One of the joys of our cheese is the lack of processing chemicals. It can also be a hindrance as the cheeses continue to ripen and loose moisture. While still fabulously tasty, they become a touch unruly in the cut into a wedge department. For these few cheeses we had, an alternate delivery was needed. Enter, the home cheese shredder which, if you’re just doing a cup at any given time, works wonderfully BUT several wheels at time causes their quick demise. I think we went through two or was it three. At any rate, the quest for a commercial grade shredder was on and we thought we had hit pay dirt!

Joe found a dealer with just what we needed and, more importantly, in our price range! He gave it to Joe to take back to Creamery and test run before we purchased it. It was  perfect except for the gigantic size of the grate. It was perfect except it’s no longer made and parts aren’t available. Or even made. Drat! Many phone calls back and forth are made with the dealer to confirm this and to set up a meeting to return his property.

Back to the shop we go in the hopes that another miracle could be unearthed in his warehouse. Nope. Nothing. But wait, there is this slicer thing he just go in. It could work. Duct tape removed from the ‘cord fix’ in back, Dito Dean looked a little more promising. With his merchandise manual in hand, we find grating wheels of different sizes can be ordered but it would be costly AND take several days. Joe suggested while we wait, could we plug it in and hear how it sounds? After many embarrassing attempts at different outlets (looking for one that “works”), the machine is brought in to the showroom where it was confirmed to be dead. By this time the shop owner is completely done with us. Joe innocently asks how much he’d take for the machine as it stands. “Just take it. Go” We promise to return with cheese. “No, don’t come back”. Our welcome worn away, we left with a mess of metal and a challenge.

Always up to repair, Joe set off to replace faulty fixes and broken parts, recreating it’s poor damaged feet and even finding the grate wheels at a far more reasonable price. Before I knew it, it was time to test out our latest member of the team. In mere seconds, the job was done!  Well, as long as we have cheeses that need grating, we’ll be offering it and it looks like we’ll have plenty. In the Doorstop, Wisp o’ Smoke and Galiki this spring. We tried a new polymer coating that just isn’t what we’re used to and have a few batches that aged far faster than we’d planned but that’s another story.