Bacteria rather than viruses

Today I turned my attention away from viruses back to bacteria, penecillium roqueforti to be specific. For the last few months I have been trying to get to grips with cheese making. I have made some cottage cheese and ricotta-type cheese which are easy enough, but I wanted to throw myself in at the deep-end and focus more on complex cheeses. 

Like many practical skills the only way to learn effectively is by doing it. The smallholding club I belong to has a cheese making interest group. There are varying degrees of experience within the small handful of aspiring cheese makers in the group. We are all essentially novices or 'advanced beginners' engaged in mutual learning. But because the process can be lengthy, cheese making is inevitably a largely solitary activity at the domestic level.

Apart from the soft cheeses, goats milk Wensleydale and a Stilton-type cheese have been gratifying successes. I have some 'Cheddar' currently maturing so judgement is still a couple of months away to try the first one. 

Today I have been making another Stilton and I will be more than happy to reproduce the last effort. This is where the penecillium roqueforti comes in, for this is what produces the green veining.   Because conditions are difficult to control and standardise in making cheese at home the outcome is likely to be more variable than commercially produced cheese. If the final product is tasty then this is not a problem and in fact makes it more interesting. 

Stilton in the making, using a home made press

After pressing but before maturing.
About 4" x 3" in dimension