Why Do We Make Cheese?

Making cheese is something I wanted to do for years. I wanted to be able to make my own cheese from whole, natural milk for a good, wholesome food for us to eat. We have long tried to minimize the additives and chemicals in our diet. That doesn’t mean we don’t like pizza, green bean casserole, lasagna, potato chips and Cheetos sometimes, but as a general rule we try to eat fairly healthy.

After I had made cheese for a while, I decided to research how to make rennet. I knew from some past reading that natural animal rennet is made from the stomach of a newborn calf. Well, I don’t have any calves and even if I did, I don’t really want to butcher a newborn for his stomach…..unless I really needed to.

This information prompted more research. What I found made me upset and depressed. Almost all (depending upon what you read, about 90%) commercially made cheese in the United States is made from GMO (genetically modified organism) rennet. I was appalled!! Even when you try to buy the most basic ingredients and cook a healthy meal for yourself, you unknowingly get to consume more GMO. 

So, with a little more research, I have found that some companies sell imported rennet that is not GMO based. This is the rennet I use in our cheese. Knowledge gives us more control over our lives and decisions.

I sometimes find it disheartening that our food and water is laced with so many chemicals that have been proven to damage the human body. It is impossible to eliminate them all in this day and time, but it doesn’t hurt to try. We find the more we educate ourselves, the better choices we are able to make. And in the process of doing so, we not only take more control of how we treat our bodies, but we take responsibility for the choices we make.

Until next time – Fern

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