cheese to Les Pieds dans l\u2019eau restaurant in Mortagne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The stone house on Mylene\u2019s property. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pictured are Mylene\u2019s female goats or does. She has three male goats (bucks). Male goats are classed in France, and all her male goats have top class papers, selected for their high quality. Some goats produce milk with higher fat content, while others have greater supply, so she picks which goat is bred with which male based on the style of cheese she is hoping to produce.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Goats mature quickly\u2014in one year, goats have already reproduced. After 5 years, if goats aren\u2019t producing milk that meets Mylene\u2019s high standards, she\u2019ll sell them or give them away.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Goats are led to a trough to eat while they\u2019re hooked up to machines to be milked.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inside milking tubes are extra filtration pipes which ensure milk stays clean and can easily flow into buckets in the make room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mylene and Vicki replenish feed for the next batch of goats to be milked. In the French school system, students must decide at 16 years old what area of work they hope to specialize in. Mylene studied agriculture, specializing in animal husbandry, then received another diploma for working with cheese specifically.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vicki adjusts the milking tubes on the machine that funnels the milk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Milk is funneled through a large tube over this wall, which separates the parlor from the make room. It is then collected in a large bucket and may be mixed with milk from the day prior. Milk will remain in these collection buckets for 24 hours in order to curdle properly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This milk has begun curdling, and whey will be skimmed and disposed of. Mylene doesn\u2019t use discarded whey for other purposes because she believes whey is too acidic. She will, however, scoop out some of the floating curds and put them in other batches of milk. This healthy bacteria gives her farmstead cheeses their unique terroir.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the morning, Mylene and Vickie pour curds from buckets into cylindrical forms. Later in the evening when they\u2019ve properly set, they\u2019ll flip them and add a hint of salt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mylene or Vicki will rotate the cheese in their forms twice daily, salting each side and leaving them on the table (or grill) \u201cto take air\u201d for three or four days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paper on top of the grill is changed, and turning the cheese back and forth allows each wheel to age evenly. When the rind is sturdy enough for transport, cheeses will move to the cold room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cheese resting in the cold room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mylene uses black ash purely for aesthetics \u201cto make it more beautiful.\u201d She mentioned it doesn\u2019t provide added flavor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mylene and one of her superb goat cheeses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credit: Lyric Lewin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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