I’d been wanting to see some cheese made since I got to La Cumbre and found out that Ben’s dad was a lechero (milkman) and that his host mom made queso. We (my group that lived in Km 15) finally made a date for Sunday morning (the last free morning we had before we left La Cumbre) to see the process. Olivia, my friend Ben’s host mom had about 4-5 gallons of milk which she put in a big container. Then she added the cuajo (rennet) to the mix and stirred it in. Then we waited. After about 45 minutes she added some hot water because it was kind of a cool, wet day. Once the curds formed Arturo and Olivia separated the suero (whey) from the curds.

Arturo, Ben´s neighbor helping to drain out some of the whey.


Olivia, Ben´s host mom taking the whey out of the container.


Oh, such pretty curds


Olivia salting the curds.


My friend Ben packing the cheese into the mold.


The cheese getting pressed in the mold. We didn´t quite have exact weights to use to press it as you can see. Then we let it set like this for about 45 minutes.


Here’s Olivia proudly holding the finished product which was delicious by the way. We tried it right after this picture was taken!! It doesn’t get much fresher than that.