Who likes cheese? Who likes goat cheese? Well, goat cheese is not so hard to make, but it requires a lot of time.
The thing that takes so much time is waiting for the pasteurizer to finish preparing the milk for cheesemaking. My parents run a goat cheese dairy, and they've been making cheese for 25 years.
If the Raspberry Pi could be linked with temperature sensors to send an alarm to the cheesemaker, then he or she could spend time elsewhere on the farm, instead of waiting and checking on the heat to reach a certain temperature.
And this problem is not limited to just my family: The best tasting cheeses (from cow or goat) come from small dairy farms, whose milk is fresher and richer in flavor than big dairies, or homogenized milk. Small dairy farms are flourishing (e.g.,
http://www.southerncheese.com/index.html) , thanks to farmers markets and smart foodies.
But even more people could get into the business with some inexpensive controls, such as R-Pi offers. So whatever effort is made, it oughtta be open source to allow more small dairies to benefit.
The BrewPi project aims in a similar direction.
http://brewpi.com/ However, that project is more ambitious, and seeks to control the whole fermentation and beer making process. Most cheesemakers I know probably won't want to try to automate the whole process. But
it would be a big help to receive a text message on their phone (or an email), when the temp sensor hits it's mark. Anyone up for the challenge? Drop me a line! I've got no electronics skills, but I'll do what I can to help (including possibly buying parts)!
