The Cheese-y History

I first became interested in making my own cheese while watching foodnetwork. We still had last year's crop of Thai chili peppers and a whole new season about to burst forth, and I was on the look-out for different ways to use them (they pack quite a punch). That led me to a chili risotto...and somehow, due to whey I believe, I ended up looking for easy cheese recipes online.
Milk? Lemon? Cheesecloth? I have those, I said (outloud, strangely, since I was alone), and next thing we know I've made "cottage cheese" or, as I prefer to call it, "ricotta." We then realized that this simple cheese is even more special when made with our fresh herbs.
In that spirit, here are some pics of the plants that started it all:
There's Thai basil (the purple stuff), cilantro, and a couple of cherry tomato trees in there too. And the leafy guy in the middle is zephyr squash — look for posts on that as summer progresses!