One of the things that we wanted to do during our trip to New Zealand was learn how to make cheese. We couldn’t have picked a better place than Cwmglyn Farm under the care of Biddy and Colin Fraser-Davies. Simply put, this is cheesemaking at its finest. Each wheel of cheese is made from one cow and a cheese connoisseur is sure to have their favorite cow. Molly and Emily, the two winter milking cows, are treated to Huggie wipes of their udders, and a snack of molases while Biddy and Colin tended to the milking each morning. The care that they took for their cows was evident in the quality of milk, cheese, and butter that Biddy produced. As Biddy assured us, healthy well cared for brown cows will produce delicious cheeses and she is right. We consumed more delicious dairy in the last week than we have in the last 4 months! On the morning that we helped with cheese making we were very excited to learn that as Biddy would say “the cheese almost makes itself”. Needless to say with the ease of the process now evident, (although I’m sure Biddy’s skill and experience made this process seem easier than we will find it!) we are excited to try this out when we have a home and kitchen- hmmm?. For the details on cheese making Biddy and Colin’s website is a great place to start complete with step by step directions.
Another exciting part of Cwmglyn Farm is the model railway that Colin has created. We thought we had an idea of what playing with trains was all about when Jackson was in his train phase a few years ago, but this takes it to a whole new level! Colin has created and assembled one of the largest model train layouts in New Zealand–you’ve got to see the pictures to really understand what that means, and even then the pictures don’t capture it all. The sprawling tracks and surrounding towns of the layout take up a 16 meter by 10 meter shed–built specifically to house the railway. Once a month, Colin and 5 or 6 of his friends actually run the trains on a timetable and we were lucky enough to witness the railway in action.
In addition to learning a bit about the cheese making process and experiencing the model railway, we were happy to have the company of such great people. We need to say a huge thank you to Biddy and Colin for welcoming us, teaching us, bearing with us when the quiche we made for dinner was not done until 7pm, and giving us a cozy little space to stay in complete with a woodstove and my absolute new favorite thing, an electric blanket. If you’ve never owned an electric blanket it should certainly be the first item on your birthday or Christmas list. Sadly, we left the electric blanket and farm behind in search of more adventures.
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What, no beard net?
I asked!
I sure hope the shower cap is to preserve your dreadlocks, Tim.