The Art of Natural Cheesemaking

The 2015 release of David Asher's The Art of Natural Cheesemaking: Using Traditional, Non-Industrial Methods and Raw Ingredients to Make the World's Best Cheeses was a seminal book for the launch of the Food Initiative. With a permaculturist's sensibility, Asher outlines the intuitive biological processes involved in traditional dairy fermentation.

Through the Food Initiative, we give our new interns a copy of this important work alongside Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation to provide them with the ethical context, technical skills, and nuanced understanding of milk products.

Should we drink milk? Should we eat cheese? The Art of Natural Cheesemaking helps us to navigate these questions, and offers thoughtful guidance for fostering the microbial conditions required for dairy fermentation that lead to safe, nutritious, and delicious foods.

— Shane Brill