Update on the Sour Milk School, and the Milk Trekker origin story.
Natural cheesemaking workshops planned for this year.
 The first two Sour Milk School workshops were a huge success. The five days of experimentation with natural starter cultures and collaborative learning surpassed my wildest expectations. The final schedule of events on the West Coast this summer is up on My Website. If you would like to attend one of these, or collaborate in another way, feel free to email me, trevwarm@gmail.com. It seems likely that there will be another round in 2024, hopefully in wider regions for the US.
It has been a transitional time as I’ve hit the ground running on my return to North America. I have neglected to keep out on posting here, but hope to get back in the swing. I will present the findings of my DZTA rennet research in July, and then likely begin traveling in Europe again. Two print articles are in the works, so my intention of using Substack as a stepping stone to become a published writer seems to have been a success! A huge thanks to all my subscribers on here, paid and otherwise. Your support helps immensely.
The Sour Milk School is built on my experiences over the last 13 years. After spending years cooking in restaurants, I began making artisan cheese in 2010, and spent time living on farms, learning the craft from pasture….to udder….to aging space. I became very interested in the use of natural starter cultures and alternative grazing systems, and realized that to learn more about less industrial ways of making cheese I needed to visit other countries. In 2019 I took a job managing a cheese plant in Mongolia, and moved there to live in a yurt and develop recipes. I quickly became jaded with the model of making European-style cheese in a country with deep traditions of dairying, so I quit the job and began traveling the countryside. I spent ten days with a family of yak herders, taking photographs and video with my cell phone, while observing how they worked with and milked their animals, and made dairy foods over a dung fire in a yurt. This is the Milk Trekker origin story.
I felt a sense of fulfillment and purpose in doing this, learning by doing, documenting the lives of pastoralists who were following traditions that seemed at odds with what I had been taught in America. It was an Unlearning. I realized that so much of what I thought was necessary for the raising of livestock, and safe production of dairy foods, was actually a reflection of a cultural paradigm that had lost something, and was tainted by industrial mentalities. I heard the call to adventure, and responded by going to Tibet to teach natural cheesemaking and work with yak herders. I spent a few more months volunteering with makers in Austria, Northern Italy, and Sicily before returning to the US. I had found a path that made me feel aligned and inspired, and I wanted to learn more about the raising and grazing of livestock to get to the roots of it all.
During 2020 I worked on farms in various US states, learning about grazing systems and animal husbandry. I came out to California at the end of that year and began working in fire mitigation planned grazing, rotating large herds of goats and sheep around to positively impact landscapes. I enjoyed working with livestock and being a shepherd immensely, and wanted to connect this with the craft of cheesemaking, and my interest in the cultural anthropology of dairy focused pastoralism.
In the summer of 2021, I decided to heed the call to adventure, and jump fully into the project I had conceived of in Mongolia. The idea was to travel with just my backpack, volunteering for farmer-cheesemakers who practice interesting styles of grazing and milk fermentation, and learn by working and living side by side with them. I would document traditional and innovative methods, and share them online while working towards publishing articles, and voicing my sentiments about the importance of these matters. I intentionally wanted this to make no financial sense, and to have little more than a general plan. I feel that the most important things in life are often foolish, irrational, and impossible to plan. Things like falling in love, or following your heart.
Those sixteen months of travel were intensely fruitful, and I am now sharing the insights gained. I hope to empower students to not be intimidated by the idea of fermenting milk, and making their own cheese. Cheese does not need to be made in sanitized spaces, by technicians. Humans have, are, and will continue to safely ferment milk into cheese in their own homes, in tents, and in conditions that many would label unsanitary. Perhaps through my workshops others can experience the kind of shift in thinking that I have gone through, in realizing that life, microbes, and livestock are not things to be controlled, but forces that can be trusted, and worked with effectively by understanding how they operate. For me, learning to live is learning to let go.
But rather than talk about what I am opposed to, I wish to discuss what I am in favor of. I want to talk about how dairying can be done in a way that is respectful of the livestock who are gifting us so much. I want the cheeses I make to be a form of worship of these animals and the web of life which sustains us. Our milk fermentation processes can be a strand in this web. Living with dairy livestock can be ecologically beneficial, and we can step into a role as stewards of landscapes. We can shift our view of microbes from one of opposition and attempts to control, to one of embracing and working with these allies, creating the conditions in which they can thrive. My words, actions, and cheeses are my medicine, and my contribution to the healing that is happening on some many levels.
I’ve found my voice, and I feel compelled give shape to my sentiments, and share my observations and thoughts with a wider audience. The Sour Milk School is the next phase in this effort, and it is unfolding naturally, beautifully.