Cheese By Hand: Recent Episodes
Sasha Davies
In the summer of 2006, my husband and I visited, interviewed, and, in some cases, worked alongside artisan cheesemakers–mostly farmstead–across the country to better understand their experience. We called the project Cheese By Hand. Each episode captures a visit to one specific farm. Together they provide a snapshot of the industry during a time of incredible growth and development.
October 2006
Name: Cato Corner Farm
Owners: Elizabeth McAllister and Mark Gillman
Location: Colchester, CT
Animals: Milking 18-25 Jersey cows
Cheeses/Products: Dutch Farmstead, Hooligan, Brigid’s Abbey, Black Ledge Blue, Bloomsday, Vivace, Vivace Bambino, Womanchego. These are their most regularly produced cheeses- to see the list of seasonal or less frequently made cheeses check their website.
Elizabeth began farming in the late ’70s when she bought the land that Cato Corner Farm stands on today. She started out raising sheep and goats for meat. This was a largely seasonal business cycle- the animals were born, raised, and then slaughtered in the spring and summer. Seasonal is not ideal economically and unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that once your season is over you get to take the rest of the year off as there are always things to be done on the farm and the ewes, does, rams and bucks have to be fed throughout the winter. So after a decade of producing meat, Elizabeth began thinking about other ways of farming. In the early days, she was working with 150 sheep and 40 some odd goats who produced lamb and kids each year. She talked to us about her meat farming days while she was waiting for their vet to show up to do some routine checks on their herd. A neighbor who has goats pulled into the drive to wait for the vet as well and Elizabeth couldn’t resist asking them to tell Mark (who was at the hardware store when everyone arrived) that these were goats that Elizabeth had bought for them to begin milking. None of us could hold a straight face longer than about 20 seconds when Mark showed up and barely refrained from freaking out about the goat kids in their driveway.
After this introduction, Mark took us on a tour of all the cheese areas. It is very common on our visits for us to go through all the cheese areas before taking a step out into the field with the animals- simply for sanitation reasons. Mark started us out in the cheesemaking room- a space that seemed small when I thought about the volumes of cheese Cato sells at NYC Greenmarkets and various regional retailers. But clearly it is getting the job done. Mark and his cheese crew are making cheese four days a week now (up from 3) and batches are typically around 1250 lbs of milk.
It’s not that the cheesemaking and maturing rooms are shiny and new but they are satisfyingly clean and organized. Maybe I was preparing myself for the return to New York sized spaces but there was a certain efficiency to both the make and maturing rooms. The cellar was fascinating to me because it is one large room that holds all of the styles they produce from rough-edged tommes to washed rinds and blues. There is enough space to separate cheese types "geographically" if you will but they are still all sharing the same air. You can imagine that with the range of cheeses the aroma in the cellar is complex- the heavy air reminds you of milk and a damp basement at the same time.
Although Mark grew up on this farm, he wasn’t here for the evolution from meat to cheesemaking. Elizabeth was manning the meat production when she found out about a value-add incentive program being offered by the state of Connecticut and she sought more information. Interested by what she had heard, began the transition from meat to milk producer in the mid-’90s. She sold her livestock, purchased cows, and invested some capital to add on a cheesemaking room, an aging and cold storage area, and an updated milk parlor. Her cheesemaking officially began in 1997.
The switch to cows was both for personal taste reasons (she isn’t wild about some varieties of goat cheeses) and for the versatility of cow milk. The decision to make raw milk cheeses was an easy one for Elizabeth because she grew up eating fine cheeses- her father was a food enthusiast with a passion for cheese- many of them raw. You can see the influence of her cheese-infused childhood in the variety she chose to produce. The in-ground cellar that we toured with Mark was an expansion they did a few years ago as their production and variety increased beyond what they could do in the small space allocated for maturing upstairs. The former "cave" upstairs now serves as greenmarket cold storage- it is lined with the standard, gigantic coolers that many producers to haul their goods to market.
Elizabeth basically ran the farm on her own for a few years; she moved the cows around in their 40 acres of pasture, milked, made and aged the cheeses. Meanwhile, Mark was working as a schoolteacher across the country. He found that his interest in farming was increasing and that although he enjoyed teaching he was feeling a pull to return home and reacquaint himself with the land he knew as a boy. It was 1999 when Mark came home and partnered with Elizabeth in her ambitious operation. Through a series of events, Mark and Elizabeth’s roles on the farm became more defined. Mark had a natural interest in the cheesemaking and gradually began spending more of his time on that than out with the animals. Elizabeth focused her energy on the herd.
A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of hearing Elizabeth speak at an event in New York and the one thing I distinctly remember her saying was, "we make the cheese because it allows us to keep the cows." I know for a fact that, although she is a big fan of her cows, she also enjoys making and eating Cato Corner cheeses. Their operation illustrates the miracle of cheesemaking- through the same basic process milk can be transformed into so many different tastes and textures. Beyond their cheeses, something I appreciated about Mark and Elizabeth was the bold moves they each made to get to their current positions. Elizabeth took her farm in a totally new and yet sustainable direction and Mark allowed himself to follow his gut which was pulling him back to the farm. Their farm feels like family- the good part of a family that is close enough to make you feel comfortable and still loose enough to give you room to grow.
September 2006
Name: 3 Corner Field Farm [Update-As of August 2020, it appears the farm is temporarily closed.]
Owners: Karen Weinberg and Paul Borghard
Location: Shushan, NY
Animals: Milking 120 ewes and raising hundreds of lambs each year for meat and some for replacement milkers.
Cheeses/Products: Brebis Blanc, Shushan Snow, Feta, Ricotta, milk, yogurt, grass-fed lamb meat, sheepskins
Karen Weinberg has always known that she wanted to be a farmer. She didn’t grow up on a farm, she didn’t spend time working on a farm- yet somehow she just knew that farming was in the cards for her. Being the ambitious woman that she is she lobbied hard for her dream with her husband Paul and yet she was humble enough to take his coaching. He explained to her that in order to be a successful farmer she needed to have capital and an education. Once she had her Ph.D., her first baby, and the couple owned a small apartment in Brooklyn they began looking for farmland in New York state.
They settled on the farm they own now after renovating and selling another property in Washington County. Shortly after purchasing their farm, Paul took advantage of an offer to work in Paris and they moved to France with their two young daughters. During their years in France, Karen fell in love with cheese and began to dream about making cheese herself someday. When they returned to New York she hit the ground running to transform their property into a sheep dairy; renovating existing farm structures and evaluating the pastures. Their initial plan was to milk sheep and sell all of the milk wholesale, they had an outlet for this nearby- Old Chatham Sheepherding Company. This plan got them started milking sheep and eventually they transitioned to making yogurt and cheese on their own. In recent years they expanded their offering by raising their annual crop of lambs on pasture to add meat to their list of products.
3 Corner Field Farm is approximately 100 acres with about 40 acres of grazable pasture. Karen has worked with neighbors over the past 5 years to expand their grazing land to 120 acres through leases. Many people in their community were doubtful when they began, they said that running sheep on the land would destroy the pastures (this is the reputation of sheep). 3 Corner’s pastures are luscious, verdant- teeming with variety and life. Karen explained that after a couple of seasons neighbors noticed the transformation in the pastures that had been grazed by the sheep and began to approach her to offer up their fields for grazing.
As we strolled around the farm before dinner, Karen talked about the meat side of her operation. All 3 Corner lambs get milk from their mothers for a few weeks and then they are transitioned carefully onto pasture. Lambing is the only part of the year when the animals (ewes and lambs) spend time in the barn. Male and female lambs are separated and rotated through different pastures- each of these paddocks is protected by a guard dog. Beginning in September, groups of lambs are selected (by size) every few weeks to go to slaughter. Either Karen or Paul drives the lambs to the meat processor (who has been carefully selected)- they do this in large part because they are committed to knowing that their animals are handled well throughout their entire lives, right through to the end.
The sheep at 3 Corner Field Farm are out on pasture their entire lives except when they are first born and then when they give birth. During the winter months, their long coats protect them from the cold and the frozen ground provides them with a dry and solid surface which is good for their hooves. Bales of feed are strewn about in different sections of the pastures so that the sheep’s manure is spread across the land and not overly concentrated in one area. The pastures are hayed periodically throughout the growing season, in between the times they are grazed by the ewes. There is a great, detailed explanation of the cyclical/seasonal progression of the ewes and the farm on the 3 Corner website.
The next morning we headed out to the milking parlor. Paul is the designated milker and is enjoying the arrival of fall because it means they have recently dropped to one milking per day. When the sheep come through the parlor they get a bit of grain to supplement the forage which makes up most of their diet. We were visiting the farm during a damp weather spell so while Paul milked he was also closely examining the ewes’ feet for soft spots. This is something that happens to their hooves when they don’t dry out completely- spots of irritation crop up in the crevices of their hooves. It is something he can treat quite easily when the ewes are all in the stanchion.
After milking the ewes are walked out to pasture; they are put on a new section every day. We followed them with Karen and their trusty sheepdog Sweep. The pasture was amazing- the alfalfa was at least knee-high and there were numerous other species growing up around it. While we watched the sheep wade into the green that touched their bellies Karen debunked myths about sheep destroying pasture. She explained that sheep love the most tender parts of the plants they eat evidenced by the previous day’s pasture where we could see that all that remained were stalky, woody shoots of grasses and legumes. Sheep who are turned out on meager pastures will get close down to the earth and nip at the tender, fresh beginnings of grass thus their reputation for ruining pasture. Like any other ruminant sheep will overgraze an area if they are not managed properly and given enough pasture to eat.
In the afternoon we made Feta. Karen takes immense pleasure in the cheesemaking part of her day. Often she makes on her own although these days she gets some help from her eldest daughter Emily. Her vat is small and she does everything completely by hand including cutting the curd with a knife and stirring it for about 20 minutes with her hands and arms. She likes the direct, tactile interaction with the curd and feels it has helped her learn more quickly because she is working with all of her senses.
3 Corner Field Farm is made up of four small businesses: a sheep dairy (not to mention a haying operation they put up a lot of their own feed for winter), a creamery, pastured-lamb production, and also sheepskin processing. The latter two bring in additional income and they honor the tradition of respecting the animals in that the farm provides them with the best life possible and then does not waste any parts of the animals once they are slaughtered.
During our trip, I’ve thought a great deal about the lack of connection in the way that we think about dairy products and the animals it takes to produce them. There is not much to remind us of that connection in our day to day lives and at 3 Corner Field Farm, the connection is completely visible. This farm reminded me to be thankful to the sheep for providing us with food and also to be thankful that people like Karen Weinberg and her family become farmers.
September 2006
Name: Oakvale Farmstead Cheese [Update: It appears that Oakvale is no longer in business.]
Owners: Dale & Jean King, Elizabeth and Randy Finke
Location: London, OH
Animals: Milking a herd of 70 cows- primarily Holstein with some Brown Swiss
Cheeses/Products: Farmstead Gouda- original and flavored
Oakvale Farm is a beautiful example of a dairy farm and farmstead cheese operation involving multiple generations of one family. Dale King grew up on a dairy farm in Hilliard, now a bustling suburb of Columbus, OH. Until about 10 years ago, he and his brother had a successful 100 cow dairy and grain farm in Hilliard on a piece of land that had been in their family since 1853. When they decided to give up that farm they were milking their 100 cows in a parlor that was 100 yards away from a subdivision. Dale says that he and his brother could see the writing on the wall- urban creep was not abating any time soon. So they sold and Dale and Jean started over in a new community just 20 miles west of Columbus.
When they settled in London, OH to create a new dairy and grain farm their daughter Elizabeth and her husband Randy joined them. They farm approximately 600 acres- some owned by them, some leased from neighbors, and they milk 70 cows. The cows are fed a combination of feed grown on their own land including corn silage, timothy and alfalfa, and hay mix and grain. During good weather the cows are allowed out on pasture and when the weather is wet and the ground is muddy they are generally not allowed out in the interest of maintaining good pasture conditions and keeping the animals out of thick mud.
Randy, who comes from a long line of dairy farmers in Southern Indiana, is the herdsman. In our conversations with him about their herd management decisions it was clear that he is committed both to milk quality and longevity in his animals. He does a lot of research and work on the genetics of his herd and because of his capabilities in this area he has been able to bring in a bit of extra money to the farm by producing and selling some desirable stock. While he is a firm believer that while genetics and breed are important, management and feed are the way that one influences milk production and quality.
Initially, the families were farming grain and selling fluid milk as they had done for years in their former location. Milk prices have not been doing well for quite a few years now and they were finding that the farm was not effectively supporting two families. When Jean read an article in 2001 about a family of dairy farmers in Georgia (Sweet Grass Dairy) who began making artisan cheese, she saw a possibility for her own family. Elizabeth began doing research on cheesemaking. She took a short-course at the University of Wisconsin and visited a number of artisan cheesemakers to get an understanding of what it would take for Oakvale Farm to produce cheese.
They built a cheesemaking facility that will be able to handle all the milk produced by their herd. Three years into it they are making cheese one day a week, usually the vat has about 2500-3000 lbs of milk in it. The day that we observed they were working with the production from just one milking- about 1600 lbs of milk which will yield approximately 160 lbs of cheese. Originally the plan was for Dale and Elizabeth to focus on cheesemaking while Randy would tend the cows and assist Jean with cheese sales. After a short time the families realized that the cows required more attention so Elizabeth has shifted her focus to working with Randy. Dale is now the head cheesemaker so we spent a good part of our day with him in the cheese room learning about the Oakvale Gouda process.
I’ve never seen a vat like theirs. It is shaped like the number 8 and it is amazingly quiet for a piece of equipment with some motorized pieces. Dale had come over to the cheese plant earlier in the morning (while we were drinking coffee with Jean) to culture and rennet the milk. By the time we arrived Dale and his assistant were attaching the cheese harps to the vat to begin cutting the curd. While the cheese harps sliced through the curds we looked out the cheese room windows to watch the latest set of Holstein and Brown Swiss calves stretching and feeding near their pens.
After cutting and some stirring, the curd is washed, which means that about 1/3 of the whey is drained off and hot water is added back into the vat to raise the temperature and to reduce the acidity. While the water is being added the curds are stirred. At a certain point the stirring stops and the curds need to sit until they hit the target pH and have the proper texture. During this "sitting" time we checked out the brine tank and aging room. Once the curds were ready, Dale and his assistant corralled them at one end of the vat so they could scoop curds easily into the molds. Over the next 24 hours the wheels will be pressed with increasing pressure and flipped on a regular schedule. Oakvale has a large pneumatic press that allows them to control the pressing stage with precision.
Dale is experimenting with a coating on some wheels to see if it prevents spots of blue and green mold from growing on the Gouda’s straw-colored surface. Although the mold doesn’t influence flavor in the cheese, some retailers would rather not see anything on the surface of the wheels. Oakvale sells their cheese to a number of local stores and also in key locations around the country. Even though they are looking at some larger scale clients they continue to go to the farmer’s market in Columbus on Saturdays. It feels like growth has not happened as quickly as the folks at Oakvale expected when they started making cheese but even they admit that this has given them time to tinker with their cheese recipe and aging techniques which will help them set their best foot forward when the doors of the cheese world blow all the way open for them. For the moment, it is nice to know that while their cheese works its way to retailers around the country, it is also available directly from the farm. Like I said early on- cheese by mail is a miracle of the modern world.
September 2006
Name: Crave Brothers Dairy Farm
Owners: Charles, George, Thomas, and Mark Crave Location: Waterloo, WI
Animals: 550 milking Holsteins with additional replacements
Cheeses/Products: Mascarpone, Fresh Mozzarella, Farmer’s Rope, Les Freres, Oaxaca
We hit the ground running when we arrived at Crave Brothers. Debbie and I had met briefly in July at the ACS conference. George was part of a panel about the terroir of the dairy cow. It was definitely one of the more interesting things I attended at the conference because it covered the areas that are not usually discussed by cheese retailers and enthusiasts but are integral to the production of cheese: animal and land management. Crave Brothers is run by four brothers: Charles, Thomas, Mark, and George. They grew up on a 40 cow, family-size farm in Wisconsin. In the current operation, each brother has an area of responsibility best suited to their interests and skills. Charles manages crops and equipment upkeep, Thomas monitors animal health and compiles the feed, Mark is responsible for milking operations, and George runs the cheese operation.
George and his brothers rented a farm in Southern Wisconsin, Mt. Hoereb, where they milked just under 60 cows. The landscape was largely rolling hills and they were finding it challenging to farm the land efficiently. So in the early ’80s, they bought land in Waterloo, WI- a flat expanse of 300 acres that was appropriate for their plan to operate a larger scale, modern dairy operation, and farm most of their own feed. They sold fluid milk for years until they got the notion to get into the cheese business. In 2001 the Craves broke ground on their cheese facility which is across the road from the free-stall barns and milking parlor. The pipes that move milk from the parlor to the cheese room were laid under the road that separates the two buildings. George produced his first vats of cheese in the spring of 2002.
Talking to George during a short break he took from morning cheesemaking, we realized that he and his brothers are interested in taking advantage of the development of new technologies to improve their farm. For example, they are planning to install a manure digester which will take in the manure from their 600+ cows and separate it into three usable materials: liquids, solids, and methane gas. The liquids will be used to irrigate Crave Farm fields, the solids will be used as fertilizer on the farm’s fields (excess can be sold to other farmers), and the methane gas will be converted to fuel which will be sold back to the local power grid.
George returned to the cheese room and we tasted cheese with Debbie, learning about the production schedule and volume that Crave produces. For a farm milking over 550 Holsteins and putting almost all of it into their cheese facility, Crave Brothers is nimble. Their cheese production schedule is determined by orders for that week. When we were there it was the beginning of the late summer tomato craze so the primary make was fresh mozzarella. Debbie commented that when the first freeze hits in October they see a dramatic shift in orders for mozzarella and an increase in demand for their other products.
