Spinning Spider Creamery is an artisan dairy known regionally and nationally for its award winning artisan goat cheeses.

We offer this series of classes to be taken individually or in progression.  All levels of cheesemakers and cheese lovers are welcome in our classes.  No prior experience is necessary.  However, if you have made cheese in the past and want to fine tune your skills, these classes would also be appropriate and teaching will be scaled up or down to meet your needs.

Classes will be held in our creamery kitchen in equipment scaled to home use.  We’ll provide you with notes, recipes, and a deeper understanding of the complexities of cheese making and the lifestyle of a small family dairy.  Our creamery is conveniently located a short 30 minutes north of Asheville, NC, just outside the town of Mars Hill, in the scenic mountain beauty of Madison County.

Class Descriptions:

Feta and Ricotta (7/12)

In this class we’ll work up a batch of Feta from culturing and ripening through ladling, hooping, salting and brining.  From the whey we save we’ll magically produce a light and lovely Ricotta. We’ll probably consume it on the spot as there’s nothing in this world like fresh Ricotta!  Feta is a great cheese to start with as it's not technical yet allows you to get a start in understanding the chemistry of cheesemaking.

The Schedule:

Classes are on Sundays and will start at 10 am with a brief orientation on cheese kitchen etiquette.   Once we get our hairnets and aprons on (provided), we’ll step into serious cheese making.  Please bring clean shoes that can handle a light bleach foot bath and be worn in the cheese kitchen.  A separate set of shoes will be needed if you want to visit the goats or walk around the farm.

Depending on the cheeses being taught, we’ll take a break for lunch and refreshments mid day.  Class fee includes light refreshments and cheese sampling.  Please bring your own lunch which we’ll eat outside under the dairy awning.

Class should be over between 2 and 3 pm, depending on the progress of the cheese make and if the God that watches over cheese makers is smiling down on us.

Your Instructor:

Chris Owen is the owner, founder, and head cheesemaker of Spinning Spider Creamery.  While her education is in forestry/biology/environmental management, and her work history in midwifery, childbirth education, and lactation consulting, farming has been part of her life since early childhood.

Since starting Spinning Spider in 1996, she has taken it from a family hobby farm to a nationally recognized artisan goat dairy.   Her cheesemaking education has ranged from simple kitchen experiments to studying with noted cheese makers from Scotland, northern Italy, Vermont, Alabama, and here in North Carolina.  She is a member of the Southern Cheese Guild, the Raw Milk Cheese Makers Association, Slow Food, Southern Foodways Alliance and on the board of ASAP.

Registration must be prepaid.

Email me for more information and for our registration brochure.

Chris Owen

4717 East Fork Rd

Marshall, NC  29753

(828)689-5508

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www.SpinningSpiderCreamery.com