We flagged this one back in December as a date worth holding. Now it's three weeks out, and the seats are going faster than usual for a weekday workshop, so this is the last reminder before we stop mentioning it every week: the milk-handling workshop is set for February 22 in Petaluma, and registration is open through next Friday.
We've had a few members ask what, exactly, three weeks of runway buys you for a one-day workshop. The honest answer is a little logistics and a little mental prep, and both matter more than they sound like they should.
The part that isn't about the workshop content
The workshop itself covers raw milk intake, cooling curves, and the handling windows that separate a clean vat from a problem you won't see until the wheel is three weeks into the cave. Cooling milk quickly and holding it at the right temperature through the whole handling chain is basic dairy science, but the timing details are easy to get sloppy about once a routine sets in — extension guidance on home and small-scale pasteurization walks through the same cooling-curve logic the workshop will cover, and it's a useful refresher to skim beforehand.
That's the material. But the members who get the most out of a day like this tend to be the ones who show up having already looked hard at their own intake log for the past month — not to have answers ready, but to have questions ready. "Is my cooling curve actually where I think it is, or where I assumed it was the last time I checked" is a different question in the room than it is on paper. Bring your actual numbers from the last few weeks, not your general sense of how things usually go.
Interest in raw milk more broadly has been getting fresh attention this year, with some coverage this January framing it as a possible growth opportunity for small family dairies rather than just a compliance headache. Whatever you make of that framing, more attention on the category tends to mean more scrutiny of how it's handled, not less — one more reason a refresher on the basics is worth a Thursday.
Who this is actually for
It's not just for members new to raw milk handling, though it's a strong fit for anyone in their first two years running their own intake. It's just as useful for an experienced head cheesemaker who's added a second milk source, changed a supplier, or brought on staff who haven't yet built the instinct for what a cooling curve should feel like versus what it should read like on a chart. If any of that describes your last twelve months, this is worth the day.
We'll also say plainly what this workshop is not: it is not a substitute for your own written food-safety plan, your state inspector's requirements, or a consultant's sign-off on your specific setup. It's a chance to stress-test your handling habits against a clear standard in a room with other members asking the same questions, which is a different and complementary kind of useful.
Registration closes next Friday, and the workshop is capped at a size small enough for real Q&A rather than a lecture hall. If you've been meaning to sign up since we first mentioned it back in December, this is the week to actually do it — check the events page for the remaining seats and the intake-log questions worth bringing with you.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.