Strohmann Breeding 3/15/21
On March 2, 2021, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute offered a virtual class unlike most others. Jessica Keahey, founder of Sweet Freedom Cheese, led a group of OLLI students along an hour and a half journey about cheese and the process making cheese entails.
Keahey gave facts on Ricotta, describing its early Sicilian roots. “Ricotta was traditionally made from sheep’s milk, so if you are in Italy, you would usually have a sheep’s milk ricotta. What we are having today is cow’s milk cheese.” Keahey went into detail onto the homogenization, pasteurization and creation of cheese, cooking and stirring the cream along with the students.
Cooking along with the students, Keahey offered almost individual assistance to students, asking for periodical updates on cheese making. “Do you all have curds yet? I do.” A student in the Zoom is heard yelling “Yay!” as she found her cheese was coming along nicely.
Keahey founded Sweet Freedom Cheese in 2013 and has studied extensively with cheesemakers and mongers in the US and around the globe before opening the cheese shop in 2018, the same year she was chosen as the scholarship recipient for the American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional exam and earned the CCP distinction. Jessica holds a WSET Level 3 certification with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and has also recently been profiled in Women Make Arkansas: Conversations with 50 and Culture Magazine.
OLLI classes, programs and activities are geared toward the interests of adults 50 and over, but there are no age restrictions or academic prerequisites. Anyone is welcome to participate.
Annual membership is $50 and Arkansas Alumni Association members pay $40 every year. Courses are individually priced and payment is due at the time of registration.
For more information, visit olli.uark.edu.
