The Greening of Gavin

Blessed Are The Curd Nerds

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Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but I’ve started a bit of a cheese cult over on one of my YouTube channels.

You know the one.  The channel that has all the cheese making videos aka Cheeseman.tv!

Of late, I’ve been putting into practice the suggestions given during a few Google Hangouts with other YouTube creators and I have been creating and uploading at least one cheese making video a week.

This regular video creation has had some amazing results.  Subscribers, or should I say Curd Nerds have increased dramatically.

Thousands of people are making the cheeses that I feature in the videos.  Most have great results and share their experiences with everyone freely.  It’s a cheese revolution to claim back our cheese taste buds!  Blessed are the Curd Nerds.

On a serious note, it’s a great growing community that I enjoy serving.  Curd nerds are such a generous bunch of people.

So being one of those generous curd nerds, here are a few of the video tutorials and a couple of taste tests that I’ve produced over the last month that you may want to try yourself.

Jarlsberg

This Norwegian style cheese is still ripening, but will be ready at the end of next week.  It is swelling and forming eyes here in my office.


Monterey Jack

I’ve been meaning to make a video of this cheese for such a long time.  It was one of the very first cheeses that I made way back when.  It tastes amazing (well it did the first time) and should be ready to eat in a month or so.


Bel Paese

A traditional Italian cheese meaning Beautiful Country, I found Bel Paese to be quite a surprisingly creamy, yet firm cheese that delighted my palate. It’s now a house favourite.


Now for the taste tests.

Edam Taste Test

I found this cheese to be exceptional.  It formed small eyes without any assistance from myself and tasted absolutely delicious as a good Edam should.  Watch out for the two extra cheese tasters that appear after the end credits of the video.  You should get a laugh.


Gouda Taste Test

Another exceptional Dutch style cheese that was full flavoured and hasn’t lasted too long (we ate most of it).


So to avoid a cholesterol overload, I take at least quarter of each wheel to work and share it with my colleagues.  None of them have keeled over yet and all compliment me on my cheese.  I think they are waiting in anticipation for the next cheese I bring to work 🙂

In other cheese news, I’ve updated the print edition of Keep Calm and Make Cheese – The Beginners Guide to Cheese Making at Home.  I didn’t want the reader to miss out on all the free videos I have on offer.  As the eBook versions have hyperlinks, I added in QR Codes within each recipe for the paper version so the reader can scan and watch via their mobile phone or tablet.

Cream Cheese Video Tutorial QR Code

Cream Cheese Video Tutorial QR Code

A nice touch I think, and believe it only enhances the potential curd nerds cheese making experience!

Lots of great cheese action here at home.  I have a couple of videos in production now including a new Camembert recipe and an attempt at Fourme d’Ambert, a French cow’s milk Blue Cheese.  Both are ripening in the cheese fridge and will be released soon.

Enjoy the videos, and if anyone is interested in learning to make cheese, I would be more than welcome to have you join me on a Beginners Cheesemaking Course soon.

Until then, this is Cheese Man Gav signing off!

Little Green Workshops – End of Year Update

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Many of you may know that Kim and I run a small home based green business called Little Green Workshops.  We teach cheese, cold processed soap, soy candle, and bath soak & scrub courses at our local community centre.  We also sell kits, supplies, and gifts for anyone who is not close by.

We got the inspiration to start this venture because many of you asked for more information about how we make and do some of the things we perform on a weekly basis, living a more sustainable lifestyle here in the ‘burbs.

Many of you may be wondering how it is all going.  Well let me give you an End of Year update.

This financial year (1 July 2015 – 30 June 2016) we clocked up the following stats;

  • Workshops taught: 27
  • Private Classes: 6
  • Students attended: 247
  • Website page views: 180,355
  • Website orders dispatched: 650
  • Countries shipped to: 6
  • YouTube Videos Tutorials created: 36
  • YouTube views: 815,331
Gavin and Kim

Gavin and Kim

We are pleased with these statistics, especially when it is only our 1st full year and 20 months of operation.  We are also very proud of what we have achieved so far and are seeing sustainable growth month on month (besides the Christmas spike).