The cheese room has three vats, two of them hold 26,000 lbs of milk and are used for the production of the fresh cheeses and dairy products. the smaller vat holds 5,000 lbs and is used to produce Les Freres. When we walked through the production room with George the team was in full mozzarella swing. The milk is cultured and set in the large vats, cut and then the hot curds are pumped with the whey over to a trough-like table where they are kept warm. The hot curds are drawn out of the water by hand with buckets and then put into a machine that stretches curd for all styles of pasta filata (stretched curd) cheeses. It does this through a series of internal augurs. This allows the Craves to switch easily between various sizes of mozzarella and also to produce the more intensely stretched Farmer’s Rope and Oaxaca.
Les Freres is the most involved cheese make at Crave, the curds are ladled by hand, and also the cheese is the only one they produce that requires aging. Debbie has been managing the construction of a new in-ground cheese cave and tasting room beneath the cheesemaking facility. The cave will allow the Craves to produce more Les Freres and the tasting room will enable them to host events and to have a more spacious gathering place for the numerous groups who come to the farm for tours. It is wonderful to know that a facility like Crave will be open to visitors regularly so that people can not only taste their product but that they will also be able to see the farm that is the heart of this business.
September 2006
Name: Carr Valley Cheese, Inc.
Owner: Sid Cook
Location: LaValle, WI
Animals: Carr Valley gets cow milk from 40 farms (within 20 miles) each milking no more than 70 cows, sheep milk comes largely from one dairy that sells to CVC through the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Coop, and goat milk from a group of 8 farms in the Green Bay area.
Cheeses/Products: Are you ready? CVC makes over 65 different cheeses. Look at them all on the Carr Valley website. But essentially if you can think of a style of cheese, Sid has probably made it.
I am wondering if anyone else out there in cheeseland is wondering how Sid Cook’s Carr Valley Cheese pumps out over 65 varieties of cheese in what seems to be a sizable volume... I have been thinking about this for three years at least and could only imagine that he was like the Willy Wonka of cheese. Of course, the less optimistic part of my mind was wondering if it was going to feel like a big factory... my first instinct was definitely closer to what I actually saw.
We met Sid at the facility in Mauston, Wisconsin. Greg O’Neil, one of the owners of the Chicago retailer Pastoral was also in town and joined us on the Carr Valley Cheese tour. There are three cheese plants at Carr Valley, all relatively close together, each with a buzzing retail shop that sells all of the Carr Valley cheeses. The Mauston plant also had a viewing window where you can watch milk being transformed into cheese in any of the three large vats and also large areas for pressing, brining, waxing, storing and packing.
Sid is a fourth generation cheesemaker. He drove us through the valley where he grew up- often called Irish Valleyand past the farm and home/cheese house where he was raised. Cheese might as well be in his blood. He described his relationship with cheese as a kid perfectly when he said, "you opened up the door on the side of the kitchen and there was the vat." The first cheese plant that his father operated was in a valley called Carr Valley which is the name Sid still uses today. Sid worked with his father for years before taking over the business in the mid 70’s. He and his brother made Wisconsin-style cheddar in that plant for 10 years. Eventually in 1991 he purchased another cheesemaking facility with a layout that would allow for more flexibility and the development of more styles of cheese.
There are three "plants" in use today of which we visited two. The Mauston location is largely used for European style cheeses and a number of Sid’s American Originals. Whereas the LaValle plant is used largely for cheddar production. Sounds like a gigantic operation right? Let me break down my impression in the most basic terms: Carr Valley is bigger than many in the artisan cheese market. However, while handling a large amount of milk day in and day out the milk purchasing model looks much more like one you might find in Europe.
The cow milk comes from approximately 40 dairies (all within a radius of 15-17 miles of the plant they supply) each milking no more than 70 cows. The sheep and goat milk that he buys are also from smaller farms that pool their milk together. Also Carr Valley didn’t build brand new facilities, rather they found plants that were closed or on their way out of business and modified the interior to meet their needs. Sid has been able to build up Carr Valley like this at least partly because of the years he has spent in the Wisconsin dairy industry, not to mention the generations of cheesemakers in his family that came before him. He understands milk quality inside and out and also has probably worked with more cultures than most people in the artisan cheese business. He also learned how to make his own cultures from his father and grandfather.
Sid distinguishes artisan production (volume of 100,000 lbs or less) from specialty cheese production (over 100,000 lbs but not at commodity level). He makes a number of cheese styles in both of those categories. His smallest productions on some of his artisan cheeses are around a few thousand pounds per year. Although Sid has the ability (read: volume and consistent product) to serve a wide range of customers, individuals to restaurants to specialty supermarket chains, he does a large part of his sales in his own retail stores. Currently he has 5 retail stores and in the two that we visited (they were connected to the plants), visitors flowed through steadily all day long.
Carr Valley employs 70 people total including retail sales people, cheesemakers, packaging and even the drivers of the milk trucks. Man of his employees have been with Sid for well over a decade and in some cases there are multiple generations of families working for CVC. Based on his years of experience and the exposure he has had to various cheesemakers and cheeses, Sid Cook is likely one of the most knowledgeable cheesemakers in the country. He has the kind of confidence that only comes with having lived something.
While Sid remains fairly detached from perceptions others in the cheese industry have about Carr Valley Cheese, he is always game for a healthy competition (like ACS). Like Willi Lehner, Sid is not being arrogant when he tells me that it would be incredibly hard for someone to build a business like his, he is simply being realistic. He started in the game with a definite advantage and has been mindful to always stay in touch with his heritage. This is why he continues to produce the cheeses that the cheesemaking generations before him established in the state and around the country. Among the volumes of Carr Valley originals you will always find bandage-wrapped Mammoth Cheddar done in the traditional Wisconsin style- with pride.
September 2006
Name: Bleu Mont Dairy
Owner: Willi Lehner and Quitas McKnight
Location: Blue Mounds, WI
Animals: Bleu Mont purchases cow milk from local, certified organic dairies practicing rotational grazing.
Cheeses/Products: Bandaged-wrapped cheddar, various styles of washed-rind cheeses. Some are aged just 60 days and others are aged out over a couple of years.
We first met Willi at the Madison farmers’ market which is the largest market of its kind in the U.S. (it has the largest number of producers). There are many cheesemakers at the Madison market and Willi has a prime piece of real estate there. It is a priority for him as he only sells his cheese at the market- to both retail and restaurant customers alike. He is a natural salesman- at least in the cheese world- because he understands that the fastest way onto someone’s cheese plate is via their taste buds... he samples his cheese to you immediately when you approach the stand. I first heard about Bleu Mont Dairy from Mike Gingrich. Mike suggested that we visit Willi on our tour of Wisconsin because he is doing things differently than anyone else on our Cheese by Hand roster.
How is Bleu Mont different? Well, there are no animals at the dairy- not so unusual- and there is no cheesemaking room. There is a curing room (Willi’s term for a cave or maturing room) that he swears is the smallest one in the state of Wisconsin. There is also a skeletal structure in place for a curing room that is soon to become a reality and the envy of many cheesemakers around the country for sure. So how and why does he do it this way? Let me take a step back and tell you a little bit about Willi’s entire cheese career.
Willi’s mother and father are both first generation Swiss immigrants and his father is also a cheesemaker. His father made cheese in Wisconsin for decades, largely in his own facility, and Willi worked with him on and off for years. Armed with a Swiss passport Willi set out to travel in his early 20’s and managed to last for approximately ten years alternating between exploring and working.
One of the things he mentioned doing that peaked my interest was the summer he spent with his brother making cheese in the alps. The two of them took a herd of dairy cows up into the mountains to graze on open pastures and turn their milk into cheese each day. This is a traditional practice in the valleys in and around the Alps. There is not enough pasture in the valleys for farmers to graze their animals year round and put up enough feed to take them through the winter months. Often a number of dairymen will pool their milkers together and send on or two delegates up the mountains for the summer months to make cheese. The beautiful word that encapsulates this entire concept is called transhumance. Regardless of how romantic and pastoral it sounds it amounts to a summer of awesome views and incredibly hard work.
I get the feeling that for Willi it makes sense to have each person to focus on what they do best- the farmer produces the milk and the cheesemaker selects the best milk and produces cheese from that milk. Although he had years of experience making cheese with his father and also with his brother in Switzerland, it wasn’t until 1988 that he made his first batch of cheese under his own name. Fortunately, because of his background in the Wisconsin cheese industry with his father, Willi found people who were willing to allow him to use their facilities to bring in milk and produce his own cheeses. He has done this in a number of cheesemaking facilities in the area near his home, most recently he used the facility at Uplands Cheese to experiment with different recipes using the Pleasant Ridge Reserve shaped forms for the resulting wheels.
In 2002 Willi and Quitas secured a grant from the Wisconsin Dairy Business Innovation Center to visit cheesemakers in the UK and learn the art of aging or maturing cheeses, specifically clothbound cheddar. Armed with this additional knowledge they installed a small cave on their property in 2003. Walking through his in-ground greenhouse and cheese cave is fascinating because in addition to getting information about his aging techniques you get to learn about Willi’s use of and commitment to alternative energy. He uses a great amount of solar energy for his home and his greenhouse and aging facilities and more recently he installed a wind generator that is currently the main source of energy on his property.
As amazing as this first facility is, it is kind of put to shame by the new curing room that is currently under construction. In all fairness, the existing curing room functions beautifully it is just space-challenged. We walked down a short dirt road over to the edge of the construction site. When you stand up at the edge of the rubble you are looking down onto the oblong web-like structure that will soon be covered with concrete and a layer of earth to help regulate temperature and even humidity. It is cool to look at and walk around in but even cooler to think about what it will allow Bleu Mont to do in terms of increasing their cheese production.
After hanging out with Willi and Quitas for the afternoon it makes sense that Bleu Mont Dairy is like no other- and it is clear that this is not done for the purpose of distinguishing themselves in the market as unique it is just the way of living and producing artisan cheese that makes sense to them. We ended our visit with the interview which was conducted over a pint of local Lake Louie beer and tastes of their curing room ripened cheeses- quite a way to spend an afternoon in the rolling hills of Blue Mounds Wisconsin.
September 2006
Name: Uplands Cheese Company
Owners: Mike and Carol Gingrich
Location: Dodgeville, Wisconsin
Animals: 200 cross-breeds. Started with 50 Holsteins and bred in other breeds.
Cheeses/Products: Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Pleasant Ridge Reserved Extra Aged
Even fourth-generation Wisconsin cheesemakers will tell you that Mike and Carol Gingrich are the ultimate artisan cheese success story. Mike worked at Xerox for years when he and his family lived in Southern California where they were both raised. At some point along his corporate path, Mike realized that he was ready for a different lifestyle. Having enjoyed time he spent on the farms of his aunts and uncles when he was a boy, he thought that farm living would be an interesting experience for his own family. Needless to say it was an adjustment- but one that in the long-term they are glad they made. Mike started out raising beef cattle for a few years and eventually switched to dairy farming. He and Carol milked 30 cows for years before they began talking with friends Dan and Jeanne Patenaude their community about becoming partners in a larger dairy.
Although Jeanne had grown up on a dairy farm, Dan got into dairying when the woman who lived across the road from his family was milking 30-40 cows on her own and needed some assistance. Gradually Dan transitioned to running the farm for her. Mike and Dan had a vision for a rotational grazing setup which was possible in their region of Wisconsin if they could get enough contiguous acres to do it. They got together in 1994 and found a 300 acre parcel that they felt could support 200 cows. The acreage was parceled into 19 pastures with all of the buildings, and the original farmhouse, in the center of the property. By the spring of 1995 they were selling fluid milk. Within a short period of time it became apparent that running the farm efficiently, from a managerial perspective, did not require both Mike and Dan full-time. Thus Mike began looking at value-add products that they could produce from the farm.
One unique factor for aspiring cheesemakers in the state of Wisconsin is the requirement to complete an apprenticeship. In order to get a cheesemaking license in the state, you are required to complete specified coursework at the University of Wisconsin and also to spend a certain number of hours working in a licensed cheese plant. The requirements have changed considerably within the last 10 years to create a more flexible program for people looking to get into the cheesemaking industry. As Mike pointed out- if he hadn’t had a partner in his dairy business, fulfilling the requirements would have been incredibly difficult for him to do while running his dairy. Mike spent a year and a half (not exactly full-time) working at Cedar Grove, a cheesemaking facility about 15 miles from his farm.
Many fans wonder how Uplands came up with such a unique and successful recipe. Methodically, of course! Mike looked through the Cheese Primer and identified cheeses that were made with milk produced when the cows are out on high quality, spring and summer pastures. The seasonal aspect of Uplands’ cheese production is key to Mike’s philosophy on producing award-winning cheeses; they make cheese only when the pastures are in excellent condition because they feel that this produces the best kind of milk for aged, raw milk cheeses.
Once he identified a group of cheeses, he ordered chunks of each one from Murray’s Cheese and then invited all of their friends over to select the winner. The group unanimously agreed that Beaufort was their favorite. The next step was to learn how to make Beaufort so Mike went to the University of Wisconsin to work with cheese experts there who helped him learn the ways of Beaufort production. Of course they made some changes to the recipe to account for the difference in wheel size (traditional Beaufort is usually about 90 lbs per wheel and Pleasant Ridge Reserve is about 10 lbs per wheel). They were ready to begin making cheese but not quite ready to construct their own plant so Mike made an arrangement with Cedar Grove to use their facility.
This worked wonderfully for a starting point. Mike and Carol followed the truck filled with their milk up the road to Cedar Grove each day to make cheese. The schedule was a bit tough given that they started their cheese make after the folks at Cedar Grove were finished which meant long days for the Gingrichs. There were also some equipment challenges- for example the press they used at Cedar Grove was a cheddar press and the wheels of Pleasant Ridge Reserve are quite small for that style of horizontal press. Mike said that a couple times they had wheels that would "pop" out of alignment and that to avoid this they had to develop a system of straps to keep the wheels of newly made cheese in place. However- both Mike and Carol are incredibly grateful for the learning time they spent at Cedar Grove. This time afforded them the opportunity to learn what equipment and setup was going to make the most sense for them before they invested capital to build their own facility.
As many of you know, Pleasant Ridge Reserve can be aged for a period of 5-20+ months (read: a long time). Although Mike and Carol had many people who could help them with cheesemaking there weren’t resources or great bodies of information about maturing cheeses. They are largely self-taught and continue to tweak things year to year. There is an immense amount of time and labor involved in maturing Pleasant Ridge Reserve- and keep in mind that as you begin making in the spring of a new season, you are still tending to most of the wheels from the previous year’s production. The Gingrichs were fortunate enough to get their friend of many years Joe Milinovich to come on board at Uplands as their cave manager. He and his two staff members are in the caves 7 days a week washing and turning wheels, cleaning boards and monitoring the environment. Everyone knows that Joe and his team are rocking their job in the caves but we also found out that Joe is quite a talented pig roaster.
The day after we conducted our formal interviews with Mike and Carol we attended the annual pig roast they hold with Dan and Jeanne at the farm. Over 150 people from their community come out for it each year with potluck contributions in hand. We not only had the opportunity to meet other Wisconsin cheesemakers but also some of the original tasting crew that helped determine the cheese Uplands would produce. A great honor indeed. Even with amazing pig parts, noodle salads, freshly picked pears, and pies available at every turn, I still found myself returning to the cheese tent to sample the multiple ages of Pleasant Ridge Reserve...go figure.
September 2006
Name: Faribault Dairy
Owners: Jeff Jirik, Randy Ochs, Mike Gilbertson- these are the three employee shareholders and there are also two non-employee shareholders
Location: Faribault, MN
Animals: The creamery gets their milk via a milk coop that collects milk from numerous dairies.
Cheeses/Products: Amablu, Amablu St. Pete’s Select, Amablu Gorgonzola
When Jeff Jirik says that the Faribault Dairy is a national treasure I wholeheartedly agree. Although the space was first used to produce beer, as a result of its natural characteristics it is ideal for maturing cheese. Faribault Dairy is located in the small town of Faribault, MN. The buildings that are visible from the outside run along a small river and the majority of the facility is built into a tall sandstone bluff. It is not your run-of-the-mill sandstone, rather, it is St. Peter Sandstone. St. Peter’s Sandstone is beach sand deposit from the glaciers of the last glacial age. This sandstone allows water to migrate through it both horizontally and vertically and has a natural capacity for absorbing ammonia just to name a couple of the traits that make it valuable for cheese maturation.
In the late 1930’s Felix Fredrikson, a food scientist for KRAFT, stumbled upon the facility which had been used as a brewery since 1854 and he immediately understood the value of that particular real estate for food production. Blue cheese and this facility have a long history that began with Felix in the late 1930’s (it was the first blue cheese plant in the U.S.) and carried right on through into the early 90’s when the plant was closed down by the conglomerate that took ownership of it in the 80’s. The cave capacity have been expanded over time. The majority of the caves (14-ft wide and 22-ft tall) were dug with basic tools like 4 inch wide chisels. The total cave capacity at the time the facility was closed in the early 90’s was 29,000 square feet. During the time it was open, the creamery produced one of, if not the most appreciated blue cheeses made in the US. The creamery collected milk from approximately 70 local family farms and employed many residents in the community.
One of the employees was Jeff Jirik. He got a job at the creamery after graduating from college. He started out in the group that scraped mold off the outside of the wheels of cheese to make them look more appealing before being sold. Managers quickly realized that Jeff had skills that were useful to them- like knowing how to use a microscope and speaking German with equipment vendors. He advanced steadily in the company, working in many different areas to gain a full understanding of how the business and processes worked. When the plant closed in 1993 he was disappointed- seeing it as a huge loss to the industry and his local community. During the next seven years, Jeff couldn’t get those caves out of his mind. The caves and the attached facility passed through a number of hands after cheesemaking ended and Jeff kept track of the use of the land during those years. When Jeff decided that he wanted to get a blue cheese plant up and running again he decided to call the the property’s owner- a long shot- to see if he was interested in selling.
