All Over Albany

Make your own cheese, please!

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Fromager Sean O'Connor

OK, so you love it with crackers and it complements wine perfectly, but have you ever considered making your own cheese?

No? Well, why not? You can learn how to make it right here in the Capital Region.

Local marketplace Harmony House Marketplace in Cohoes is offering hands-on instruction on Tuesday, Sept. 23 from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Best of all, it's just five bucks. Reservations are filling up fast,
though.

Sean O'Connor of Dutchess County's Four Brothers Dairy Goat Farm will be teaching participants how to make mozzarella and ricotta at the workshop. The Troy resident can be found each weekend hawking his wares at Albany's At the Warehouse. You can also find his stuff at the weekend farmer's market in Colonie at the Crossings.

Although cheese is now his life, Sean says he didn't always intend to become a fromager (that's French for cheese maker.) While living in LA and working in computer sales during the day, he started taking culinary classes at night through UCLA.

He knew he didn't necessarily want to work in a restaurant though, so after moving back to the east coast to be closer to his and his wife's families, he found a job working in the creamery at Old Chatham Sheepherding Co. And that's how he got into making cheese in a big way, working his way up to running the entire creamery.

After a few stops other cheese producers -- including making the mozzarella for Schenectady's Cappiello's -- he landed a job as the cheese maker at Millerton's Four Brothers, making soft and hard goat cheeses. He also makes a Greek yogurt from the goat's milk -- celeb chef Mario Batali has beeen spotted snapping it up at farmers' markets in New York City. (Try Sean's goat halloumi grilled, it's especially tasty)

Sean says he's also starting to work on opening up his own creamery locally.