New Skills

When I started writing I was on a very different journey than the path I face today and I talked a lot about the journey process, a convention used by writers to move a storyline forward. I want to circle back to that idea again.
We each are heroes in our own journeys and we will meet people who influence us while we are on that journey - it may be by their passions, by their position, their actions or how we react to these factors. This week I took part in a cheese-making workshop. It is part of my current journey where I am trying to learn as many agri-based skills as I can. While I can't say for sure yet that I have heard the "call" of the cheese-maker I am intrigued and feel I gained enough knowledge to move forward with the basics -- making mozzarella, for example, is a certainty. I just need to order the rennet and bacteria for the process.
As I wrote in the early days, along each journey we meet mentors, people who share their knowledge and skill. I met more than one possible mentor this week, but I'd like to focus on Margaret Morris of Glengarry Cheesemaking and Dairy Supply Ltd. 
Margaret is passionate about cheese making and sharing her knowledge. Under her guidance we learned how to make mozzarella, Camembert and a reblochon. Three relatively simple cheeses for the home cheese maker with the right supplies. Margaret was patient as she answered myriad questions, and walked us through the steps. The pay-off was sampling the mozzarella at the end of our second day of the session. It's texture was incredibly different than the industrial cheese we purchase in the store. It was chewy and stretchy and there was a tangy bite to its flavor. I could have eaten a whole ball of it myself. Its flavor had me thinking about homemade pizza with tomatoes and basil from my garden.
I was also inspired by Ron Muise, a cheese maker and dairy sheep producer in Cape Breton. He may have been punchy from delivering lambs, but his passion for his business and product still came through. All of the participants had an opportunity to taste his cheese, and while still young, it proved to be wonderful. His talk wasn't all sunshine, raising sheep is a challenge in Nova Scotia and raising dairy sheep layers additional challenges.
Part of the workshop introduced us to the art of pairing wine with cheese and some basics to follow. It allowed us to sample a variety of cheeses (and wines), from different species and following different styles (feta, Cheddars, Goudas and blues).
I'm looking forward to following this new path, and learning more about the process. If it leads to acquiring livestock, well, it may be this is our call, we just haven't heard it yet.