Call it fate or a big coincidence, that owner was looking to sell. Jeff contacted two of his former colleagues from Faribault and then signed on the property only to begin the mammoth task of cleaning the facility. They did this work in addition to holding other jobs. What made the re-establishment of this facility so intense was the sheer volume of space involved. Once they had finished hauling out mud and junk they sanded and cleaned all of the caves and other facility surfaces. The former cheese plant colleagues were clear that they needed to start in this facility with an absolutely clean slate. Every surface was carefully sanitized before being whitewashed (caves) or covered with USDA approved coatings (work areas).
In early January of 2001 they made a small vat of cheese at the University of Minnesota for a market test. The response was positive and exactly one year later they made their first vat in the old plant. Although it was not possible to contract for milk with the family farms that had supplied the creamery in former years, Jeff secured a sound relationship with a milk coop. This relationship gives Faribault the opportunity to expand their operation and also to specialize batches... for example one of their current projects is to develop a line of organic blue cheeses with local organic milk. Faribault continued with many of the practices that made the former plant so successful- a prime example of this is their testing program. They have an in house lab where they examine moisture and salt contents but they also test every load of milk not only for antibiotics but also for any potentially harmful pathogens. They feel that as producers of raw milk cheese, this is their responsibility to ensure a safe product for their consumers.
I have immense respect for the commitment of Jeff and his colleagues. When you talk to them about their own paths through the cheese industry they all give tremendous credit to the individuals who taught them. There is immense respect for those that came before them and many of those former employees stop by to visit because they are so happy to see the plant running again.
With three large vats designed to crank out over a hundred wheels each day, Faribault intends to put its blue back at the top of the American Blue Cheese list. They began with Amablu- their classic blue- and from that they developed a blue for the more adventurous palette- St. Pete’s Select. The most recent addition to their product line is their Amablu Gorgonzola. These are cheeses you can look for in your local stores- possibly even some supermarkets. Faribault’s access to large quantities of milk and expanding space for aging cheese benefits all of us cheese enthusiasts because it means that their cheeses will be more widely available across the country.
September 2006
Name: Shepherd’s Way Farms
Owners: Steven and Jodi Read Location: Nerstrand, MN
Animals: Total number of adult ewes, approximately 450, 100 ewe lambs. All are East-Friesian crosses.
Cheeses/Products: Friesago, Queso Fresco de Oveja, Big Woods Blue. Several other kinds of cheese are available on a limited basis: Hidden Falls, Harmand, and traditional Ricotta.
I think that most of us have had an experience in life where we think we are set; we think we are finished with the struggling and on our way to something until we find out, that like some kind of cruel joke, the counter has been set back to mile one. And not only are we back at the beginning but usually, we are suffering too- not only from our setback but also disbelief and frustration at our own bad luck. Imagine that you managed to get yourself through the multitude of hoops on the route to farmstead cheesemaking. You pooled enough resources together to get an adequate piece of land, developed a product that sells, settled on a distribution plan, and grew your herd from the ground up, and held a strong place in the market for a solid decade only to be thwarted by an incident that was worse than most you could have imagined. This is what happened to Jodi and Steven at Shepherd’s Way Farm.
An arsonist set fire to the barn that housed all of their ewes and new lambs. Overnight they went from an operation milking approximately 550 with 200 new lambs to a family dealing with the loss of 325 ewes and 200 lambs. This event was incredibly upsetting on an emotional level and a tremendous setback in their business. We wanted to visit Shepherd’s Way because they have become known as "the farm that lost their herd in a fire", and given that the fire happened a year and a half ago and they are still in business, we felt compelled to learn and share who they are now.
Jodi and Steven are acutely aware of their reputation. When we started our farm tour, Steven set out an aerial photo of the farm pre-fire and said, "let’s just get the fire business out of the way." He is completely comfortable talking through the events because he has gone over it so many times and I’m slightly uncomfortable for the exact same reason (I’m another person asking them to tell the story). It is the elephant in the room, something that could be problematic for them when talking about their business and instead because Jodi and Steven are so upfront about it, you really get a feel for how these this family and business has begun to accept this as part of who they are. They have been at their current location for about 5 years- before we dive into the farm tour let me give you a bit of background on them and their path to cheesemaking.
Both Jodi and Steven are Minnesota natives and, as is the case with many of our cherished American cheesemakers, neither of them grew up farming. Steven had worked in a number of jobs involving agriculture and education, eventually concluding that teaching in a conventional system would not be fulfilling for him. He gained an incredible amount of knowledge about agriculture through travel, his graduate degree, and a job that he held as a nutritional consultant for a feed company. Both before and after developing his own farmstead operation, Steven traveled around the country visiting small farms and cheesemaking operations.
The Reads had been looking for some opportunity that would shift their lifestyle more towards having time with their family; Steven read and article about the feasibility of sheep dairying and thought it might be the right solution for them. Jodi was maybe slightly less certain that this was the perfect opportunity at the time and so she gave Steven the green light to proceed with a few conditions: he had to find a place to keep the sheep that didn’t cost him anything, he needed to figure out how to buy the sheep (given that, at the time, the Reads didn’t have money beyond what they needed to cover their living expenses), and there was a loose agreement that he would buy a "reasonable" amount- you know- "some" sheep. Steven found a friend to help him finance the purchase of the sheep, bartered for a place to keep them and got a "great deal" on 40 sheep within a couple of weeks- this should give you a sense of the level of determination the Reads have when they set their sites on something.
They wrote down their goal at that time- it is simple and direct and yet broad enough to house an expanding dream- "We believe that there is a way to live that combines hard work, creativity, respect for the land and animals, and a focus on family and friends. We believe the small family farm still has a place in our society. Everything we do, everything we make, is in pursuit of this goal." That statement is the basis for their farm’s mission statement today.
In 1995 they began milking and by 1996 they were doing it full time and selling their milk via the Wisconsin Dairy Sheep Coop- Jodi contributed some of her time to the development of the coop. 1998 rolls around and the contract guaranteeing their milk seems uncertain by early spring so they begin to consider other options. Keep in mind that with their growing herd and the new farming lifestyle, Jodi is still a full-time employee at the university as an accomplished technical writer. So Steven takes a soap making class and although they produced a batch of beautiful soap with their milk, they realized just how much soap they would have to make to use the milk of their entire herd. Thus they began an informal, regional market survey about cheese.
Shepherd’s Way produced their first batch of cheese in August of 1998. They didn’t have their own facility so they had to rent a space - meaning that they made large batches less frequently to make it more economical. I think about Jodi, who has established herself as a capable and talented cheesemaker over the last decade, working with that first vat of 4500 pounds of milk. Tremendous pressure indeed. Granted she was not alone for those initial batches- she was assisting- but at some point she did take over as the lead cheesemaker and has been doing that since then. The original plan was to allow the cheese to wait for five months before tasting and selling but no one except Steven was actually patient enough to wait so they tasted at 2 months, and with positive feedback from local retailers, they sold out quickly. In the background, their herd was growing and Jodi and Steven were looking seriously for a farm where they can have their herd and cheesemaking operation together.
After a three-year-long farm search, Jodi put an ad in a small paper and got a phone call from Alan Hope who thought she had placed an ad for a piece of farming equipment. When she explained that her ad was for a farm, he said that he had one of those for sale too. Jodi doesn’t strike me as the impulsive type at all and yet when she drove out and saw this farm for the first time she had a strong feeling that this was the one. Based on the drive out to their farm I can understand the appeal- rolling hills dotted with trees and the occasional home. It took them at least a year to pool the resources to close on the farm which they did in 2001.
As Steven walked us through the milking parlor he designed (it is the only sheep parlor I’ve seen yet where the milker is in a pit and the sheep are at ground level), it is obvious that he set it up to flow with a considerable volume of sheep. He explained that their current plan will have them expand to up to 1400 ewes. The parlor, milk, cheesemaking, maturing, and packing rooms are all housed in the original barn- a beautiful old building with some additions off one side. Creating a new space for housing the sheep and the nursery allowed them to do two things that were important to them: they got to allot spaces big enough to grow into (not to mention work in comfortably), and to create a long corridor with windows into each part of the operation: a built-in educational walking tour.
As we walked through the cheesemaking room, Jodi explained that they are working to add onto the cheesemaking portion of their facility so that she can produce their famous Big Woods Blue on-site as they do with all of their other cheeses. Until they have that addition, Jodi will continue to make and age the blue cheese in another facility because of concerns about blue mold contamination of their other non-blue products.
The ewes are moved to different pastures daily, this chore is often handled by their eldest son- with some assistance from the younger boys. We walked out to see the ewes in the pasture and Jodi explained that building the herd back up is a slower process (even more so than usual) because the health of many of them was compromised as a result of the fire. They are all Friesian crosses- some with black faces, some with white- every once in a while you’ll see a spotted ewe in the mix.
Shepherd’s Way is making cheese a couple of times a week at this point as a lot of their time has been focused on figuring out what happens next. When you walk around the farm and out onto pasture with the ewes it is abundantly clear that the fire was not just a setback to a business, the farm and the herd are also an integral part of their family’s life. Listening to Jodi and Steven talk about their future plans you can see that they are planning something more than a business, they are planning to shift their community’s relationship to the landscape, how they think about food, the land, and sustainability.
As a result of the fire, Jodi and Steven have gone through an extensive evaluation of what they want to spend their lives doing. Remember that they could have decided to step out of the farmstead cheese business and instead they’ve elected not only to continue but to expand making more cheese and creating opportunities for education on their farm. Through this process, they have renewed their commitment to the values that lead them to this lifestyle and livelihood in the beginning.
After our day at Shepherd’s Way what stuck with me most about their experience is that it could have played out so many other ways, many of them less desirable. Spending just a day with Jodi, Steven, and their boys, it was so apparent that something incredible and fruitful will come from their loss solely because that is the kind of people they are. They have been generous enough to allow others to participate with them through their entire process from the acquisition of the first herd in the early ’90s, to dealing with the loss of their herd, and now rebuilding. I want to encourage all of you to watch for them in the future. We hope to see the slow and steady resurgence of their product on the shelves in 2007.
August 2006
Name: Amaltheia Dairy LLC
Owners: Melvyn and Sue Brown Location: Belgrade, MT
Animals: Milking almost 300 goats, the herd is made up of various breeds- recently certified organic.
Cheeses/Products: Chevre (Plain and flavored), Ricotta, and Feta
We stopped by the cheese facility to see Sue late in the afternoon on the day before our official visit. She talked to us a bit about how Amaltheia got started and took us on a tour through their cheese plant which is located in the town of Belgrade in a small industrial park. Originally the Browns wanted to build the cheesemaking facility on their land but the state wanted to do a $13,000 EPA study before they would give them the green light to apply for building permits so they secured a spot at an industrial park close to the farm. They’ve got the standard setup- a bay to park their milk truck which collects from the farm every 2-3 days, a 1,000 gallon vat pasteurizer, a large mixer for their flavored chevres, a large walk-in cold storage space and a packaging room. There is additional space for packing materials and they do have an additional cold space that could potentially serve as a maturing area for other styles of cheese.
We interviewed Sue and Melvyn separately because, in their current situation, Sue is at the cheese facility most of the time and Melvyn is at the farm. Although a division of labor like this is typical in a cheesemaking operation like theirs- you can see the added complexity they deal with in having two locations. The Browns met each other in the late 70’s in Guatemala where Sue was teaching and Melvyn was working as an embryologist. Melvyn was one of the pioneers in the practice of harvesting eggs from top quality cows, fertilizing them and implanting them in other heifers. This allowed access to the top genetics without having your best animals undergo intensive breeding not to mention the ability to get a much higher reproductive yield from your best animals. Melvyn was sent to a number of different countries because of the value of his knowledge and skills in embryology.
Although Melvyn has a sort of high-tech animal husbandry skill, his farming methods are based on the small, family farm he grew up on in the Lake District of Northern England. His family and many of their neighbors had small farms to supply themselves with much of their food. The methods used on these farms would be considered organic today- no use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides, and attention to all aspects of the ecosystem- water, soil, animal and bird life. When Sue and Melvyn moved to Southern Michigan (where Sue grew up) and started a family, they cultivated a small farm much like the one Melvyn’s family had. Just as a hobby they got a "small" herd of goats... for the Brown’s this means 50 head.
Years later, Melvyn was offered a job in Montana, so the family relocated. Melvyn had always had this idea about being a goat farmer so when work for him dried up and they heard about a small cheesemaking company that was doing some private label cheese for a west coast outfit and in need of goat milk they decided to put their herd to work. On Thanksgiving day in 2001 the Browns began teaching their goats about milking equipment and selling milk to the local cheesemaker.
Six months later, the Browns had the opportunity to take over the private label cheesemaking business, instruction included, and that is when they became cheesemakers. Not long after they began making cheese they decided that they would like to have their own label and a facility upgrade was necessary. At that time they moved into their current space and developed the Amaltheia label. One of the more interesting names on the market... For anyone who is not familiar with the word Amaltheia you can read about it on the dairy’s website. Sue has been a teacher for 19 years and at the time they needed a name for their label she was teaching Greek mythology. More importantly though, I think the name illustrates how the Browns feel about goat milk- that it is an incredibly nourishing and miraculous food source.
The Browns were awaiting their organic certification documents when we visited. The farm and dairy have been in the financially challenging 3-year transition where they have been spending more dollars for organic feed and yet unable to reap the benefits associated with organic certification in the market. Most interesting to me is that when I asked Melvyn if the transition presented difficulties for them, he explained that they didn’t actually have to adjust much. He pointed only to two things that they changed: the first was replacing the standard teat-dip with highly diluted hydrogen peroxide and the second was that any newborn kids that were given medication not approved by organic standards had to be tagged and sold. Their herd is generally in good health so their losses during kidding season were approximately the same as they’ve been in previous seasons. Their organic feed is coming from farms within a 10-15 mile radius- enabling them to support their neighbors.
Transitioning to certified organic was not something they decided to do solely for the edge it might give them in the market. The way they live their lives day to day is in line with the basic tenets of the early organic movement. Every time Michael or I made a comment about the benefit of providing organic food to the market Melvyn would respond by emphasizing that their decision to go organic is about more than the goats or the milk or the cheese; it is about the soil, insects, air, water, and wildlife. The Browns are passionate about the natural resources in Montana and the opportunity that the state has to be a leader in more sustainable methods of food production and bio-fuels. Amaltheia Dairy reminds me that although certified organic is a label that provides consumers with a baseline of information about a product, it doesn’t give a robust picture of the producer and in Amaltheia’s case this is unfortunate. I know the organic certification will help them in markets where they are less well known I just hope that people will take time to learn even more about them as I think they are an excellent example of "beyond organic" practices.
August 2006
Name: Rollingstone Chevre [Update: In December 2015 a fire destroyed the creamery, they are no longer in business.]
Owners: Chuck and Karen Evans
Location: Parma, ID
Animals: 90 milking, 120 replacements- all purebred Saanens
Cheese/Products: Chevre (in logs or rounds) flavored and plain, Tortas in multiple flavors, Aged Anise and Lavendar wheels, Idaho Goatster, Orange Zest Pecan Wheel, Late Harvest Wheel, Blue Age, Brandywine
Rollingstone Chevre is celebrating its 18th anniversary this month! Many congratulations to Chuck and Karen Evans. I can only imagine what the chevre market was like when they started out in 1988 and they were the first Grade A goat dairy in the state of Idaho- true pioneers. They don’t seem to see themselves as pioneers though, their move into dairy was a gradual one and it all began with the family goat they purchased because their daughter was allergic to cow milk. All of this began in Michigan where they lived with their first goats until moving to the town and home where Chuck grew up in Parma, Idaho.
The Evans’ milked their goats by hand until they were up to a herd of 50 (note: this would take a very, very long time). While they were growing their herd, Karen was making cheese on a small scale, entering it into competitions at the goat shows and getting a lot of positive feedback. With a bit of encouragement from a food critic, Karen and Chuck began to entertain the idea of having a goat cheese business.
When we arrived at Rollingstone they took us on a quick tour of their family farm. Both Chuck and Karen have people helping them most days of the week- this is one of the niceties that comes with being in the business for 18 years- so Chuck doesn’t have to milk every morning and night and Karen gets some assistance with packaging and even turning cheeses that are still draining. This meant that they could take a little bit more time to walk us through their operation. The first room in the cheese facility is still under minor construction because it is being turned into an on-farm tasting room, something Karen has wanted for some time now. The tasting room opening day is scheduled for August 28th- their official cheese anniversary.
While we are totally behind the development of MORE cheeses from Rollingstone we are relieved that Karen is not likely to drop many (if any) of the varieties that she is currently making. Her chevre- plain and in all varieties- is that of someone who has honed their craft over time. We thoroughly enjoyed the tortas, and also her fromage blanc with basil. Of course we wanted to know how many one hit wonders she has made over the years and surprisingly she said that most of their cheeses have such staying power that the bigger challenge was to reign the product line back in to a manageable number of styles. I would bet that Karen’s experience as an artist (both she and Chuck are accomplished artists), showing and selling her work, helped her with sales in the cheese world.
We proceeded to the cheesemaking and aging rooms. Karen and Chuck built their cheese room using pieces of a barn in town that was being dismantled- a testament to the resourceful nature of cheesemakers. Karen still wonders how she and Chuck did all that work themselves, climbing up into the rafters of this old barn to get the beams that support their cheese facility today. Although not every door opens and closes with perfect ease, the facility has worked wonderfully for them for the past 18 years. The only thing missing in their original construction was adequate space for maturing their cheeses. They have a good deal of space for the cheeses they are making now but not enough space to create different environments (temperature and humidity) which would allow them to work on different styles of cheeses.
The Evans’ have plans to build two additional aging rooms this summer. Sounds simple enough until they mention that they are using straw bale construction to dot it. Now I don’t know that this makes what they are doing inherently more complicated but it is definitely interesting and I look forward to reading all about the construction and their experience using these new maturing rooms in the chronicles they promise to keep and share with us. With this added maturing space Karen hopes to make more aged, tomme style cheeses. Although her clients are largely satisfied with the cheeses she produces today, she explained that she wants to experiment with new recipes to challenge herself as a cheesemaker.
