How to Make Goat Cheese With Fresh Goat Milk
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Vegans and Paleo dieters might be OK with giving up dairy, but for some of us, the cheeseless life is just not a realistic option. (Especially since many non-dairy cheese substitutes are totally not delicious). But if you're a cheese lover and a clean eater, you still want your dairy products to be healthy. So what's your best bet? Goat cheese. Yes, those bleating little creatures that love to nibble on cans and kick each other over produce cheese that's better for you and for the planet than the stuff that comes from cows. Here's why:
It has fewer calories than cow's cheese.
Goat cheese clocks in at just 75 calories per ounce—significantly less than popular cow cheeses like mozzarella (85), brie (95), Swiss (108), and cheddar (115).
It also has more vitamins and minerals than cow's cheese.
Goat's milk is richer in essential nutrients vitamin A, vitamin B, riboflavin, calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium.
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It's easier to digest.
Goat milk has less lactose and a slightly different protein structure than cow's milk. These subtle shifts actually make a big difference: Even people who are allergic to cow's milk can usually drink goat's milk without issue.
Goats are easier on the earth.
Since they're smaller than cows, they require less space and less food. Goats can also survive in places where other dairy animals literally can't: They're opportunistic foragers who happily munch on a wide variety of plants that cows won't eat, like desert scrub, weeds, trees, shrubs, and aromatic herbs.
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They are milk-making machines.
These things are small but mighty: If you give an average cow and an average goat 70 pounds of food each, the goat will produce one more gallon of milk than the cow.
Goats are treated more humanely.
Generally, goat farms tend to be smaller and more ethical than big dairy operations. But you still have to buy carefully: There are some companies that crowd goats into resource-intensive Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), says Lissa Howe, co-owner of Chiva Risa Ranch, a small goat dairy in Bisbee, AZ. Sometimes, she adds, goat cheese is imported from other countries and dressed up in deceptive packaging that only looks local. The easiest way to avoid this? "Go to your local producer" she says. "Shop at the farmers' market or a co-op and know your farmer. If you can't do that, make sure you research the farm that's listed on the package you buy." (Sometimes, dairy that's labeled "organic" is a total fraud.)
Bonus: They're nature's little firefighters.
Goats are often employed to eat away at plant overgrowth, lessening the risk for forest fires, especially in drought-stricken areas like California. (Check out this firefighting goat stampede unleashed in Berkeley, CA just last month!)
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How to Make Goat Cheese With Fresh Goat Milk
Source: https://www.prevention.com/food-nutrition/healthy-eating/a20447024/goat-cheese/