You know I’m a fairly modest bloke, but it’s taken a lot of hard work to get where we are today.

They say that many small business tank in the first five years due to debt overload and other factors.  We haven’t taken out loans or borrowed to support the business.

I’m one who believes that debt is a form of slavery in disguise, so we have avoided this as we’ve started up.  And because of it, we sleep better at night!

Thankfully due to the low startup cost of setting up and maintaining an eCommerce presence on the Internet, and in part this blog and our YouTube channels, we have been able to reach a wider audience of students than we would normally have been able to.  Students who are keen to learn and create their own sustainable products, knowing exactly what goes into them and keeping it all natural.

We also began regular shipping to five new countries besides Australia this year due to demand; New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, and South Africa.

Little Green Workshops - end of year update

Click Through to the Shop!

All in all we are ecstatic that we’ve kept managed to our core green values in every business decision we make.  Sustainably sourced packaging, avoid single use products and plastic, run a carbon neutral worksite and websites, and sell products where others can make and do instead of just consume.

So as a special thank you and a gift for you, and to share in the success that you have helped to create, we have just launched a limited two-day sale over at Little Green Workshops, offering 10% off all products (excluding course bookings).  Sale ends at 2359 hr (midnight) 30th June 2016 Australian Eastern Time.

You can use the coupon code in bold below in your cart or checkout to apply the discount;

eofysale2016

Thank you once again for reading, watching, and listening to our blog posts, podcasts, and videos during the last 12 months and following our sustainable living journey.

Without you regularly visiting this site, I would still be a conspicuous consumer, unmotivated to strive to be greener, stuck in the rat race, plodding through life in misery.

By being able to share our sustainable living journey with you, I’ve given myself permission to live, love, and enjoy life to the fullest!

Dolls Hospital

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Our dogs have been a bit rambunctious of late and have been playing tug of war with their toys.  Naughty doggies!

Dolls hospital

We bought them some tough organic cotton eco-toys to play with for Christmas, this one stuffed with recycled fleece made from PET bottles.  Inevitably, with enough tugging, the fabric tears.

So what to do?  Well it was off to Kim’s Dolls Hospital for repairs.

Dog toy all fixed

Dog toy as good as new!

Kim learnt to sew back in High School and hasn’t forgotten how to throw a few stitches around.  She fixed up this toy, repaired the hole in the neck, and fastened the ear back on.  It only took her about 10 minutes and in that time she also repaired another toy in the same sorry state of affairs as this one.

Out of curiosity, I asked my daughter Amy (a High School teacher) if the kids learnt to sew theses days.  She said that it was an elective at her school, so that is encouraging.  It would be sad for these very simple skills to be lost to the consumer culture.

By the way, I can also sew.  I was taught in the Navy out of necessity more than anything else, because when at sea there is no one else to sew a button or a patch on for you.  Each Sailor was issued with a housewife (what we called a sewing kit) and you soon learnt how to use it or get a dreaded Kit Muster (lay out your entire issued kit on a blanket in straight rows) if you turned up on parade with a missing button or ripped trousers etc.

The simple skill of sewing by hand is something that I believe should be passed on to our kids, so next time Ben loses a button Kim and I will teach him how to sew.

Anyway, getting back to the story.  Both our dogs watched Kim intently as she repaired both their toys.  They sat patiently for the entire time it took to sew the limbs back on.  You can imagine their delight when Kim gave them back their toys.

Teddy Loving his toy

Teddy loving his repaired toy!

Well done to Kim for opening up the Dolls Hospital and taking the time to repair the dog’s toys.  That should last them another few months of tug of war!

Have any of you passed on hand sewing skills to your kids, or recently been taught by a family relative?  It would be interesting to know how many still know how to sew and teach others the art of sewing.  Chime in with a comment to add to the conversation.