Amberlin Biegel of Alberta, Canada sent us this delightful video she made of her family milking their goats and making cheese. The family has around 70 goats (over 20 of which they milk) and one milk cow. They do all their milking by hand!
Amberlin is only 19, but, before she made this one, she had already made several videos of her family singing and performing plays.
The Biegel Family consists of Bob, Linette and 11 children – 9 living at home, ranging in age from 25 to 7.
They graciously shared their story with us:
In October 1989, Bob Biegel became Born Again and was miraculously saved through the power of Jesus Christ, Yahshuah the Messiah. Because of this Bob and Linette have instilled in each one of their children a love for Truth and the Holy Scriptures. Having a strong “culture” is important in many areas! Together the family has learned that it is important to know what they believe and why they believe it. Farm life, nature and outdoor adventures, music, theatre and drama are also very important elements of their home schooled family lifestyle.
The family has studied piano, violin, voice, guitar, flute, harp and theatre. The older children now have their own private music studios and are teaching their younger siblings as well as other families who want to learn the gift of music and creative arts.
The family began to take their music to senior’s homes where family members were residents. Today, they ensemble with their voices and instruments, traveling throughout Alberta and into the Okanagan valley of British Columbia performing family concerts in venues ranging from senior homes, churches, museums, banquets and weddings.
The Biegel family plans to offer classes on cheese, kombucha, kefir, salve and soap making, as well as fibre arts and crafts.
Scenes From the Video
In the video, Brooklyn/Brook (25), Charles (12) and Sarah (9) do the milking, and Linnae (17, now 18, in the pink shirt) and Breanne/Bree (25, twins with Brook) strain the milk and make the cheese. Julia (14) is in charge of the ducks and her twin Jenessa holds the chicken. Simon, (7) is briefly seen in the cheese kitchen, and at the dinner table holding their father’s hand. Amberlin, and Brook are seen at the end of the video stealing cheese.
The Cheese Thieves
At the end of the video, there’s a very cute short clip of Amber and Brook sneaking cheese at 12:30am …
Susan says
That was great, thanks so much. I am on keep to try cheese making so thank you for the inspiration.
Amberlin Biegel says
Thank you Susan! Cheesemaking is such an art. Keep at it 🙂
What a wonderful video of your family working together. Was hoping to see your cow, what breed is she? We have Dutch Belted cows.
Thank you Dalene. We love being together as a family – all best friends!
Our cow is a mix of Angus, Dexter and Jersey. She has served us very well and we love her cream as our goats don’t give us any (well, that is very little 🙂 We actually have a fun short film about Lizzy and her calf Alfredo/T-bone on our family Youtube channel called The Calf-Knapper. You may like to see it! Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge7lQUqdo1o
What a cute little Alfredo. Can you share your caraway gouda recipe? I would love to try it!
My sister Breanne has written it out for you. (She’s the head cheesemaker in the Biegel home 🙂
If you are making a batch of gouda using 2 gallons of milk, here is the Caraway twist:
1) Boil 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds in 1/2 a cup of water for about 15 minutes.
2) Strain and cool.
3) Add the caraway flavoured water to your milk before heating to 90 degrees.
4) Add starter culture.
5) Continue the gouda recipe as usual.
6) Before putting the curds into the cheese press, add the softened caraway seeds and blend gently and quickly (you don’t want the curds to cool too much before pressing).
7) Taste the curds….yum 😉
8)Continue with the regular pressing regime prescribed in the gouda recipe.
For the full recipe details see Ricki Carroll’s book “Home Cheese Making, 3rd edition”. It’s on page 116 – 118.
Thank you Amberlin and Breanne. Can’t wait to try it!
Thank you for sharing your farmlife and cheesemaking video. I really enjoyed watching and it inspired me to branch out a bit and to try making other types of cheese. It was a blessing and I can see you all work together as a family to take what God has blessed you with and has given you the skills to make wonderful cheese. God Bless you all! Linda from Maine.
Thank you for your kind and encouraging words, Linda! We are so glad that this has blessed you and encouraged you in your cheesemaking journey. Praise be to Yahweh!
Maravilloso video. Creo que sois muy afortunadas por vivir en un sitio tan bonito y, sobre todo, por tener un trabajo que os gusta. Marta. Valladolid. España
True talent all around. Video was excellent quality and all the “characters”, including goats, were great. Shows the work, love, and art involved in cheese making. Keep up the good work and may God continue to bless your family.
Thank you for watching and commenting on our video, and also for your encouragement and blessing. So glad you enjoyed it.
I too truly enjoyed your video and depiction of your farm life and cheesemaking. My favorite part was the cheese thieves and especially the pink panther style approach and music. Super cute! It has me starting my day with a smile. Thanks for sharing…
We are so glad that you enjoyed the video, Loraine! Thank you so much for watching and commenting 🙂
Such a well done wonderful capture of your family farm life. Thanks for sharing with us. Reminds me of my toggenburg nanny Pretzel who gave 3 qts a day. Great production breed. I’m learning more each day about cheese making and loved seeing your large family cooperation and love for life!
Thankyou so much for your comments, Lynn! Family is such a blessing. We enjoy our toggenburgs too 🙂 Keep up with your cheesemaking – it’s a wonderful art to know how to do!
Fantastic video. This is obviously a cottage industry rather than a hobby. Watching it brought some questions to mind. 1) It seems that vacuum bagging rather than waxing is the family’s preferred method. Can anyone give us a comparison between the two methods. 2) The location is very obviously in a cold climate. Are there times when the “cave” needs to be heated rather than chilled? I am in the flat land south & must always use refrigeration. 3) I saw a lot of caraway Gouda. It seems to be aged with vacuum sealing rather than waxing. How long do you age this? 4) I am making a caraway Gouda in honor of my father’s 100th birthday. I believe that this is called Kummelcase in Germany. Have you heard of this?
Hi Bob,
We vacuum seal many of our cheese because…
1) it’s quicker than waxing (especially when we have so many cheeses being made at once).
2) it keeps the moisture content more stable even if the cheese cave is on the dryer side.
3)there’s no air that can sneak under the wax and create mold.
4) when you want to eat it, you don’t need to deal with peeling off and recycling the wax. Just cut open the bag and it’s ready to eat.
5) vacuum sealed cheeses look professional and we can make small packages that are great for giving as gifts. When waxing cheese it’s best to do so with larger blocks.
6) We wanted a way to preserve soft cheeses in a place other than the freezer, so we tried vacuum sealing. It works like a dream. It’s nice that vacuum sealing does allow the fresh cheese to age and acquire only a slightly sharper taste.
7)Because the vacuum sealing allows a very limited amount of air to access the cheese, the aging process takes longer. This works well for us because we don’t care for an overly aged taste. Vacuum sealing keeps cheeses such as Gouda from getting sharp too soon (we like our cheese to taste fresh or mild).
We still do wax some cheese, though – particularly cheddar. We have found that aging our waxed cheddar for longer than 6 months makes it too strong for most of us 🙂
We love eating our caraway Gouda after it’s been aged anywhere between one week and 8 months.
I haven’t heard of Kummelcase but from your recipe on the cheese making blog it looks very very similar to the Caraway Gouda!
We keep our cheese cave in one corner of our shop. It stays at a fairly steady temperature throughout the year since a wood stove keeps the shop between 5 and 10 degrees above zero.
So very interesting – thank you for sharing all that! Do you sell your cheeses? I’d certainly be interested in some!
No, unfortunately we do not sell our cheese. But in the future we plan to offer classes on cheese, kombucha, kefir, salve and soap making, as well as fibre arts and crafts.
This is so wonderful… WOW!!