In order for Karen to expand her cheesemaking, Chuck will need to expand the herd so that she can continue to fill all her orders for fresh cheese while experimenting with aged products. He is considering an expansion of his milking parlor which is different from most other setups we have seen in that there are no stanchions (bars that lock their heads in place while they are milked) or clips to keep the goats in place. Fifteen goats come into the parlor at a time and stand in a row with access to grain while the milker works the line with multiple milking units along the line. Chuck is definitely a herdsman who focuses on breeding and has and knack for it. His aim is for his goats to be excellent in both form and function.
Chuck’s skills as a herdsman come from years of experience working with all sorts of animals. He shared many fascinating stories about the people he met and places he visited when he was breeding and showing all types of horses. As a result of his patient and inquisitive nature, Chuck had the opportunity to learn from many veterans in the business of showing animals. One of the most interesting things he learned was the practice of managing your animals by learning how they think. This may sound odd but in watching how Chuck manages his herd I can see that he doesn’t use force to get the goats to do what he needs them to do rather he makes the desired behavior the goat’s best and most comfortable option. It is a skill that allows him to be sensitive to animal comfort and still get the results he needs from his animals.
I also got a peek at Chuck’s latest animal project: his chickens. They are incredibly interesting to look at and I can attest to the quality of eggs they produce as I was lucky enough to taste them both scrambled and as part of Karen’s homemade scones (which are to die for)! Luckily Chuck recently found an outlet to sell his eggs as he and Karen are not able to keep up with the chickens’ production levels on their own. Given that both the Evans’ are trained artists they will design a label on their own, as they did for their cheeses, and the eggs will be sold under the name Chuck’s Cheerful Chicks. Solid.
August 2006
Name: Monteillet Fromagerie
Owners: Joan and Pierre-Louis Monteillet Location: Dayton, WA
Animals: 30 milking Lacone/East Freisan sheep, 35 milking Alpine goats (this means they have about 2-2.5x that amount total on the farm- because they are raising replacements and finding outlets for the young males)
Cheeses/Products: Larzac, Mejean, Cardabelle, Fresh Chevre, Fresh Herbed Chevre, Fresh Sheep Cheese, Causse Noir
Joan Monteillet warned me multiple times that I would not want to leave Walla Walla once I had witnessed firsthand all of the amazing things happening there. She was right in all ways except one, it was largely what was going on right at Monteillet Fromagerie that makes me want to stay. When we arrived Joan and Pierre-Louis were just finishing up a late lunch (4 pm) with some friends who had stopped by for an impromptu visit. Pierre-Louis had just returned from the weekly trip to Portland and Seattle to drop cheese and restaurants and, most importantly, sell their cheeses at the farmers’ markets. So we settled in at the table, brought in a bottle of California Pinot Noir (Papapietro Perry), and sampled some of their delectable cheeses.
The Monteillets’ close friends Clare and Jim told us about their recent purchase of two older buildings in the neighboring town of Waitsburg where they will open a small gallery and tapas bar and still have enough room left over for a studio (they are both artists) and living space. This is the kind of thing Joan meant when she talked about the buzz in the Walla Walla Valley.
Before becoming dairy farmers the Monteillets were conventional wheat farmers, the two of them worked 2,000 acres for over a decade. They have definitely taken a sharp turn away from monoculture even though they both admit that their former way of live was indeed more profitable than the operation they have today. I find it almost hard to imagine them doing anything other than what they are doing today because they are so passionate about their craftsmanship and their facility and land illustrate their attention to detail. They saw a wonderful opening to create cheeses to accompany the bevy of wine being produced locally and also to begin to preserve some of the rich agricultural land in the valley of the Touchet River.
Joan and Pierre-Louis have not only crafted a number of beautiful cheeses that can stand alone or accompany local wines, but they are quietly transforming their little pocket of the Touchet River valley into a sustainable farming oasis. When we finished lunch they walked us out through the myriad of non-milkers, kept close by the house along with chickens and ducks, to the sauna they built themselves on a gentle bend in the river. These two started out with just 3.85 acres and have expanded to 31.5 contiguous acres by creatively financing the purchases of land that has gone up for sale around them through the years. Talk to them for a few minutes about their farm and you will understand their level of commitment to diversity in agriculture and the preservation of old buildings and barns that are often left to fall to disrepair.
We walk up the road a bit with Pierre-Louis to see the house where we’ll be staying- yes, an entire house. The home was on one of the pieces of adjoining land they purchased and it took years for them to slowly bring it back up to a livable space. Joan has her glass studio in the room off the kitchen and there are gorgeous glass pieces throughout the house. This home now serves as a place for guests to stay but also as a rental for people interested in having a farming experience. The Monteillets understand that every additional income stream is useful to themas with agriculture, even financial diversity is beneficial.
The next morning we walked a bit further up the road to the cheesemaking facility. When you walk in there is a small, beautiful counter for cheese and wine tasting and doors that go off in many different directions. The Monteillets are forward thinking and Joan has obtained a license for them as a specialty wine tasting room which allows them to legally do events with local winemakers right in their facility. This supports the Monteillets’ belief that if people see all the aspects involved in producing their cheese while tasting their products it has a bigger impact.
We suited up in our cheese room boots and head coverings and hovered around Pierre-Louis as he pasteurized first the goat and then the sheep milk (read: time consuming). I stepped into the cheese room to assist Joan by flipping some cheeses and then was allowed to help her ash and finish off molding the Larzac. The Monteillets are making cheese twice each week and yet each day there is work to be done on previous batches like flipping, salting, and packaging. By the time we thought about lunch we were too hungry to walk past the cheeses in the tasting room without sampling and Joan upped the ante by opening a couple bottles of local wines for us to taste- Bergevin Lane Viognier and Pepper Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon. Both were smashing with the cheeses. We enjoyed the sampling so much that we bagged the idea of lunch and planned for an early dinner at the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe in Waitsburg which is run by two friends of Joan and Pierre-Louis. If you ever find yourself in the Walla Walla neck of the woods I would highly recommend this spot for some bangin’ Southern/Cajun food.
The following morning I trekked up to the cheese plant and met Mave, the daughter of a local winemaker and part-time worker for the Monteillets. I worked with her on packing up Larzacs and Cardabelles for the upcoming weekend markets. While we did this Michael and Joan began ladling the curds which had been set by Pierre-Louis the previous day (remember all that pasteurizing?). I realize that this sounds like quite a charmed life the Monteillets lead however it is not without considerable sacrifice on their part. In addition to impromptu meals with friends, great wine, saunas and acreage along the Touchet River are the 20 hour days spent tending to milkers and replacements, pasture, cheesemaking, cleaning, packaging, and farmers’ markets that are 250+ miles away. Spending time with the Monteillets was a reminder for us that many of the farms we have visited over the last few months are at the tipping point; they have borrowed more than ever before in their lives to create the infrastructure of a dairy farm and a few years in they are nearing make-or-break points in their businesses. I’m not pleading for sympathy votes on their behalf, just reminding you that there is a tremendous amount that goes into these products because these smaller farmers are creating their industry as they go and that requires effort and money.
I encourage you, not only in principle, but in the spirit of gustatory pleasure to partake in what the Monteillets are doing. Although they sell a tremendous amount of cheese in Portland and Seattle markets there is cheese available for the rest of you too- just give them a buzz and place your order. Cheese by mail is a modern miracle.
August 2006
Name: Sea Breeze Farm
Owner: George Page
Location: Vashon Island, WA
Animals: 5 cows (1 Holstein, 2 Jerseys, 2 Milking Shorthorns), six goats (a mashup of breeds), chickens, ducks, sheep (for meat and pasture management), pigs, one pet rabbit
Cheeses/Products: Variety of goat and cow milk cheeses, raw milk, creme fraiche, feta, eggs, meats, wine
There I was pitching our project to Kelli Estrella (Estrella Family Creamery) at the Ballard Farmers' Market unknowingly standing right next to another farmer. When I strolled away, the farmer walked up to me and said he wanted to tell me about his farm, and I gave him the green light to let it rip. This man is George Page, and he owns Sea Breeze Farm on Vashon Island. He and his wife and daughter live in a house on 8.85 acres (3.85 when they first purchased it) with a whole raft of animals (see list above). George doesn't do it all alone. He has a farm manager, Matt Lawrence, who was operating the stand at the market with him that day. As he described the way he manages his farm–graze cows, goats, and sheep on grass, run chickens after them, move pigs around to clear roots and prepare the land for more pasture–my mind went to the section of Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" that covers Polyface Farm. I mentioned this to George, and his eyes lit up. He had just finished reading the book himself and explained how confirming it had been for him. He told me that people are continually pressuring him to specialize rather than diversify. Yet, whenever he removes a single part of his operation, the whole of it doesn't run as well.
We decided to visit George for several reasons, not the least of which was that everyone we met told us that Vashon Island was amazing. There was also the fact that Sea Breeze is not only producing cheese, milk, eggs, and chickens, but they are also making wine under the label Sweetbread Cellars. Nothing short of our dream farm were we to be so bold as to go into farming ourselves. So we went to visit our dream on Vashon Island, which is as beautiful as everyone promised. When we arrived at Sea Breeze, a pack of naughty piglets came tearing down the gravel drive until one of the farmhands spotted the escape artists and rounded them back towards their pen. George was in the commercial kitchen that they installed in part of their home, so he had a place to produce cheese legally.
George isn't adding any cultures to the milk during cheesemaking. We hadn't seen any other cheesemaker do that. Leaving cultures out means that whatever bacteria are present naturally in the milk is what develops the cheese (break down fats and proteins, develop on the rinds, etc.). Once the cheeses are made and have adequate time to drain, George stores them in the cellar in an open-air cabinet surrounded by mesh to prevent flies from getting in (like an old pie safe). The house on the property has a considerable in-ground cellar, which is where he keeps the aging cupboard and also where he matures his wine. In no uncertain terms, this cellar is where one would want to be in the event of any unfortunate disaster.
We sat at his kitchen table and had coffee with some kicking milk (from the farm, of course), and he talked to us about the evolution of the farm. George loves food and wanted to be closer to his ingredients. He started in 2001 with goats, chickens, and rabbits. Then George got word there was a Holstein for sale on Vashon. The operation has grown steadily since then, and he admits that there is constant pressure to expand the farm more than he imagined he would. Currently, Seabreeze sells its products primarily at farmers' markets and to select restaurants in the Seattle area.
We walked around the farm while sampling some of his wine. George explained his pasture expansion plans, which include borrowing land from neighbors. Some of these borrowing agreements are formal, others more casual. In the end, it seems very European to be walking your animals around on an island searching for new grass.
The milking parlor is the smallest we've seen yet, but it gets the job done and passed muster with inspectors. There is also a small building that George calls the humble farmstand. Neighbors come and help themselves, write down what they bought, and leave cash or checks in the jar. We love that the honor system is still thriving on some small farms. Sea Breeze milk is delicious, and the cheeses though they may be less predictable than others (due to the absence of commercial cultures), offer a taste of place. It is slightly upsetting that these products are available only on the farm or at a handful of farmers' markets and restaurants. However, if you find yourself consuming Sea Breeze goods, it will mean that you are either on Vashon Island (score), at the Ballard farmers' market (hoppin'), or in one of Seattle's finest restaurants (mmmm).
We look forward to our next visit and champion George's fight for the small, diversified family farm.
August 2006
Name: Mt. Townsend Creamery [Update: Mt Townsend stopped producing cheese at the end of January 2020]
Owners: Matt, Ryan, Will
Location: Port Townsend, WA
Animals: They get their milk from two dairies that have 50 cows each. Primarily Jerseys, some Holstein and Brown Swiss. No hormones and pasture-fed as much as possible.
Cheeses/Products: Seastack, Trailhead, Cirrus
So our friends Matt and Milissa got married in southern Washington the last weekend in July. This meant that we had a few "free" days to explore the Oregon coast north of Rivers Edge Chevre and areas of Washington beyond Seattle. Lucky for you, we got a tip-off from Kurt D. (Beecher’s) about great cheesemakers in his home state. While at a farmers market in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle we confirmed this by tasting and then purchasing some of Mt. Townsend Creamery’s signature cheeses- Seastack and Trailhead. We forced our business cards on them and a few days later we received a phone call welcoming us to stop on by if time permitted.
Port Townsend is beautiful. All the routes you can take to get to Port Townsend are beautiful too; a ferry from Seattle, or maybe a scenic drive wrapping around the Olympic Peninsula like we did... The town is at the tip of the Peninsula that faces the Seattle area and Mt. Townsend creamery is about one mile from the center of town. When we arrived we were greeted by Will, one of the three partners in the business. All three men bring valuable skills to the cheesemaking "table": Will worked for years running an organic farm (his wife still runs their pick-your-own blueberry business), Matt has an MBA in financing, and Ryan was a process engineer for the micro-brew company New Belgium in Colorado. They met each other through social circles of sorts and realized they had a common interest in artisan cheese.
Dairying used to be BIG in this area of Washington- second only to timber on the peninsula yet today there are only three dairies left. Will’s original goal was to try to form an on-farm partnership so that he could produced a farmstead cheese. Regulations and zoning were insurmountable for that so he took a step back and once he met Ryan and Matt the plan for a creamery came together. In their search for milk sources they looked for farmers who pasture fed and used no hormones. He found two small farmers willing to work with him, and they are committed to having close involvement with the farmers. Mount Townsend picks up milk from each farm three times (soon to be four) weekly in their own milk truck. They are pasteurizing all of their milk because the majority of their cheese is sold under 60 days.
Will walked us through the packaging room and back to the two maturing rooms and cold storage. There is one maturing room for the tomme style cheese (Trailhead) and another for the bloomy or mold-ripened cheese (Seastack). There is also a small drying room which is accessible from a corner of the make room- this is where the Seastack goes after it is adequately drained. After our tour we watched Will and Ryan scoop Trailhead curd into the forms and then set them up on the press where they will be flipped and pressed with slightly increasing pressure at least overnight.
Mount Townsend has only been selling their cheese for four months and already they are somewhat in demand. Their creamery illustrates a new model for cheesemaking- the three owners invested considerable capital and years of planning to hit the market running and they have hit it on the mark. They are selling out locally at farmers markets and have small retailers clamoring for their products. If you want to taste you’ll have to head west. I know- like you need another reason to go west.
August 2006
Name: Rivers Edge Chevre
Owner: Pat Morford
Location: Logsden, OR
Animals: 38 milking goats, largely Alpines. The goal is to grow to 60 milkers.
Cheeses/Products: Chevre (flavored and marinated), Humbug, Full Moon, aged goat tomme
The drive out to Pat Morford’s farm was gorgeous and also in line with our goal to get away from the 112-degree heat of Oregon’s sweltering I-5 corridor. Rivers Edge Chevre is about 10-15 miles inland from the town of Newport on the Oregon coast. We headed out of Portland the Sunday following the American Cheese Society conference and made it to Pat’s in time for a brief introduction, a quick tour, and a few minutes to set up the schedule for the following day.
Pat’s farm is exactly as she has drawn it on her label- drooping Sitka Spruce and Douglas Firs along the edge of the open pasture, goats, and a handful of sheep frolicking up into the forest a bit or retreating from the sun in the loafing shed. She has had goats since she was a small girl and remembers clearly the names of the first three her father purchased. Stripes was traded, Jack and Pinky stuck around long enough to provide some good meat for tamales.
She has lived all around the northern end of the Oregon coast, first on a boat with her partner George for a few years. They knew about this beautiful river valley and began to think about land-living so they started knocking on some doors in Logsden. The first man they asked said he wasn’t selling but then promptly died shortly thereafter so they purchased the 7 acres he had and bought 5 more adjoining acres the following year when they came up for sale giving them the 12 acres they have today.
They started with five dairy goats as a milk source for their family but also as a potential business concept to produce goat milk to sell to cow dairies as replacement milk for calves. George went full boar and purchased 27 goats which Pat, knowing genetics for milk production (having had dairy goats her whole life for personal milk consumption), narrowed down to 3 worthwhile producers and sold off the other 24. She began to build the herd in 1990, buying a buck from Mary Keehn (Cypress Grove) and soon she was placing in the top ten for dairy goats in competitions. They tried selling goat milk to a cheesemaker who moved to their area but that didn’t last so long and all the while, the local fishing economy- George’s profession- was in serious decline. So they decided in 1993 that they wanted to do something "real" and began collecting cheesemaking equipment, as Pat understood that the only way you make money from milk is to add value to it.
At this stage they found out how difficult it was to get a loan to go into the goat dairy/cheesemaking business. Pat went out and got a full time job at a local market to help them get approved for the loan required for them to construct the dairy. I made note of the fact that Pat mentioned that she and George had never carried debt in her life until she got into dairy. That said- they did some amazing things with their loan... The ground floor of the building they constructed houses the milking parlor, the milk room (read bulk tank), cheesemaking, maturing and cold storage while the upstairs contains the living space for Pat and her family.
When we came back the following morning both of Pat’s daughters were busy in the cheese room. Astraea was packing chevre in glass jars with beautiful herbs- most of them coming directly from their garden. Her older daughter, Spring, was busy washing molds because the pasteurizer was running - meaning that they would ladel curd into the molds that afternoon.
Pat has devoted incredible focus to her cheesemaking. It had been almost one year since I had tasted her bloomy rind cheeses as samples at Murray’s in New York and the change in them is incredible, a beautiful expression of the carefully produced milk on their farm. I know that creating this dairy has required considerable sacrifice for Pat and her family and I am so hopeful that the business will begin to pay them back steadily.
August 2006
Name: Cranberry Ridge Farm [They moved! Find updates here.]
Owners: Matt and Rhonda Shaul
Location: Wasilla, AK (The Shaul family moved to Blossvale, NY a few years after we saw their farm in Alaska.)
