In what way did I perform differently this week than the prior week?

I have now worked 10 days at Stony Pond Farm, July 6 to July 15 with no days off. This weekend, I have two days off in a row, which has been good for my body since cheesemaking and farmwork are obviously very physical and intensive. The days are long. We start at 6:00 am, often don’t finish the bulk of the work until around 3:00 pm, and then sometimes have evening responsibilities such as flipping the cheese, milking or other activities. I am exhausted but happy at the end of the day because of what we have accomplished. 

In the first five days on the farm, I focused on observing, asking questions and supporting Melanie however she needed. I continued that in the second five day stretch but because we had made three batches of cheese (one camembert make and two tomme makes), I was able to start anticipating her needs in terms of mise-en-place and clean-up. I was able to sanitize equipment before it was needed, make to-do lists for the day (running them by her, of course), and perform a lot of work unsupervised (affinage in the cave, cleaning and sanitizing, etc.). She even had me pack all the week’s orders for pick-up by the distributors by myself. 

The whole experience is incredibly rewarding. It is amazing to see the cows in the barnyard as I start my morning, only to have their milk flood the vat a short time later. Then to see the milk transform into curds and then unaged cheese within a few hours is truly wild. So much of the work I do in my professional life is planting seeds that may or may not blossom years later. It is a real change to see tangible results in such a short time here on the farm.