Authentic Artisanal Cheese
What Does Artisanal Mean Anyway?
“Artisanal” refers to cheese made by hand with milk from a known source: from the cheese maker’s own herd, or from a farmer who can verify what the livestock eats, since this affects the taste of the milk.” – Jennifer Loviglio, Rochester Magazine
Lively Run Standards for High Quality, Authentic Artisanal Cheese
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Cheese Only Contains Natural Ingredients
Our cheese contains only natural cheese-making ingredients (milk, salt, rennet, cultures, and herbs), and does not have any preservatives, food colorings, or artificial additives of any kind.
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No High Temperature Pasteurization
In order to guarantee that no synthetic or artificial additives need be added, it is critical that the milk used for the cheese does NOT go through high temperature pasteurization processes such as High Temperature Short Time treatment (HTST) or Ultra High Temperature (UHT) treatment, both of which kills natural enzymes, proteins, and vitamins. Because of this, HTST or UHT pasteurized milk has to be refortified with unnatural vitamins to give people the vitamins they need from milk. Instead, the milk used for our cheeses is treated using low temperature long time pasteurization in vats.
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Made by Hand in Small Batches
Cheese is made primarily by hand in small batches as opposed to industrialized/mechanized factory-produced cheese, where machines do all the work. Quality is controlled by direct interaction with the cheese through each step of the process as the cheese is crafted with loving care.
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Direct Farmer-Producer Relationship For Milk Sources
Our dairy sources milk directly from our local food shed. We develop strong relationships by paying a fair price to farmers. We have direct control over the quality of milk product through education of dairy partners on the proper ways of producing it.
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Animal Welfare Standards
All animals that produce milk, both on site and at partnering farms, are treated humanely: managed health system, consistent feeding program with natural food, safe, clean, and comfortable housing, and caring handling of animals.
Our Artisanal Method
Lively Run Dairy is fully equipped to make a variety of high quality Artisan cheeses. Our head cheese maker, Pete Messmer, prides himself on expert knowledge based on years of experience. With a mixture of loving care for their goat herd, a state-of-the-art production facility equipped with the latest cheese-making technology, and a time honored traditional cheese-making procedure, Lively Run produces only the highest quality handmade cheeses.
Steps of Artisanal Method:
Seventh Step
By the time our delicious artisanal cheese reaches your plate, it has been made, aged, packaged and handled by experts using a blend of the traditional approaches and cutting edge equipment of Lively Run Dairy. Our hand-made cheese is respectfully made with care and love, for delicious and high-quality cheese.
Sixth Step
Finally, the cheese is aged in the aging room for anywhere from 1 month to several years.
Fifth Step
Next, the curds are formed and then cut. For some cheeses, the curd is cooked while for others it may be washed or milled and salted. The curds are then placed into cheese molds and pressed to form wheels or blocks.
Fourth Step
Microbial rennet is then added to coagulate the milk (microbial rennet is derived from a mushroom and is therefore approved for vegetarian use).Third Step
The milk is then inoculated with the cultures bacteria that acidify and flavor the milk.
Second Step
We start most of our cheese making (other than raw milk cheese) with a gentle low temperature pasteurization where the milk is heated to 145 degrees for 30 minutes and cooled again, eliminating dangerous bacteria while preserving the vitamins and minerals present in the milk. Unlike other forms of pasteurization, Batch pasteurization preserves the integrity of the milk.
First Step
We start with carefully selected goat and cow milk sourced from our herd or from the herds of other local Upstate New York farmers.
Check out more images of cheesemaking and our facilities in our photo galleries.