Animals: Milking 26 goats of varying breeds
Cheeses/Products: Fresh mozzarella, chevre, various aged goat milk tommes
Matt grew up in Alaska and has always had a strong inclination to stay close to the land. He did spend some time in the lower 48, where he met his wife Rhonda but found that he missed the comfort of being surrounded by mountains that he found in Alaska. Rhonda had spent years working in cow dairies in the Midwest developing an in-depth knowledge of animal husbandry practices and also becoming an artificial insemination expert. The two of them have built Cranberry Ridge Farm from the ground up. Matt built their home with help from his father and also cleared a number of sections of thick trees to create areas for livestock to browse. On their 10 acres, they’ve got 24 milking goats and the total goat population is probably double that number. Their goal someday is to be milking 60 goats. The Shaul’s also have horses (which they will ideally be able to use almost exclusively to work the land), chickens, turkeys, 3-4 grass-fed beef cattle per year, and a handful of peacocks that were given to them as a gift.
They are currently working towards getting their Grade A certification through the state- when they are successful they will be the first Grade A goat dairy in Alaska. In the meantime, they have a sold-out goat share program where customers buy ownership shares in the goats and in return receive milk and cheese each week. Customers are coming from as far as Anchorage (a solid 45-minute drive) to get raw goat milk and cheese from them- clearly illustrating consumer interest in this kind of product. Matt and Rhonda are interested in diversity on their farm and are looking at the possibility of growing berries on some of their acreage to offer more at markets.
One of the primary challenges of raising livestock in Alaska is the cost and quality of feed (I know! We were thinking of freezing cold winters too!). The cost of hay is at least double what it is in other states and, because it is so difficult to get a high enough yield, farmers often grow the grasses out beyond their prime to increase production thus buyers are paying a high price for lower quality feed. Matt is interested in finding additional land where they could produce some of their own feed. Their goats browse in fenced-off areas and are also fed hay and a bit of grain with some mineral supplements.
We spent time walking around the Shaul’s 10 acres, discussing the particulars of goat breeding, etc. A number of other Wasilla residents who have goats turn to the Shauls for assistance with breeding which provides a small amount of additional income for the farm and means that while the animal is with them, being bred, they can use her milk for cheesemaking. The farm is way down a dirt road and backs onto wilderness so I had to ask the inevitable, "worry about predators often?" question. They explain that they have not had any problems because they have always had excellent watchdogs. Although they are not the purebred Pyrenees like we have seen on other farms, the two dogs they have been doing a fine job protecting the goats, horses, and occasional cow. Sounds fine to me until they mention that when they were out for a horseback ride the other day they saw grizzly tracks as big as a human head.
I also couldn’t resist asking about the cold. They explained that the animals do fine most of the year although Rhonda did make a few goat coats for the more delicate animals and they had to have some goat kids indoors with them during the coldest periods because they had purchased some pregnant does without knowing their exact due dates. Normally they breed their animals to deliver after the coldest period is over and staggered so that there is room for all the new kids in a warmer, enclosed space.
The Shauls are working constantly to be able to expand their cheesemaking. When we visited they were nearing the end of construction on a cheese maturing room to give Rhonda a space that is temperature and humidity controlled for making more aged cheeses. As for many cheesemakers, aged cheeses can help keep cash flow happening when the goats have dried off and you can’t make the fresh cheeses. Although there is still a considerable amount of work to be done, Cranberry Ridge is coming along nicely and most importantly the Shauls are having an impact on their community. As we were leaving they got a call from a local woman who had purchased a goat from them, the woman was trying to make cheese and had a couple questions for Rhonda. Patiently converting Alaskans to cheese one goat at a time...
August 2006
Name: Windsong Farm [Update- Windsong Farm closed shortly after our visit. The farm was sold in November 2006.]
Owners: Gary and Carla Beau
Location: Palmer, AK
Animals: They purchase milk for cheesemaking from a dairy 3 miles down the road that has been in operation since the 1930s. The cow shares they sell are for the two Holsteins on their land.
Cheeses/Products: Mozzarella, Cheese Curd, Fresh Cheddar (plain and flavored), Beer Cheese (made with three local beers)
Gary Beau has lived in Alaska since he was 10 years old and for some inexplicable reason, for as long as he can remember, he wanted to have a farm in Palmer. Palmer lies in the Matanuska Valley, the primary- if not the only agricultural belt in Alaska. He and his wife Carla ran a successful small airplane business for decades before they purchased a forested lot at the end of a road in Palmer in 1990. With the assistance of seven sheep, they cleared the land for building. In 1992 their next-door neighbor (a family of 9) decided they needed a milk cow. [Note that at this point in the conversation Gary does mention that he never wanted to be a dairy farmer because dairy farmers are stuck: they’ve got to milk twice a day every day.] So their neighbor asks them if they would go in on a cow with them; they would trade off every three months so no one would be stuck milking year-round.
They purchased a Jersey and every three months they would walk her across the bridge between their two properties. Well, eventually this cow had a heifer calf and the neighbor was not interested in expanding his herd so Gary took over responsibility for this calf. She was too cute to sell so Gary kept her and raised her. By the time the original cow had her second calf, Gary still had not sold the yearling. Eventually they were milking two regularly and figured that if they were milking two twice a day they might as well be milking 25.
The milk from the first two cows was already too much for them to consume so they ordered a book from the New England Cheesemaking Company and began making cheese in their kitchen. They had enough sense to understand that there wouldn’t be much money in selling milk to a coop so as they expanded their herd they continued making cheese. Sounds logical enough except that you’re in Alaska and in the winter it gets down below negative 20 (without wind chill) and you’ve got four hours of daylight. When we got into the winter conversation Gary did admit that its not easy, he remembered a morning where he walked out to milk the cows and even with a head lamp on he walked square into one of his beef cattle and knocked himself over.
Picture it for a moment, it is pitch dark, the wind can be upwards of 120 mph and it is below 20 degrees and you are walking out to milk your cows. It costs at least two times if not two and a half times as much to feed your herd as it does in any other state. You have to be committed to continue with this routine like the Beaus did. Eventually it got to be a bit much with milking, making and selling the cheese. Four days a week, year round, Gary drives his truck out to a busy intersection and sells cheese from 3-7pm to passersby. I asked him if people come even in the winter and he said indeed they do, only difference is that they are slightly less interested in conversation. They decided it was time to downsize or shift their model a bit.
The Beaus sold their 25 cows, keeping two Holsteins and their original Jersey- Blossom, and struck a deal to buy milk from a dairy three miles down the road from them. The dairy they buy from has been there since the 1930’s and was selling all of their milk to the single coop in Alaska. Gary called the owner of the coop and asked if he could buy milk from him and the gentleman suggested he buy from the farmer closest to him directly. This is nothing short of a miracle in the world of milk coops (since they normally have exclusive contracts with the farmers) and yet it makes complete sense in the communal culture of Alaska.
I’m not sure if we’ll see Windsong’s cheeses in the lower 48 anytime soon... at the moment they are selling out locally. If you want to taste their cheeses you’ll just have to head to Alaska. Look for Gary off of South Glenn Highway in Palmer.
August 2006
Name: Beecher’s Handmade Cheese
Owner: Kurt Dammeier
Location: Seattle, WA
Animals: Purchases milk from two cow dairies nearby downtown Seattle. One dairy has 120 cows and the other has 80. The breed breaks down to 80 % Jersey and 20 % Holstein between the two dairies.
Cheeses/Products: Flagship, Just Jack, Marco Polo, No Woman, Cheese curds (plain and flavored), Blank Slate (plain and flavored), Cultured Butter, some prepared foods too including Mac n’ Cheese made with their own Flagship cheese.
Kurt Dammeier is the first to admit that he kind of backed into the cheese business... he found the perfect location for cheesemaking, signed a lease, and went in search of milk, a cheesemaker, and a recipe after setting up his cheesemaking room. Milk turned out to be surprisingly tough to find in the quantity and, more importantly, of the quality he needed. There were a couple of dairies interested in working with him- largely because of recent changes in the local milk coop structure.
Beecher’s works with two dairies today, one has 120 cows and the other has 80. The mix has a Jersey majority with Holsteins making up the difference. This was done intentionally to get the right components for the cheese Beecher’s wanted to make. One of the farms that Beecher’s works with didn’t have the capital to invest in additional Jersey cows so Kurt purchased the cows to help them grow the herd.
We met Kurt in his office across the street from Pike Place Market. He talked us through his various businesses and partnerships and we began to understand that Kurt entered the cheese business with a different kind of thinking than most of the people we’ve visited. Knowing that he had capital to invest up front he decided to fill some holes he saw in the market. For example, he went with cows because most smaller farms opt to work with goats or sheep (they are easier to manage physically, require less land mass and are cheaper to purchase), and he created a cheese that ages for a year so as not to compete with others who might be operating on a tighter cash flow turn around than he needed to do. Basically he looked at the artisan cheese industry as a whole to understand where he could add value given that he had a certain amount of capital to invest and that his goal in this venture was to educate people about where their food comes from and how it is made.
We took a tour of his shop in the market which is also where his two large cheddar vats are (10,000 pounds/1,000 gallons of milk each)- a corner location with huge windows designed to achieve Kurt’s primary goal for Beecher’s: education. Around lunchtime the crowds swarm around the windows to watch cheesemakers working on the signature cheese called Flagship- a cross between cheddar and gruyere. They can stroll into the shop and taste fresh cheese curds and sample other Beecher’s cheeses. Outside of cheeses made by Beecher’s , the shop is focused on local, whole foods (no additives, preservatives, trans-fats, etc.). Other non-Beecher’s cheeses come from surrounding states- Montana, Oregon, California and of course other Washington state producers.
Kurt drove us out to one of the dairies they work with about 35 minutes outside of Seattle’s city center. As we drove Kurt explained the Beecher’s internal review of each batch of cheese. A select group of employees tastes every batch and determines whether it will go to the cheese counter to be sold as a table cheese, into the Beecher’s food products (i.e. mac and cheese), or gets held back to be submitted to upcoming competitions. Kurt shared some of his thoughts on the surge of cheesemakers entering the market. He said that, "...rising tide floats all boats," sounding like the entrepreneur he is. He feels confident that quality always pulls through and that competition pushes all in the industry to do better. Part of this confidence most likely comes from his experience as an investor in Pyramid Brewery and weathering the sea change in the micro-brew business.
The farm he took us to is called Cherry Valley Farm and has been a cow dairy since the turn of the century. The gentleman who runs it today is the third owner since the homestead and when he purchased it in 2002 it was not in operation. Slowly he is making structural improvements to the facility. We checked in on the calves and wandered out to the free stall barn where the ladies were milling about awaiting their next feeding. The farmer puts the cows out on grass as much as he can but rain prohibits him from relying on grass for a steady percentage of feed thus the cows are fed a total mixed ration (silage, grain and hay). The farm is working towards growing 100 acres of corn so they can produce their own silage. While we talked to the farmer we enjoyed watching the Holsteins and Jerseys quite a size difference between them- feed side by side.
Given that Beecher’s Handmade Cheese only began in 2002, it is awesome to see what a fixture it has become in the Pike Place Market. We were intrigued, but not particularly surprised, to hear that Kurt is tinkering with the idea expanding to have a farm of his own someday... knowing Kurt someday could be next week.
August 2006
Name: Rogue Creamery
Owners: Carey Bryant and David Gremmels
Location: Central Point, OR
Animals: Rogue gets all of its cows’ milk from one dairy along the Rogue River. The dairy milks 200 cows and has a herd of Holsteins with a few Brown Swiss.
Cheese/Products: Crater Lake Blue, Smokey Blue, Oregon Blue Vein, Oregonzola, Rogue River Blue, Cheddar (regular and flavored), Cheese Curds
The first order of business when we arrived at Rogue was an in-depth tour with David. Before he caught wind of our presence we perused the creamery’s retail store where they have a combination of local and Italian cheeses, wines, and food stores. The Italian bit catches you off guard until you hear about the history of this place and the celebration of Italian heritage that has been part of the creamery since 1935.
David and Carey tell the history on their website, but for our purposes, it is important that you understand that Tom Vella started the place back in 1935, handed it over to his son Ignacio Vella who sold it to David and Carey four years ago with the stipulation that they would continue to make the creamery’s signature cheeses according to tradition. Another part of this agreement is that Ig spends a week out of each month at the creamery observing and providing guidance and expertise to their cheesemakers.
All of the offices are in the old house where the Vellas lived, there is another building across the road that serves as housing for the production manager and as a place to stay for Ig when he visits the creamery. David took us over to the blue cheese making room which is in a separate building from the cheddar making and retail shop. There were four guys working on pulling curd from the vat- timing is critical as the curd continues to acidify when it sits in the whey. Eight forms are set on a metal shelf that straddles the vat, the curd is scooped up and spread amongst these forms until they are full and then the cheesemaker slides a metal disc under each form one by one so they can be moved onto the large retail racks for draining. The racks are all at a slant to promote draining- this also means the cheeses must be flipped at regular intervals for the first 24 hours to level out the wheels (otherwise they would be slanted on one side).
We walked into the blue cheese cave which was absolutely teeming with racks of blue wheels- some pierced, some coated in melting salt crystals- and the aroma was to die for...sweet cream with a hint of blue mold. All wheels are dry salted for the first 7 days after they are made. On day eight the wheels are perforated to activate the aerobic blue molds that require oxygen to bloom (they actually test each batch to ensure it is ready for piercing). We got to see Poasa (who is also training to make cheese) doing perforations and waxing. From this point on, the wheels are all set on their sides and turned one quarter turn each day. The salting of newer batches and rotating of aging batches is no small task- even though you are in a delicious smelling room. After (60-75) days the wheels are waxed and moved to cold storage for long term aging. Although it took some convincing, David got us out of the cave and into the packaging room to meet Anna- the team leader- and see the immense amount of work that goes into packaging each wheel- all by hand of course. The wax is broken off and any stray bits of wax that crept into the perforations are plucked out before the wheels are wrapped in foil and sealed in plastic.
The following morning we watched the earlier stages of cheesemaking- Rogue has the oldest pasteurizer in the western U.S. which was designed by Tom Vella and although they do not pasteurize the milk they use for their blue cheese making they do use this piece of equipment to get the milk up to cheesemaking temperature. We got to see their new cheese harps in action before we took a break to interview David (Carey was at Oregon State working with a graduate student to define their raw and pasteurized milk study). It is clear that at Rogue there are three main priorities: preserving tradition, creating an excellent working environment (they have a better benefits package than many larger companies), and providing high quality cheese.
A number of the employees at Rogue are lifelong residents of Central Point who remember coming to the creamery as kids for curds and they have re-discovered it as a place to learn new ways to apply their expertise from previous careers. A couple examples of this are Craig and Mike- two of their cheesemakers. Craig came to Rogue with decades of experience in military management and has taken on some production manager responsibilities while learning to make cheese. When Mike started at the creamery his expertise in refrigeration came in handy and over time, he has discovered that he is very interested in the science of cheese and Carey is now training him to take over their internal lab work.
When we left the creamery we drove over to the Rogue River to meet Delmar at Rogueview Dairy- the source for the milk used for their cheeses. He has 70 acres with 1/4 mile frontage on the river- a beautiful piece of property in a valley that used to be loaded with small dairies of 15-20 cows. Delmer started with 90 cows and has grown to 200 where he has held for the past 15 years. The milkers go out on pasture daily when weather permits (which is from March-October) but are not exclusively grass-fed, they also get hay and grain. The dairy is now surrounded by homes, the same suburban encroachment that we’ve seen across the country- and although he hasn’t had many complaints from neighbors, those homes are a constant reminder of the value he could get for his land should he decide to sell it for development.
Our visit with Delmar is a reminder of the tenuous nature of relationships between dairies and creameries all over the U.S. as the temptation to sell out and stop working so hard is great for dairy farmers. Given the current situation we are particularly thankful for creameries like Rogue who are committed to sourcing locally and working with dairies like Rogueview to restore the economic viability of dairy farming.
August 2006
Name: Cypress Grove Chevre
Owner: Mary Keehn
Location: Arcata, CA
Animals: Purchases goat milk from multiple dairies locally- occasionally reaches farther than local for milk when needed.
Cheese/Products: Chevre, Chevre Logs, Fromage Blanc, Humboldt Fog, Fog Lights, Pee Wee Pyramids, Bermuda Triangle, Mad River Roll, Goats Milk Cheddar, Mt. McKinley. They also have three products that are part of their Creamline selection- Midnight Moon, Lamb Chopper and Ewe-F-O.
We had one of those is-this-really-our-life mornings the day we went to see Mary Keehn. Up at 6 AM in our tent deep in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. We had some charred toast and cantaloupe with our friends Rose and Dave before winding our way out of the Redwoods to Highway 1. Of course, all of that took a lot more time than we anticipated so we arrived at Cypress Grove at 9:30 instead of 8:30. Mary held no grudge- major props to her as it wasn’t just any Monday morning, it was July 3rd.
All of you Humboldt Fog fanatics must be dying to know about the origin of your favorite food... I will begin by saying that the name represents the locale quite well- dense fog hangs on everything in Arcata. The interior of the creamery is a fantastic contrast to what is outside: the walls are painted bright yellow and red. Mary took us on a tour of the receiving, pasteurizing, cheesemaking, aging, and packaging areas. One of Mary’s most endearing qualities is her genuine surprise at the incredible growth and success of Cypress Grove. She decided to get licensed as a cheesemaker (over 20 years ago) because one restauranteur in town wanted to buy cheese from her. Because she had an ever-expanding herd of award-winning goats and needed an outlet for the milk, she did it.
