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TEWKSBURY - In the Pyrenees, straddling the border of France and Spain, farmers keep sheep to milk so they can make a home supply of cheese and yogurt, just as their ancestors have for thousands of years.

In New Jersey, where dairy products come from supermarkets and specialty food shops, homemade cheese is hard to find.

But the rarity of it, plus the challenge and reward of controlling a product from start to finish, motivated Eran Wajswol to give up his career as a mechanical engineer and become a full-time farmstead cheesemaker in this hilly corner of Hunterdon County.

"I wanted to make a simple, basic food," he said, something he might eat at home where his ideal meal is good cheese, bread and red wine.

He doesn't miss his previous career.

"I started building 10-20 years ago, but I didn't get enough satisfaction from that," said Wajswol with a trace of the accent he brought with him when his family emigrated when he was 18.

What does give him satisfaction is raising sheep (he calls them his "girls"), collecting their milk and transforming it into perfect wheels of cave-aged cheese with a rustic, slightly sharp flavor that most connoisseurs would say tastes like a fine import.

The farmsteading process means controlling the product from start to finish, and Wajswol, New Jersey's only raw sheep milk cheesemaker, jumps in with both hands, satisfying his yen for a homemade product while following contemporary regulations. He currently has 60 ewes, most of them Friesians, known for their milk production. Each year for the past five seasons, he has increased his herd and the production for Farmersville Cheeses L.L.C.

"More sheep means more milk, which means more cheese," he said. Despite the steady increase in production, he sells out his rich, creamy cheese months before the sheep are ready to be milked again. This year he will produce about 1,000 5- and 8-pound wheels.

His long-term goal is to have 500 sheep. For now, Wajswol's 60 ewes keep him busy at his farm, where he installed a modern customized and temperature-controlled cheese-making room.

It is to his cheese room that he brings the sheep's milk each day during milking season until he has gathered the 400 pounds he needs to fill his vat.

Timing is everything in cheese-making, and Wajswol has it down to a science. After 45 minutes of heating, he adds lactic acid-forming bacteria for flavor. After another 45 minutes of heating he adds rennet for thickening. Wajswol uses two kinds of rennet: veal or plant-based, depending on whether he is making traditional or vegetarian cheese.

The milk spends another 45 minutes warming while it coagulates as Wajswol checks the developing curd for thickness. When it is firm enough, with a consistency like thick gelatin, the cutting process begins.

A cheese harp, with long metal spokes that cut through the curd, slices and dices to separate it from the white, milky whey, the watery part of the mixture that must be pressed out. And press it Wajswol does, first by hand through a sieve and into a cheese mold, then by machine. Leaving in too much whey can cause cheese to sour quickly and ruin the taste.

All cheese is made the same way; the variations come in the types of milk, bacteria, rennet, marinade and the length and conditions for aging.

When his wheels of cheese are formed and pressed, he takes them to his underground cave where they are immersed in a salt brine for one to three days. This makes the cheese expel water, absorb salt and form a protective rind.

Then comes the waiting and turning. The cheese wheels are protected in a cave where the thermostat always reads 53° as they dry out and cure, developing the mature flavor that makes them taste like their European counterparts.

Twice each day, Wajswol or his 14-year-old daughter climb down into the underground cave and flip over the ripening cheeses to ensure proper consistency.

New Jersey law requires raw-milk cheeses to be cured for a minimum of 60 days before consumption. Two months is the earliest Wajswol considers cutting a cheese; some ripen for additional weeks or months.

Wajswol doesn't add herbs or spices to his cheeses. "The natural flavor speaks for itself," he said.

Some European sheep graze in meadows filled with fresh herbs and the flavor carries over to the milk and cheese. Wajswold limits the grazing time of his flock, preferring instead to feed them a high-quality alfalfa in order to control the flavor of the milk.

This year, he has begun experimenting with cheeses rolled in herbs de Provence to see if he likes the flavor. He also has poked holes in a few experimental cheeses in the cave, the traditional method of making blue cheese. Molds inside the cave create the blue veins through the cheese wheels and he's looking forward to tasting the result.

A new product he has planned is a rich, creamy sheep's-milk yogurt like those he enjoyed in the Pyrenees.

Well received by his customers, Farmersville Cheeses are sold as near as Bon Appetit in Princeton Township and as far away as San Francisco. It's also sold as Oldwick Cheese. As a local artisanal product, it has gained the attention of the local chapter of Slow Food, and chapter president Jim Weaver serves it as often as he can get it on the cheese plate at Tre Piani Restaurant in Plainsboro.

Wajswol's first batch of cheese this year is cured and ready to be eaten. For information see his Web site (www.farmersvillecheeses.com).

-- -- -- Once you find a good-quality sheep's-milk cheese, chances are you will want to eat it plain, as Wajswol does. But in case you want to use it in a recipe, here are a few from "The Cheese Bible" by Christian Teubner (Penguin, $32.95).

Preheat the oven to 400° and grease a baking dish. Place the peppers on a baking sheet and roast until their skins blister, then cool in a covered pot for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 350°
Pull the skin off the peppers, slit them open lengthwise up to the stalk on one side and open up. Remove the core and the white ribs. Mash the cheese with a fork and mix with the egg and sour cream. Stuff the peppers with the cheese mixture, close them and place them in the baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with oil. Bake for about 40 minutes or until done.