Ashland Food Co-op - Blog

Get Cultured

July 29th, 2009 by Mary

Science didn’t invent fermented dairy foods like yogurt and cheese. Cave drawings from 4000BC show humans enjoying their homemade or should I say cavemade dairy products. In fact, little crusts of cheese have been found in Egyptian tombs. Quality fermented dairy foods were a mark of sophistication in Greek-Roman times so the ultimate insult was to call someone a “barbaric milk drinker”. These fermenting skills were carried to all of Europe, and all European countries have a long history of fermenting dairy. No one had a refrigerator to store their raw milk , so creating a lactoferment food that preserved the dairy for a few days to a few weeks was the way to go. The ferment process converts the lactose sugars into lactic acid, an antibacterial. Lactic acid also predigests the casein or protein in milk making it much more digestible than non-fermented milk.

Freshly made Curd

It’s been 30 years since my days revolved around the goat milking parlor, but I still miss the fun of making my own fermented dairy products. Occasionally I still make soft cheese for East Indian cookery because it’s so easy and so delicious…..

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