The creamery recently acquired a used 2000 gallon pasteurizer and it is obvious when Mary laughs wholeheartedly about the contrast between this tank and where she started years ago that she is the ideal person to be at the helm of this chevre ship. Over the years she has been willing to suspend her disbelief and grow the business yet she has held tightly to the importance of certain cheese-related tasks being done exactly as they always have been. In addition to staying true to the fundamental points in their cheesemaking process, Mary has also created an environment, both in spirit and economics, where people in her community want to work. This was something Michael and I thought about a lot after leaving Cypress Grove- we realized that within the growth of the company Mary saw that while it was different than what she had originally envisioned, it allowed her to create the kind of workplace she believed in.
Early on in the development of the cheesemaking, Mary realized that she couldn’t manage a herd of goats, make the cheese, and run the business. Artisan cheese did not exactly used to sell itself so she spent a considerable amount of time driving to the two major metropolitan areas "nearby"- San Francisco (6-7 hours), and Portland (8-9 hours). She decided to sell her herd and found an opportunity to sell the entire group in-tact, the only way she wanted it, to someone she was confident could care for them well. This was not an easy decision and even through it was the best situation she could have hoped for, she still couldn’t bring herself to walk into the barn for at least a year after the goats were gone.
The shift away from their own milk did mean that they could support other farmers in their own community. Currently they do their best to fulfill their milk needs locally. Because they’ve grown so much and high quality milk is the foundation of their business, they now have staff devoted to working with local farmers on streamlining their business expenses. For example, local farms might be able to save money if they pool together to collectively purchase feed. Cypress Grove is also looking at possibilities to streamline their own business by partnering with the students in environmental engineering at Humboldt State to implement energy saving technology and look at innovative things to do with whey- which is considered toxic waste because of its pH level.
So I won’t make you wait any longer... when I asked Mary where she got the idea for Humboldt Fog she said it came to her in a dream. This seems oddly appropriate considering the white exterior and fluffy texture. What stuck with me after our time with Mary was one thing she said during our interview, "People say you can’t change the world but I figure I can make change happen in my own little community here." She figured absolutely right.
July 2006
Name: Pug’s Leap [Farm sold to another owner in 2010]
Location: Healdsburg, CA
Owners: Pascal Destandau & Eric Smith
Animals: Milking 24 goats- mixed herd of Alpines, Saanens, and Toggenburgs
Cheeses/Products: Petit Marceau, Pave, Buche
Although the 24 milking goats can browse all the way down to Dry Creek Road, one might never noticed Pug’s Leap because it is nestled back on the hillside among trees and brush so common to the not-quite-coastal valleys of Northern California. Lucky for us- thank you Healdsburg Farmer’s Market- Pug’s Leap was presented to us in broad daylight. We introduced ourselves and thanks to the avid local food supporters of a blog called Fork and Bottle who wrote about us on their slow food convivium’s site, Eric and Pascal had actually heard of us and graciously invited us out to the farm that afternoon.
This invitation was more than gracious considering that Saturdays are their "day off"- meaning that they don’t actually make cheese because they are busy going to market. It doesn’t look like an average person’s day off given that they are still out of bed around 5-ish for the morning milking and then they use the usual cheesemaking time to prepare for market. We descended upon them during their afternoon break- post market and pre afternoon milking.
We started our tour in the "cheese-room-with-a-view" which looks out across Dry Creek Road to the vineyard on the other side. The cheese room is modest and immaculate with a vat/pasteurizer which is in use now and an additional, smaller vat that Pascal hopes to use for making aged, raw milk cheeses someday soon. There are two small aging rooms off the side wall- one used for the delicate drying stage needed for small, mold and ash ripened cheeses and the other with higher humidity and a slightly lower temperature. These rooms are Pascal’s domain- he has always been interested in and good at cooking so this seemed the most logical place for him. As we talked about everything ranging from selecting goat breeds to the grey area around words like artisan and farmstead, Pascal tilted racks of cheeses made the previous day and encouraged the whey and scraps down the drain in the table.
Next we walked out into the milking parlor which is, as Eric described it, "state of the art for the 1930’s". More important than being fashionable, it is simple and it works for them although it is uphill (a dirt hill) from the area where the does are kept which means that milking can be time consuming... particularly when you have 30 straight days of rain like they did this past winter.
The bucks are kept at the top of the hill and the does are down closer to the road- removing off-season temptations. The goats are eating browse (read: anything that emerges from the ground), hay, and are supplemented with a bit of grain around milking time. Sounds simple and yet, as with so many things on small farms, there are built-in complexities because Pug’s Leap is a small farm without enormous hay storage capacity thus Eric has to drive hours to do a hay collection every other week.
Everything about Pug’s Leap is in response to Eric and Pascal’s mounting discomfort with the state of affairs in farming and food production today; the ultimate example of consumers taking matters into their own hands. They are an interesting breed of new farmers- both stepped into this project with years of professional experience (Eric as an architect and Pascal as an environmental engineer) and little dairying experience. As we walked uphill to the area where the bucks are kept, Eric and Pascal agreed that although this is more tiring than any work they have done before, it is a labor that produces tangible and very real results–life and death included–something they can’t imagine giving up.
July 2006
Name: Andante Dairy
Owner: Soyoung Scanlan
Location: Petaluma, CA
Animals: Soyoung gets goat milk from Volpi Ranch where her cheesemaking plant is located. She gets cow milk from Spring Hill Dairy which has 400 Jersey cows
Cheeses/Products: Baton, Minuet, Crottin, Acapella, Nocturne, Pianoforte, Candenza, Metronome, Rondo, Melange, Adagio, Figaro, Picolo, Largo
A couple of years ago I read an article about Soyoung Scanlan in Saveur magazine and something about it moved me. I’m sure I was not alone in this feeling its just that I was also working in cheese at the time and grew up about one hour away from her cheesemaking plant. Since reading that article I have been scheming to visit Andante- with our cheese tour I had my opening. In April of this year, Andante moved from Santa Rosa to Petaluma; more specifically to the top of one of the velvety rolling hills of Petaluma. Soyoung’s facility shares this hilltop with the goats of Volpi Ranch that provide the milk for some of her cheeses.
Considering that Soyoung did not set out to become a cheesemaker she has become a revered figure in the artisan cheese industry. A number of cheesemakers we have visited met Soyoung during her time at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo where she spent over two years studying the properties of milk and how it functions in cheesemaking. Soyoung is an interesting combination, potentially a dichotomy, of the scientist and the artist. She has studied science for years with a background in engineering and she is also an avid pianist. I think Soyoung would be the first to admit that she has not looked at her cheesemaking as a business so much as a marriage of science and art- two seemingly conflicting things that bring her joy and that come together in the transition of milk into cheese.
Soyoung’s facility feels spacious, organized and clean. Its not incredibly high-tech and just like everywhere else, all the equipment comes used. There isn’t a huge stock of product on hand as Soyoung’s cheeses are almost sold before they are made. Early on in her cheesemaking career she was approached by Thomas Keller of the French Laundry who took a liking to her cheese. This one customer has helped Soyoung immensely, not only in sales, but also because of brief moments where she got to see Keller at work in his own kitchen. She says that each time she left the French Laundry kitchen she felt inspired by the drive and meticulous attention to detail exhibited there and when she returned to her cheese plant she would return to her plant invigorated, looking around for small improvements to make.
The best of her cheeses go to the French Laundry as they have since Thomas Keller placed his first order. He saw the self-conscious nature of Soyoung when he first met her and tasted her cheeses. Keller instructed Soyoung to bring them cheese whenever she felt it was good enough and that they would take whatever she had.
Although I think Soyoung’s public persona seems to make cheesemaking look tranquil and artistic, the reality behind that appearance is an incredible amount of hours and hard labor. The thing she said that stuck in my mind is that all along her arduous path to cheesemaking (i.e. up at 2:30 Am to drive from SF to Petaluma to collect her buckets of milk and haul them to Santa Rosa to make cheese) she didn’t ask herself whether she wanted to do each thing rather she asked, "is it possible?". Clearly for someone with her drive it was and is possible. She is not afraid of hard work and yet within those long hours she has a lot of quiet time to observe what is around her and these observations seem to impact her cheesemaking as well. For example, in her new location she is closer to the goats that provide her with milk and she said that watching them has changed how she feels about the milk- the inherent value in the liquid that fills the vat.
She is not making cheese every day at the moment but with the mold-ripened variety she makes there are cheeses to be tended each day. When we were there she was focused on preparing cheeses to be taken to the Ferry Building farmers’ market in San Francisco the following day. Andante cheese is sold and served only at a handful of places, many of the ones lucky enough to get it are retailers and restaurants who have supported her from the beginning. Unlike other cheesemakers who have expanded into new facilities with the hope of making more cheese, Soyoung is comfortable with her current production. So the next time you’re at the French Laundry or wandering around in Healdsburg- which we highly recommend- keep an eye out for her cheeses.
July 2006
Name: Fiscalini Farm
Owners: John Fiscalini
Location: Modesto, CA
Animals: Milking 1500 Holsteins and bringing up an equal number of replacements for 3000 total animals on the property. Closed herd.
Cheeses/Products: Bandaged Wrapped Cheddar (various ages), San Joaquin Gold, Flavored Cheddars, Horse Feathers, Parmesean
Fiscalini Farm was our first visit to a cow dairy with more than 150 animals and the first cow dairy that is a confinement operation (we have seen some quite large goat dairies that are confinement based). I wasn’t sure how I would feel about a confinement operation- along with many others in food I read Fast Food Nation and I’ve been delving into the Omnivore’s Dilemma and had formed a somewhat negative opinion of the concept. Mostly I was curious because the Fiscalinis are much much smaller than other confinement operations in California- case in point the "farm" we drove by on our way up I-5 that is home to at least 10,000 cows (more on that in a later post). Fiscalini is milking 1500 Holsteins which means that the total number of animals on their land is 3000; they are using free stall barns and feeding the cows a total mixed ration (TMR) of various grains and hay rather than grazing them on grass.
When we got out of the car we were not overwhelmed with flies or manure smells which is what one might expect when you are standing within 100 yards of 3000 cows. We met John who was incredibly flexible and gracious considering that I had given him the wrong dates for our visit and he had expected us to be there the previous day! He wrapped up what he was working on and gave us a tour of the dairy. Cows are put into different areas according to their age, health (there is a small hospital ward with its own milking parlor), and milking status. Calves are managed closely; for the first 60 days they are kept in individual stalls to avoid them attempting to nurse from one another and doing damage to their teets. Gradually they are put with groups of animals their age until the total number of that group is about 25 and eventually they go in with the yearlings to learn the ropes of being part of a larger herd.
All the animals are kept in free stall barns which are open air and, on this farm, designed for optimal cross-breezes and they also have communal areas for cows to roam around some. The floor in each of the barns is concrete and many of them are covered with cushioning mats and then a special mixture of dirt and dried manure. When John told us that they were recycling manure for the stall beds I assumed that this was because it was a financial savingsnope. Actually it requires an incredible amount of effort to spread the manure solids out to dry and then mix them with other materials to make an appropriate bedding for the cows. Sounds dirty right but actually the animals have been cleaner since the beds were converted. The cleanliness can be attributed to more than just recycled manure though, at Fiscalini the stalls are all raked over twice daily (once on Sundays) and fully changed out frequently which breaks the cycle of the fly larvae and also works as preventative maintenance- the cleaner the stalls are the less time spent cleaning the cows when they come through the milking parlor.
The parlor is state of the art with 54 total capacity (27 on each side)- milking takes 7 hours leaving one hour to flush the pipes and clean the parlor before starting up again (they are milking 3 times a day). A handful of things stand out in my mind about the parlor. First off it was clean and there were three guys working the shift- John commented on both of these things. The cows are not fed during milking because if you feed them they have a tendency to poop making mess on the equipment and the milkers. John said you can get by with two guys on a shift but three means that they can pay closer attention to what they are doing. They use a fresh towel to clean the teets on each cow (two teets with one, flip the towel and clean the other two)- do the math and it comes out to about 4500 towels each day. There are a number of safeguards built into the parlor to help the herdsman keep tabs on the health of the milkers. For example the milking units monitor salt content which is an early indicator of mastitis and also each milker has a pedometer which is read electronically in the parlor because a decrease in the number of steps taken in the course of a day can be a tip off that something is not quite right with a cow.
The following morning we came back to the farm early to meet Mariano Gonzales the cheesemaker. What an opportunity!
Mariano is revered in the U.S. as one of the most talented and knowledgeable cheesemakers- the perfect cheesemaker to teach us about bandaged cheddar (we had never seen cheddar made before). Making traditional cheddar is the ultimate example of what happens in cheesemaking- short stints of seriously physical work with lots of breaks in between- I like to think the breaks are not only for the cheese but also the cheesemaker to prepare for the next stage. It is important to understand that Fiscalini is not making cheese with all the milk from 1500 Holsteins- that would mean they were a large scale producer. They are using around 1000 gallons of milk each time they make cheese (5 days a week) which is only a fraction of what they produce in milk daily. The milk for cheesemaking goes into its own bulk tank. While we waited for the milk in the vat to warm up, we watched the staff pop the previous day’s San Joaquin Golds out of their molds and seal up cheddar made earlier in the week with lard before putting them in the aging rooms.
The "breaks" during cheddar making are normally used to care for the aging cheeses, clean, and finish all the other chores at the dairy but while we were there the breaks were used to straighten out all of our questions about cheddar making- the traditional way. The big distinction in cheddar making is well, cheddaring... which is where the cut and heated curd is lumped together in even blocks and then flipped and stacked and re-flipped and re-stacked at measured intervals. As Mariano explained this step contributes largely to the texture of traditional cheddar; I recommend you do a compare of block, cryovac cheddar and clothbound sometime- the textures are completely different not to mention the flavors. Mariano allowed me to participate in every step of the process- he is a seasoned instructor and has trained a number of other cheesemakers in his time at Fiscalini including Chris who was working in tandem with Mariano the day we were there.
With the passing of each step, my respect for the makers of this labor-intensive cheese increased tenfold. And all of these steps are only the beginning in the production of traditional cheddar. Once the cheese is made, unlike the block variety, a natural rind is allowed to form, and given the long aging period, a coating of lard, oil, or butter is smeared on followed by a protective cloth. The redwoods of cheese, as I like to refer to them, cheddars take months to develop the full depth of flavor locked up in the curds that form them. Their cloth binding allows them to continue to breathe as they age and also protects them from losing too much moisture and cracking.
Fiscalini Farm represents a phenomenal partnership of years of dairying and cheesemaking knowledge- John and
Mariano clearly enjoy working together and share a mutual respect. Although my personal inclination is always to want a cow to feed on pasture, I do understand that the current market- meaning milk prices, land prices, labor costs- don’t always support that. Our time at Fiscalini made it abundantly clear to me that if we are going to have confinement dairies I want all of them to be run like John Fiscalini’s. In our interview with John and his wife Heather we touched on so many features of the dairy that illustrate their commitment to animal comfort, milk quality and safety, not to mention the well-being of their employees. I encourage anyone with doubts to open their mind and pay a visit to the Fiscalinis.
June 2006
Name: Haystack Mountain Dairy
Owners: Jim Schott
Animals: Approximately 175 on-farm- including kids- (primarily Nubian and Saanen with some La Mancha thrown in) and milk from another herd of 800 in Colorado. As they plan for expansion, they have partnered with other farms who are raising their kids once they hit a certain age until they are settled at their new farm location (see below for more info).
Cheeses/Products: Chevre and Fromage (plain & flavored), Snowdrop, Haystack Peak, Haystack Feta, Queso de Mano, Sunlight, Red Cloud
Back in 1989, Jim and his family moved to Niwot, Colorado, purchased some land, bought five goats, and began milking them by hand to make cheese. After a long career in education, he was looking for a change of pace, dare I say a route towards retirement. The herd grew slowly, and by the time he got up to 25 goats he decided to go visit a few people that had been doing the goat cheese thing before he got in much deeper. When he began cheesemaking he had a staff of one- his daughter Gretchen. They worked together for a few years, growing the herd, developing their wholesale customer base, and participating in a staggering number of farmers' markets (13). Jim affectionately refers to those times as the "beer and chips days" because at the end of the day he and his daughter were so exhausted that the most they could do was slug back a beer and have some chips and salsa before bed...and then get up again the next morning for milking and cheesemaking.
We rolled into Boulder late on Wednesday afternoon, just in time to meet head cheesemaker Peter Kindall at the farmers' market so we could taste some Haystack Mtn cheeses and have a bite to eat. Cheese hearts broke all over New York when Peter and his wife Caroline decided to move to Boulder, Colorado. Both Peter and Caroline were very involved in the cheese community in NY, many of the people I know on the NYC cheese circuit feel that they learned much of what they know about cheese from Peter. The farmers' market in Boulder is kind of happenin' with the expected stands of bountiful farm products and a whole "food court" section- one thing NYC greenmarkets don't really offer (at least the Union Square one doesn't). Everything at the food court is served in biodegradable containers made from corn. It's such an odd feeling to throw everything, including your utensils, into the compost bin, but after reading the sign above the various bins multiple times, we agreed it was the right thing to do. Downtown Boulder is beautiful, so we wandered around with Peter and his son August for a couple of hours before heading out to the farm where we were staying with owner Jim Schott and his wife, Carol McLaren.
Pulling into the drive at Haystack Mountain was like setting off some crazy motion sensor alarm. Approximately seventy-five kids began bleating like mad as soon as we exited the car. Obligingly we walked over to their paddock to fuss over them. Carol walked out to greet us and shortly after that took us on a tour of the farm. Approximately 100 goats were being milked. The goats were separated into pens according to their milk production. In each pen they have ample room to loll about, ample water, shelter, and daily rations of alfalfa hay are delivered to them. There are a couple of other pens- one for the bucks, one for young kids, one for slightly older kids, and then also a nursery for the newborns (there was one that had been born that morning and oh my god was it ever tiny and so cute with its knobbly knees and crazy long ears). Carol also pointed out the mound of volcanic rubble in the distance, which is Haystack Mountain.
