From the Desk of the Chief Ice Cream Dipper

We made our first batch of Young’s Farmstead Cheese on Wednesday July 8th!  It was a 140 pound batch of Jersey Jack cheese.  Jersey Jack is our version of Monterey Jack cheese, a mild cheese great for snacking and on sandwiches.

We’ve also made several batches of Colby, and Jersey Pepper Jack cheese – which is the Jersey Jack cheese with diced green, red and jalapeno peppers added.  We’ve also made some fresh cheese curds for home snacking.  The kitchen crew is working on the recipe for battered and deep-fried curds as a side choice in both restaurants.

We’re calling the fresh curds ‘squeakers’ because they squeak when you chew them.  It’s hard to describe, but you’ll see what we mean when you give them a try.  Squeakers are great for just snacking and are tasty on salads, soups or even right on a sandwich.

Both of our restaurants are already using the Jersey Pepper Jack cheese on various sandwiches.  By the end of August, all cheeseburgers will be made with Young’s Farmstead cheese. 

We’ve made a few batches of cheddar cheese.  The Cheddar cheese has to age a minimum of 60 days so we plan to have it for sale by mid October!  We look forward to sampling Young’s Farmstead Cheese to our Guests!   

We've received good feedback so far from our Guests -- mostly good, but there is room for improvement.  It seems each batch of cheese we make we learn a little more about the art of handmaking cheese.  So far, Mike and Stuart have made about 2,600 pounds of cheese!  A great start to our newest enterprise. 

Please let us know what you think -- we aim to make the best cheese we can with 100% of the milk produced by our cows on our farm.

Posted by Dan Young at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An update -- the cheese making equipment is on the way. We have a cheese making vat and related equipment coming from a Netherlands company. We looked for a long time at domestic equipment, but at the the European equipment looks to be elegant and efficient and will help us make delicious farmstead cheese. It fits in a smaller space and looks to be energy efficient the way we plan to use it. After all, cheese makers in Europe had been at it for a few hundred years before our country even got started!

 All the rest of the equipment -- lab equipment, walk-in cooler, water boiler, display case, and so forth are either here or due to arrive in the next two weeks (and was sourced in the US). We plan to have the equipment all installed and ready for production by the middle of June.

The first cheese types we will make include fresh cheese curds, cheddar cheese, colby cheese, and Jersey jack cheese. The curds, colby and jack cheese will be first up for sale as they do not require much, if any, aging. The cheddar cheese will be ready by about Labor Day this year.

The Young's Farmstead Cheese we make will be fresh milk 100% from our own Jersey cows. We do not treat our cows with rbST. Though no significant difference has been shown in the milk from treated and non-treated cows, we know our Guests expect us not to use rbST.

The Young family looks forward to this venture and can't wait to start sampling our very own Young's Farmstead Cheese to our Guests to get feedback and ideas.

Posted by Dan Young at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This story falls under the category of I thought you'd like to know and I would like to hear your feedback.

The Young's family is considering building a facility to make our own cheese using only milk from our cows.  We would make several kinds of cheese and sell it to our Guests and use it in our recipes in both restaurants.

This is an exciting idea, I think.  I keep imagining our own homemade cheddar cheese on our cheeseburgers!  Our our own pepperjack cheese on a hot spicy chicken sandwich.  Or really special grilled cheese sandwiches made with different kinds of farmstead, artisan cheeses.  I could go on!  But I think you get the idea.

So....what do you think of this idea?  Is it a good one?  Do you have ideas or suggestions?   What is your favorite types or flavors of cheese? 

We are in the planning stages, so now is the time to speak up!  Let me know your thoughts.  The best way to let me know your feedback is to email me at cows@youngsdairy.com.  Thanks!

Dan 

Posted by Dan Young at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Like most folks, we got Ike'd.  Lots of small damage to trees, missing shingles and some driving range netting.  The biggest loss was the metal roof on The Golden Jersey Inn that blew off.  Who ever knew we had to worry about that kind of wind from a hurricane in Ohio! Our new roof should be up in a cew days -- not metal this time!

The good news for us was we only lost power for about 3 1/2 hours, so no losses on refrigerated foods, freezers, etc.  We only shut down Sunday evening and reopened 6 am Monday.   I know we were more fortunate than many in our immediate area.  I know I certainly hope we have no repeats of that for the next 100 years!

Posted by Dan Young at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am happy to report the results of the 2008 Young's Charity Bike Tour.  On September 16, 2008 we presented each of the four charities an $18,000 check to be used for their causes, for a total of $72,000 raised this year!  That's an almost 40% increase from 2007.

The committee, volunteers and sponsors work and plan and give throughout the year to make this ride happen.  We all have fun, but always remember the main purpose of the ride is to raise fund for wothwhile organizations than work to benefit the lives of Miami Valley residents.

 The four charities we supported this year are The Alzheimer's Association, The Wellness Connection, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Inited Rehabilitation Services (URS).

Posted by Dan Young at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the winter we've been dreaming and figuring out how to make Young's more desireable to visit, more fun and interesting for our Guests.

Just some of the changes we've done in the past couple of weeks and/or are working on within the next month:

Removed part of a wall at the Dairy Store to open up the dining room, make it easier to get in and out of when we are busy.

Replaced the entrance flooring into the dining room and our server area.

Replace the wallpaper in the dining room of the Dairy Store.

We've removed some chain link fence located between the picnic area and the driving range and batting cages.  This should make it easier to move around that area.

 We are getting ready to build a 'goat walk' -- a much more ambitious (and safe) are for our lpayful goats to climb and put on a show for our Guests.

 Within the next month, we should have installed a vending machine near the batting cages to vend tokens.  It will accept cash and debit or credit cards.  Once again, this is for convenience and speed. We also plan to install a driving range golf ball vending machine located in the covered tee area.

We are adding two large round tables to the choices at The Golden Jersey Inn and replacing a good number of the chairs that have been in daily use for 10 plus years.  The round tables will give our larger groups and familes a good place to sit and talk while enjoying a meal. 

Moovers & Shakers, our golf cart driven barrel ride into our fields, will have a new feature this spring -- a twenty foot giant tunnel!  It looks like fun.

We are repaving about a third of our parking lots and fixing potholes that appeared this winter.   

There's more coming than this summer -- details coming from a future blog. 

Posted by Dan Young at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)