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Comment by reedlaw | Hacker News Reader

When I saw this book mentioned in From Dawn to Decadence in the context of the 19th century increase in mechanization and loss of free time it struck a cord. I've noticed my own free time activities become increasingly harried as I strive to make my leisure time as "productive" as my work time. One solution I've found is to deliberately spend more time doing traditional time-consuming activities such as reading, cooking, making cheese, physical activity, etc.

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Yeah me too! I cannot really relax reading or a watching a movie till I have done something monotonous, which usually turns out to be mopping or sweeping.

Tell us more about cheese-making!

www.leeners.com

I haven't made cheese yet, but I know someone who does it all the time and he recommends them. I have done a fair amount of winemaking. It's like making bread: you just need the patience to accept that yeast works in its own timescale. Other than that, there's nothing particularly difficult about it.

Now that I have a source of raw milk (it helps to live out in the sticks, surrounded by small farms), I plan to get started cheesemaking soon.

I am quite into breadmaking, keen to take on something else. We'll need these skills when the West collapses!

First you need a source of raw milk. Then it's really simple. Simply leave your milk out in a wide-mouth jar for a few days until it becomes separated. Then drain the liquid (whey) by pouring through a cheesecloth (gauze works fine). Tie the cheesecloth around a wooden spoon and hang over a container. The solid part is cream cheese. The whey is also useful for cooking (can be a water substitute in almost any recipe) or can be refined into a whey cheese (such as ricotta) by boiling the whey.

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