The milking parlor, milk room (bulk tank), cheesemaking and aging room are all housed within one structure. All of the raw milk cheese, and the two soft-ripened cheeses, made by Haystack is made in this facility on the farm. Fresh chevre and fromage, plain and flavored, are all produced at Haystack's creamery, which is located in Longmontmaybe 15 minutes by car from the farm. The milk for cheeses made at the creamery comes from other sources, which has allowed Haystack to increase their production considerably.
On our first morning, we hung out until Peter came by the farm- which he does so he can collect any cheeses needed for wholesale orders because all of them are boxed up and shipped from the creamery. We drove to the creamery with him making one short stop at the soon-to-be-new location of the farm. It is an 80 acre farm that has fallen to serious disrepair. Before the dairy can be moved, all the structures- including the meth-lab trailer- will need to be torn down and new structures built. Jim was able to negotiate a deal with Boulder county to get the land at a rate lower than the going development rate. Haystack Mountain is the only remaining dairy in the county and the majority of surrounding neighbors were in support which helped the deal go through smoothly. This move will enable Haystack to increase the herd on the farm to 800 goats over the next few years.
Seeing the future farm site was the first mention of the long-term goal to get Jim closer to the retirement he set out towards 17 years ago when he bought those first few goats. Peter put it best when he said, "Moving the dairy will get the Haystack business out of Jim's front yard and maybe it will finally allow him the space he needs from it to actually retire." Discussing the history of the farm with both Peter and Jim we learned that there have been a couple of critical decision points along the way where Jim might have been ready to slow down or not ready to make the next level of capital investment and that at each juncture like this the employees have voiced their desire to press on to the next step. A few years ago when Haystack hit a growing pain, a group of the employees wanted the company to continue badly enough that they invested in it and are now shareholders in the Dairy.
We moved on to the creamery where a staff of 6 were busy in the make room; bagging chevre set that morning, packing bulk containers of chevre for restaurants, smoking logs of chevre, labeling packaged cheeses, and packaging up orders. Peter gave us the official tour while we peppered him with questions about his own journeys in cheese. When the staff took a break for lunch, Michael and I busted out some cheeses from previous farm visits for them to sample. While they were snacking we got to hear about another huge new project that Haystack has on its plate. Pontotoc Area Vocational Technical School in Ada, Oklahoma contacted Haystack to ask if they would like to run the new dairy they were putting in on-site at the school. The dairy will employ six local people and all cheeses made in at the dairy will be Haystack Mountain products (in 2007 they will produce a line of Oklahoma cheeses) thus Haystack is sending one of their star cheesemakers, Sarah, to manage the dairy.
When we finished at the creamery we headed back to the farm to spend some time interviewing Jim. One thing that became clear when we were speaking to him is that he did not set out with the intention to expand even to where he is today let alone where the company is headed. Many of the farmstead cheesemakers we have met have articulated a conflict they feel about expanding into more distant U.S. markets. I think this might be something that many small business owners feel because their business has been built on selling their products to people they see and know to some extent; the idea of their product (especially a perishable consumable) going to an unknown customer base is almost too much of an abstraction. This is when we thank our lucky stars that someone like Jim has been at the helm of Haystack because he doesn't have sticky fingers on the controls, he is willing to guide the company with a degree of openness to the potential that his employees see. Speaking to him it becomes clear that this is not something he has tried to do rather it is a wonderful byproduct of the kind of individual he is. It pleases him to hear that his employees enjoy and are fulfilled by their work and yet he wouldn't ever take direct credit for having created that.
By the time we completed the interview we were ready for dinner and Jim and Carol took us into downtown Boulder to a local-focused restaurant called Kitchen. Kitchen is a place that everyone in the local food scene is excited about. One cool feature of the restaurant is the large blackboard displayed in the main dining room- it lists all the local farmers whose products are currently part of the menu.
The following morning Peter was making raw milk cheeses at the farm so we trailed around behind him in the make room while he worked. One of the wonderful things about Peter is that he is constantly pondering what makes a cheese come out the way it does; not the most basic science of it rather the nuances of each element that impacts the flavor of a cheese. We had a long discussion about the "goaty-ness" of goat's milk cheese and what people purport makes that happen and is it a good or bad thing to have goat cheese taste goaty? In his position at Haystack, Peter has had the pleasure of tinkering with existing processes and recipes and also developing additional cheeses. I found it incredibly interesting that he has focused on making new cheeses from the same basic "make" process. For example during the Queso de Mano make he pulls a small amount of curd off early (at a lower temperature than the final Queso de Mano curds) and puts it into smaller molds to make a washed-rind cheese called Red Cloud. Having traveled extensively throughout Europe to visit cheesemakers I think that Peter sort of fell in love with the elegance that simplicity (we might also call this efficiency) brings to cheesemaking and that it has become one of his guiding principles.
When we stood at the new farm site Peter encouraged us to take photos and to come back in 2-3 years and take photos again- twist my arm. He said it with a confidence that comes naturally when you know you are surrounded by the right people to accomplish what you've set out to do. I don't know about you all but in 2008 we're thinking about Cheese by Hand: Reloaded...
June 2006
Name: Mozzarella Company
Owner: Paula Lambert
Location: Dallas, Texas
Animals: Mozzarella Company gets both their cow and goat milk from a number of small dairies around the Dallas area.
Cheeses/Products: MOZZARELLA(goat and cow), Queso Oaxaca, Ricotta (goat and cow), Feta (goat and cow), Queso Fresco (traditional and flavored), Queso Blanco, Creme Fraiche, Mozzarella Roll, Hoja Santa, Caciotta (traditional and flavored, cow and goat), Mascarpone, Mascarpone Tortas, Smoked Scamorza, Crescenza, Blanca Bianca, Montasio, Montasio Festivo, Herbed Goat Logs, Fresh Texas Goat Cheese (traditional and flavored), Deep Ellum Blue, Mascarpone
I called Paula from the road when we were nearing Dallas and asked her if she was still at the photoshoot she had been part of over the last few days (she is one of the busiest people I know)...she assured me that she was doing nothing at that moment except waiting for Michael and me to arrive and tell her all about our travels. So when we arrived we gave Paula and her husband Jim a bit of an update over dinner, at a restaurant called Ciudad, which included some fantastic upscale tex-mex food (her cheese was indeed on the menu).
In the morning we sipped cappuccinos before making the 7-minute drive to the Mozzarella Company. Almost 25 years ago Paula decided that she could not live without the fresh mozzarella she had known during her time in Italy and that she was the ideal person to bring that delectable cheese to Dallas. She figured out the zoning requirements for a small factory and came across a spot in the Deep Ellum neighborhood in Dallas. As we drove she explained that the neighborhood earned a reputation during the 1920s when a group of blues musicians began creating new kinds of music that eventually became known as the Deep Ellem Blues.
We spent the day with her two head cheesemakers, Carmen and Octavia, who have been with the company for 19 and 21 years respectively, and their crew in the cheese room. The crew is made up entirely of women who were so generous with their time and kind enough to not laugh too hard at our attempt to form balls of mozzarella. Within the seven hours, we spent at the cheese factory the women made eight varieties of cheese- all with attention and care. AS you can imagine this means there is some hustle happening and also that they arrived at the factory well before we did to begin pasteurization of the two vats of milk (one cow and one goat). The pasteurizers were emptied and re-filled multiple times that day in order to produce the cheese needed for upcoming orders. Carmen arrived early that morning (before 5 AM) to get things started and then passed the baton to Octavia that afternoon who continued with cheesemaking until 7:30 PM.
There are two large pasteurizers that double as vats. The trick to making so many styles of cheese in one day is the overall schedule for production and having the right kind of equipment and layout as the Mozzarella Company does. There are at least 10 large rectangular plastic tubs that sit on frames with wheels attached- this means that the room can be reconfigured at a moment’s notice. After the milk is pasteurized it is poured into these tubs which are basically smaller vats to allow for staggered cheesemaking of a variety of cheeses. For example, when we were there two or three of the vats were used to make mozzarella; the whey from each of these vats was poured off into another movable container, wheeled to the back of the plant and transferred into a small vat that is used to make ricotta and queso fresco. Meanwhile, a few other small vats were filled with goat or cow milk for making caciotta. Having multiple vats of caciotta allows them to make some traditional (plain) and other small quantities of ancho chile and other herbed varieties. The entire setup is simple, low-tech, and enables the women to make large quantities of cheeses all by hand.
When the mozzarella curd was ready, it was chopped up into strips and then smaller bits with a knife and submerged in hot water. One person worked the curd with a long paddle, gently stretching it and folding it in on itself. Once it was sufficiently stretched, the other women stopped what they were doing and gathered around one end of the table to begin pulling off pieces of the flexible curd and forming them into various shapes for bocconcini, half a pound, and one pound balls. Such a beautiful thing to watch and it was only one of the cheeses we saw them make.
I returned the following morning because the ladies were making one of my favorite Mozzarella Company cheeses,
Hoja Santa. They were just beginning to blanch the leaves when I arrived. Hoja Santa leaves are HUGE. Each leaf is pulled out of the boiling water and put into an ice bath before being stretched out on a plastic mat. Small rounds of goat cheese that were made the week prior were pulled from the cold storage to be wrapped. I always assumed that each piece of cheese was wrapped in one entire leaf and watching Octavia I saw that each piece of cheese was wrapped with about one third to one half of a leaf and that wrapping each one was like completing a puzzle. It looked so complicated that I opted out of leaf wrapping and instead followed Octavia’s wrapping with the string of rafia that winds around each piece and is finished with a small bow.
That evening we went to dinner with Paula, her husband, and two of her friends. We went to Hector’s Restaurant which was excellent. The chef started our meal off with a cheese platter for the table and declared that Paula is the "Grand Dame of all things cheese." We could not agree more. She is a savvy business woman (which the cheese world needs) who is turning out a robust line of cheeses that are truly made by hand. We never thought we’d say this but we kind of can’t wait to get back to Dallas, Texas....
June 2006
Name: Pure Luck Dairy
Owners: The entire family- Denny Bolton, Amelia Sweethardt, Gitana Sweethardt, and Claire & Hope Bolton Location: Dripping Springs, Texas
Animals: Approximately 110 Nubian and American Alpines (milking around 65)
Cheeses/Products: Chevre (plain and flavored), Basket Molded Chevre, Feta, Del Cielo, Hopelessly Blue, Sainte Maure, Claire de Lune
Pure Luck Dairy straddles Twin Oaks Trail, we learned this by barging in on Denny Bolton in the Pure Luck Office who kindly directed us to the dairy where we found someone who could find Amelia for us. Many of you who are familiar with Pure Luck know that the farm is going through a large transition with the loss of its founder Sara Bolton last November. Amelia Sweethardt is her daughter and also has been a cheesemaker at the dairy since 1997. She has taken over the cheesemaking reigns. In addition to Amelia, two of Sara’s other daughters Claire and Hope also assisting with multiple aspects of the dairy, not to mention Denny Bolton (Sara’s husband and partner in the business) and Gitana Sweethardt who also helps run Pure Luck. All four of Sara’s girls grew up milking goats and drinking fresh milk from their own farm so they understand the value of what they do let alone the work required to run the dairy.
Of course the day we scheduled for our visit was Amelia’s day off- if there is such a thing on a dairy farm. While we waited for her near the dairy, we were entertained by a sound sampling of farm animals...goats, of course, a couple of dogs and a shameless attention seeking cat. I always see it as a good sign when all animals on a farm are friendly.
Amelia bounded out of the trees- her home is just a short walk from the cheese room- to welcome us. We had arrived on a cheese nurturing rather than cheesemaking day meaning that cheeses made earlier that week were being salted and turned. Pure Luck sells most if not all of their cheese in Texas- the majority goes to markets in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. In the cheese room we met Juana who might as well be family- there is no one new at Pure Luck because everyone is either blood related or has been around for years. The entire staff is bilingual including the new Pyrenees puppy who goes by Lucy or Lucia.
We watched as Amelia flipped the Sainte Maure and Juana salted the chevre in a large mixer. Amelia explained their plans for an expansion of the make room space. Currently all of the cheeses are aged in a cooler on the other side of Twin Oaks Trail, the expansion would bring all aspects of cheesemaking to one place. Of course as soon as I found out that they would have more space I asked the logical question: does that mean you will make more cheese? Amelia was careful to note that they will focus on getting their expansion built before they plan on increasing their output. This is precisely what I would expect from any farmstead cheesemaker because many of them agree that slow, steady expansions are the only way to go and patience is essential.
In my notes from that day I found something about the milking parlor: "maybe the cleanest milking parlor I’ve seen yet". As we walked through the parlor, Amelia showed us where the goats wait their turn to be milked and then the area where they can snack on some alfalfa on their way back out to the pasture. She explained that the kids are still nursing from their mothers once during the day (after the does go through the parlor in the morning and have spent a bit of time on pasture) and then separated from them in the evenings- it is something they are experimenting with. In the past they noticed that the kids that nursed longer became stronger does so they are considering this in their herd management evaluation.
While maintaining the principles her mother set in place for the farm, Amelia is also considering new ways of doing things. For example she is looking at their options for producing some of their own feed and she is also investigating outlets beyond auctions for the kids they do not keep. We finished up our tour of the cheese plant by walking through the bulk tank room- never the most exciting but always an important part of the dairy. They are making cheese 3 times each week which creates a sound workflow given the variety of cheeses they produce and the handling they requires in the days immediately after they are made.
Pure Luck is a stellar example of a small, farmstead dairy that has developed an operation that is sustainable given the land they have and their staff. Amelia said something that struck me as a unique perspective in the world of farming (and she said it matter-of-factly too), "If you need someone to work for you in the high season you have to figure out how to employ them in the low season too". One example of this is the decision she and her mother made to develop cheesemaking seminars during their off season to keep cash flowing through the dairy. They also have the added benefit of sharing some employees between the dairy and their organic herb, vegetable and flower farm business across the road.
Walking around with Amelia it is abundantly clear that her mother’s vision for the farm runs strong throughout the entire place and for good reason; everything is clean and simple and everyone is on the same page- healthy and well-managed animals produce great milk for cheesemaking. This means that we can count on the continuation of beautiful farmstead cheeses which is wonderful. We can also look forward to ongoing developments at Pure Luck...maybe even more cheese?
June 2006
Name: Bittersweet Plantation Dairy [Update: The dairy closed in 2013]
Owner: Chef John Folse
Location: Gonzales, Louisiana
Animals: Bittersweet gets their cow milk from a milk processor and their goat milk comes from a small dairy a few hours away. This will change when they make the dairy expansion- they will be able to collect cow milk from local dairy farms.
Cheeses/Products: Fleur de Lis, Fleur de Teche, Evangeline, Gabriel, Creole Cream Cheese, Bulgarian Style Kashkaval and Goat Milk Feta, Marinated Goat Milk Feta, Boulettes de Chevre, Feliciana Nevat, Chocolate Pecan Butter, various flavors of both ice cream and gelato, and various flavors of yogurt.
Hanging out with Chef John Folse is like having a live audio tour of the cultural and culinary Cajun and Creole history. The full day we spent touring all parts of his company was like participating in an immersion program... seriously.
We stayed at Bittersweet Plantation, which is in a small town called Donaldsonville, about 40 minutes northwest of New Orleans and one time capital of Louisiana. We cheered as we crossed the Mississippi (a first for me)...little did we know that we would cross it many more times before weaving our way out of the bayou a couple days later. Teri, the manager of Bittersweet Plantation, which has been converted to a small restaurant and B &B, greeted us with wine and tea sandwiches and showed us to our room- the Bitter Suite. The plantation is an amazing source of history itself, formerly owned by the great-grandfather of John Folse’s wife, it was one of seven buildings left standing after the town was burned by Union soldiers during the Civil War. The owner of the plantation owned the general store and kept reserves of dry goods and meat on his property, making his home a perfect location for the Northern General when the troops arrived.
The following morning Matt Summers, the dairy manager, picked us up and took us to Gonzales, LA where the dairy, bakery and company headquarters are located. The chef was waiting there for us with coffee and breakfast, but first we went to see the milk get pumped into the vat by the two full-time cheesemakers from Bulgaria (they are a story in and of themselves). Matt explained to us that their workhorse product is the Creole Cream Cheese which is sold within their local market and is therefore guaranteed to be less than a few days old whenever purchased. We can confirm its popularity as we looked for it at a number of stores who were sold out.
We talked to the Chef while we ate breakfast (pastries from his bakery) about what drove him to get into the cheesemaking business. He explained that while he was doing research for his latest book, The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine, he discovered information in the archives about dairy farming in the area. It struck him that where he grew up, in the Bayou, every family had one or two cows to provide milk and cream for themselves and that the cuisines of many of the nations who settled Louisiana involved cheese. He fully acknowledges that when he had this insight he really knew next to nothing about cheesemaking, so he began to call around to local universities with dairy science programs and began to ask a lot of questions. What he looked to do was to make cheeses that would be representative of cheeses that might have been made by the seven nations who created the Cajun and Creole culture. It seemed simple enough, he just needed to find someone with the right cheesemaking expertise. Much to his dismay, no one seemed to have answers about small scale, non-cheddar cheesemaking techniques.
Chef decided that he would begin with the Creole Cream Cheese, a product that had virtually disappeared from the marketplace. He found a company that had made it for years and they agreed to give him the recipe and all of the old wooden forms they had used to hoop the product. The forms went into his archives, and the recipe was put to immediate use. Now, one key element to the development of all parts of the Chef John Folse empire is something that the Chef refers to as his Mr. Magoo syndrome; good things tend to land in his lap. A young student at LSU visited his offices one day and explained that his parents, who were currently in Bulgaria, had won a lottery to immigrate to the U.S. but that they needed a company to sponsor them in order to come over. This young man had come to Bittersweet because his parents had been making cheese for the past 30 years in Europe and he had heard there was a dairy in Gonzales. Chef began working with this young man to get his parents to Louisiana and into making cheese at Bittersweet. Of course they also needed lessons in English which were provided as part of their workday. Their names are Dimcho and Petrana Dimov and they have been with the dairy for the past three years. They have been making the cheeses that Matt and Chef John Folse develop for his Cajun & Creole line and also some of their favorites from Bulgaria- Kashkaval and Feta.
