Cheese Making Workshop in Costa Rica

While we were staying at Monte Azul, near Chirripo Mountain, we had the opportunity to go visit a nearby town and take a cheese making workshop.  The man who ran the workshop owned a small cow farm in the mountains that he used to use primarily for milk, but when a man from Switzerland came offering to teach locals how to make Swiss cheese he decided to try his hand at it.  He told us that the first day many people came to the class to learn from the Swiss man, however no one liked the taste of the cheese and no one came back the second day.  He was hosting the man at his farm so he had no choice to continue.  However, he started to like the cheese more and more and found a nice market in Costa Rica for ex pats living there who love swiss cheese that you can’t really get anywhere in the country and now he sells it to local restaurants and directly to ex pats.  Watching the whole cheese making process was amazing.  From milking the cows, to stirring the milk, then pressing the curds and finally seeing the different stages of aging the cheese was fascinating.  I think my favorite part (other than tasting the cheese of course) was seeing the cute fuzzy baby cows!