We spent the morning with Matt and the Dimovs watching them begin the cheesemaking process for Creole Cream Cheese and Fleur de Lis; both cheeses are required to set overnight so we saw them pasteurize and add the cultures and rennet. Once we had interviewed Matt we left with Chef to go see the other property he owns called White Oak Plantation which was acquired only through the sheer will of the owners that John Folse be the person to buy it from them. Like he said, Mr. Magoo syndrome. This is a space they rent out for catered events, corporate meetings, etc. He also is beginning to do events for the public like having the symphony play out in the beautifully manicured gardens. As with his cheesemaking, White Oak Plantation carries over the theme of the seven nations through its seven distinct gardens involving native species from those nations which are being developed on the property.
I asked Chef what it was like to come into the cheesemaking community as a known chef with a certain level of celebrity and his answer was impressive largely because it illustrated that he is well aware of his predicament in the artisan cheese industry. He is an established and successful businessman in the food industry who is expanding into cheese at a time when it is hot and he knows that some people will want to write him off for this. Instead of backing out he is looking at expanding his operation and working to use his influence to foster sustainable growth within the local dairy community. For example when he expands his dairy, he will begin purchasing milk from local dairy farms because through his research on dairy farming in the region he has come to realize that he has the potential and the means to help that industry. When John saw that the number of dairy farms has dwindled, he began to wonder if Bittersweet could help even more dairies by becoming a milk processor. It is worth noting that Chef’s non-cheese product lines (soups, sauces, bakery) involve large quantities of milk and cream so he actually could support a sizable portion of Louisiana dairies.
Chef wanted us to see all aspects of his operation, so we proceeded to his USDA manufacturing facility where he makes soups and sauces and also develops his other product lines- butters, gelatos, etc. After the tour we returned to Bittersweet Plantation for a fantastic five course meal. We left Bittersweet Plantation with some awesome ice packs for our cooler, cheese, a loaf of their bread, and a strong desire to return and see what Chef John Folse and Co. will be able to do to help dairy farmers in Louisiana not to mention the new cheeses he will develop.
June 2006
Name: Sweet Home Farm [Update 2020: Alyce and Doug have retired! Their retail shop is closed and inventory remaining will be sold to local restaurants.]
Owners: Alyce Birchenough and Doug Wolbert
Location: Elberta, Alabama
Animals: Milking 13 Guernseys, total herd is 30 including calves and heifers
Cheeses/Products: Chalet, Fondrea, Jubilee, Perdido, Baldwin Swiss, Elberta, Bama Jack, Gouda, Feta, Montabella, Blue, Pepato Asiago, Cheese Fudge, Garlic Blue Cheese, a Taleggio style cheese that I can’t remember the name of!
Everything at Sweet Home Farm is done to please both the functional and the aesthetic. The first thing you see when you pull into the farm is a chicken coop that is so sweet (and so well kept) it could break your heart. I knowI’m really selling the bucolic image here- but it would be a disservice to not talk about the craftsmanship involved in the entire operation that makes up Sweet Home Farm. There are only two "employees" Alyce Birchenough and her husband Doug Wolbert, they are also the owners. This means that they are the gardeners, the repair people, the milkers, cheesemakers, and as if that were not enough they are shopkeepers too. All of the cheese produced is sold on the farm, not to prove a point, but to keep things simple.
I called Alyce from the road when we realized that we were running late and might not arrive at the farm until well after 7pm. She asked enough questions to determine that we were headed the right way and promptly invited us to dinner...we didn’t realize that between Georgia and Alabama we had crossed a time zone. One more hour for us and such a great dinner with Alyce and Doug. When we arrived Alyce walked us around the farm. We started in the garden which is teeming with growth: beans, blueberries, greens, pears, three varieties of figs, pecans, loquats, limes, oranges, lemons, herbs, white peaches, quince, artichokes, mulberries, persimmons, and muscadine grapes... just to mention a few. Of course there was something cheese related in the garden too- cardoons- the thistle plant used as the coagulant in a number of Portuguese cheese recipes. She educated herself on how to make the solution used in cheesemaking and even tried working with it in some of her cheeses until she learned that it creates bitter flavors when used with cow milk (many of the Portuguese varieties are sheep milk).
We busted open some cheese that we had brought with us from Sweet Grass Dairy for a little aperetif and then Doug popped out to milk the cows so that we could all lounge comfortably after dinner. While Alyce put the finishing touches on dinner, Michael and I got to check out Doug’s collections of butter molds and cheese plates- even dairy farmers can get hooked on ebay. Looking down at a table full of food that was grown on the land you are standing on gets me every time- grass fed beef strips, string beans from the garden, sweet corn, cucumber tomato dill salad and parsnips. After dinner we managed to get Alyce to recount stories about their first dairy cow and some of their other early farming experiences.
Our visit fell during Memorial Day weekend so the gulf coast was packed and that meant that on the first full day of our visit, Saturday, the cheese shop would be even busier than usual so they encouraged us to check out the beach in the morning before coming to the farm. We followed their instructions and rolled into their driveway around 2pm and found that it was full of cars. Every time one car would pull away another pulled in and this went on right up until 5pm when the shop closed. There is a lovely little bench in front of the shop where we sat, between our visits to the milking cows in the pasture and coffee breaks with Alyce and Doug (seperately of course), and chatted with their customers. It is important to understand that Sweet Home Farm is not in the "middle of town" - it is off of a somewhat trafficked road and then is a mile and a half down a dirt road! This means that customers have to know where they are going and they have to want it. And since all of Sweet Home’s sales are done at the farm, it makes the effort of those customers even more amazing. Everyone that we spoke with that day felt like they had discovered something special when they found Sweet Home Farm and they assured us that if we ever had an event to attend or a group of people to impress that cheese from Sweet Home would be sure to put us in good standing for any occassion.
Once the shop closed we hightailed it down a few back roads to the coast to the Pirate’s Cove for a beer and some pizza. Even though the weather was gorgeous and the beer was cold we exercised restraint because Doug needed to get back to milk the cows. While Doug was busy in the parlor, Alyce and I flipped through her cheese photos from Italy. We interviewed them later that evening while Doug peeled their first harvest of garlic for Alyce to use in the Garlic Blue cheese she would make the next morning. Around midnight we kicked ourselves out, fearing that we were going to interfere with their Sunday schedule....
The next morning we watched carefully as Alyce made a large batch of blue cheese; separating a small quantity for the Garlic Blue which she developed because of a customer request and continues to make it because it has developed a cult following. I am so blown away by Alyce, her approach to and passion for cheesemaking, not to mention the way that she and Doug have developed their farm, that I’m feeling squidgy about how to say something that does her justice. Really! She became a small-scale cheesemaker before there were home cheesemaking books and small quantities of cultures for sale; she learned to make cheese by reading an Encyclopedia of Country Living which illustrates her determination. But the real wow factor about Alyce is that she might have more love for the actual thing- making cheese by hand- than anyone I’ve encountered in my time in cheese. Sweet Home Farm could sell twice what they currently do from their farm shop, and she could rest on her laurels, but instead she does things like troll the internet and figure out how to make rennet from cardoon thistles! Her curiosity about all things cheese related is insatiable. She is probably a wonderful, if not a bit intimidating, student and yet she is also a phenomenal teacher. The majority of cheesemakers in the South, even a few along the eastern seaboard, credit her with having been their best resource when they were learning to make cheese.
Being around Doug and Alyce was particularly enjoyable because they have the ease that comes with being around people who know where they are headed and why... if something is complicated for them, they figure out how to make it uncomplicated. Watching them life looks so much more straightforward; they are focused on what is workable... for them. Fortunately, the things that work for them are totally cool for the rest of us too.
June 2006
Name: Sweet Grass Dairy
Owners: Jessica and Jeremy Little
Location: Thomasville, Georgia
Animals: approximately 150 goats (Saanen, La Mancha, Alpine), they also buy cow milk from Green Hill Dairy which is owned by Jessica’s parents
Cheeses/Products: Thomasville Tomme, Georgia Gouda, Myrtlewood, Green Hill, Lumiere, Fresh Chevre, Holly Springs, Pecan Chevre.
As unfortunate is it was, the fate of our visit to Sweet Grass Dairy was determined by a seemingly unimportant stop en route to the farm. A small bowl of food we ate in Athens, Georgia literally brought us to our knees about 6 hours later. When we got to the farm we introduced ourselves, apologized in advance for our antisocial behavior and asked for a bed and a bathroom. Eighteen hours later I sat down to have my first conversation with Jessica and Jeremy; Michael had lasted about two hours post-arrival before he succumbed to the illness so he had gotten to know them a bit. I have to say that the Littles were the absolute best you could hope for in such a situation. Not a shred of annoyance from them about our delicate composition, just lots of apple juice, sparkling water, crackers and sympathy.
Many people associate Sweet Grass cheeses with Desiree Wehner, Jessica’s mother, who started the dairy. Desiree and her husband Al are known throughout the grass-based, rotational grazing cow dairy world as an example to be followed; not to mention that they are known throughout southern Georgia as right good people. Al and Desiree were conventional dairy farmers who became disenchanted with dairying and decided to try something different. Similarly to Helen and Rick Feete, the Wehners turned to the New Zealand model and created Green Hill, a 340 acre rotational grazing facility currently milking approximately 500 cows. In the late 90’s a variety of circumstances lead the Wehners to move into Thomasville onto 140 acres. Desiree saw an opening to have the handful of goats she had always wanted and the development of Sweet Grass Dairy began.
Fast forward to 2003 when their son-in-law, Jeremy, joined them at Sweet Grass to assist with the expansion of the cheesemaking facility. Jessica came down from Atlanta a few months later and both she and Jeremy gradually became involved in the dairy. At a certain point, Al and Desiree decided that they needed to focus their attention on Green Hill and the discussion of Jessica and Jeremy taking over Sweet Grass Dairy began. It took over a year for the couple to decide to buy the dairy and get everything organized for the purchase. (As Mateo Kehler- Jasper Hill Farmonce told me, "You want a good laugh? Walk into any bank and tell them you want a loan to start or buy a small dairy farm.")
Jeremy apprenticed with Desiree on the cheesemaking side and gradually took control of the production while Jessica focused on sales, marketing and accounting. It is refreshing to hear the two of them talk about the ups and downs of their experience with the dairy in such a candid way. I’m not talking about whining or complaining - as that is almost never impressive; what I mean is that there is a level of honesty that comes out as a result of their humility. They are open about the inherent contradiction they feel about their ownership of the dairy; they probably would not have done it had they truly understood what they were getting into and yet they are in total agreement that they would do it again if given the option.
On the afternoon of our second day there, Michael and I finally felt like we could stand long enough to get the full tour of the dairy. It was about five in the afternoon so milking was in full swing. The goats are all waiting for their turn in the parlor and were surprisingly nonplussed about the 95 degree heat.
While they make cheese daily at Sweet Grass with their goat milk, they also get beautiful Jersey cow milk from Green Hill. We walked through the cheesemaking room and all of the aging rooms. One of their most valued employees was finishing up flipping the Green Hills- small disks of Jersey milk with delicate bloomy rinds. Jeremy has worked a lot on the Green Hills and it has paid off- they are absolutely insane! The expansion that Jeremy helped build was for the two rooms that were added to provide the proper environments for soft-ripened cheeses. Two other cheeses are ripened in these rooms - the heart-shaped Lumiere and the Pecan Chevre, both are made with goats milk from Sweet Grass.
We proceeded on to see the bulk fresh chevre, made earlier that day and draining in tubs, and the Goudas which were still in their forms in the cool, old press that stands in the middle of the production room. There are four "caves" teeming with aged cheeses made from cow and goat milk. Jeremy explained that, like all the cheesemakers we have visited so far, they cannot keep up with the demand for their cheese and that it is difficult to age some cheeses much beyond the required 60 days because people are waiting for them.
I didn’t realize until we looked into each of these rooms that my perception of Sweet Grass Dairy was that they were quite small. Maybe because in my retail days I had focused on their small cheeses or maybe because I had not seem them sold in many places in NYC. Regardless of my reasoning, I was wrong. Sweet Grass is in a stage that reminds me of what it felt like when I was 7, too old to be a cute little kid and not old enough to be a big kid either. Jessica and Jeremy confirmed that they are in the midst of an awkward phase where they are too big to be small and too small to be big. This might not sound like much to an outsider but it is something that plagues many American cheesemakers. Producers feel the risk of having their customers decide that they have become a "factory" if the growth of the cheese production seems too large. It is one of many contradictions of the consumer: wanting something rare and unusual but wanting a consistent supply of it.
The next morning, before we sat them down for their interview, Jeremy took us out to Green Hill so we could see the farm that we had heard so much about. It really is amazing and lucky for you all Michael was brave enough to climb up onto one of grain towers (the cows are fed grain during milking) to snap some photos that give you a sense of the layout of the farm.
It is great to see a farm making the transition from one generation to the next. We look forward to seeing where Jessica and Jeremy will take the company. Based on the cheeses we sampled we would encourage them to press on through the middle ground, more of their cheese would be great for everyone.
June 2006
Name: Goat Lady Dairy
Owners: Ginnie, Steve, Lee and Norma Tate
Location: Climax, North Carolina
Animals: Approximately 75 goats; Nubians, Saanens, and French-Alpine
Cheeses/Products: Spreadable Fromage (in nine flavors), Chevre Logs, Feta, Smokey Mountain Round, Marinated Chevre, Chevre Camembert, Crottin, Sandy Creek, Providence, Gray’s Chapel, Goat Lady Gouda. Chocolate Goat Cheese Truffles (only during Holidays)
Holistic. This is the word that comes to mind when I think about Goat Lady Dairy. The farm came together organically, beginning with Ginnie Tate’s move to Climax, North Carolina. She bought an abandoned tobacco farm that had a dilapidated log home on it and began the process of restoring it to prime condition. Along the way she took on a couple of goats and earned the nickname "the goat lady" with locals in town, some of whom she hired to help restore her home. The other members of the Tate family came later on; Steve Tate and his family enjoyed the visits they made to Climax in the summer months but it wasn’t until years later that they thought about moving there and developing the farm with Ginnie. Steve and his wife Lee were living in Minnesota when they became involved in a CSA (community supported agriculture). As they became more actively involved in their CSA, they began to do work for local groups focused on farmland preservation.
Years into this it occurred to Steve and Lee that maybe the best thing they could do in addition to preserving farmland would be to create an active farm themselves. They began to discuss the possibility with Ginnie originally thinking they would grow organic vegetables and create a CSA themselves. The three of them considered many business plans and thought about their respective interests and talents before settling on a plan that diversified their income streams.
Organic vegetables, cheese, and hospitality were the areas they decided to start with and they figured they would see which ones were more successful. Little did they know that those three areas would work so beautifully together largely due to their wonderful creation called Dinner at the Dairy. People pay a fixed price to come to the dairy for a five-course meal composed of foods from their farm, other local farms, and of course, some of their acclaimed hand made cheeses. Guests also get a tour of the farm and can watch the goats being milk through a window in the side of the milking parlor. The dinners sell out minutes after the schedule is posted on the Goat Lady website. Roles have shifted over the years and Ginnie and Steve’s mother Norma has joined them but their overall mission to create a sustainable farm committed to education has only grown stronger.
The day that we visited Goat Lady Dairy there was a lot going on...even more than usual. A class of fourth-graders from the local elementary school was being taken on a tour by Ginnie while Steve and his partner in cheesemaking, Carrie, were making more cheese than they have ever made in one day. Steve had attended a Slow Food event the day prior so he had to do a bit of catch up and make three batches of cheese instead of the usual two. Regardless of the extra activity, Steve greeted us, suited us up in hairnets and booties, and invited us into the cheese room. By the time we arrived at the dairy they had already made a batch of fresh chevre and molded chevre from a previous day into logs. Carrie was working on various flavors of spreadable fromage, largely preparing stock for the farmers’ markets they would attend that week.
Steve and his niece Jessie, who is doing a year-long internship on the farm, were focused on a batch of goat milk Gouda. As he pressed the cut and cooked curds together the fourth graders huddled up around the viewing window along the side of the cheese room. Once the curds were cut into blocks and loaded into the hoops, Steve and Jessie put the wall-mounted press together and set the freshly packed Goudas in position under the press. Just in time to begin scooping the soft curd that had been cultured, set and cut by Carrie in the vat pasteurizer. The curd was scooped into small molds and left to drain for a couple hours. This soft curd would become a crottin size cheese called Sandy Creek with a line of ash through the center.
At this point the lunch "whistle" blew and everyone migrated into the large square table in the dairy kitchen for lunch. Of course lunch was made from foods on the farm. During lunch we got to meet Brian Farlow, the most recent addition to the farm. He grew up on a farm in Climax and after a few years working after graduating college he wanted to return to farming . He now works as the farm manager, assisting with all aspects of the farm: the garden, the pigs that they raise, support for Lee who manages the herd, and maintenance of farm equipment.
Once the cheesemaking obligations were near finished, Steve gave us the full tour of the farm. We walked out to one of their pastures to bring the goats in for milking. The herd is gorgeous- they are milking approximately 60 does- Saanens, Nubians, and French-Alpines. Lee is the herd manager; she does everything from milking to hoof trimming. Michael and I hung out with the goats in the "waiting room", the pen where they wait for their turn in the milking parlor. We stayed in until they began to get a little...friendly with us and then Steve walked us down to see the pigs they are raising (whey fed, of course). Last but not least we strolled through the garden which is absolutely stunning. It is tended daily by Norma, Steve and Ginnie’s mother, and gets a bit of additional care from some volunteers who work the garden in exchange for an education about organic farming.
Steve sent us off with a wide variety of their cheeses...YUM...and we drove away crossing our fingers that we will be quick enough online to get into a Dinner at the Dairy in 2007!
June 2006
Name: Meadow Creek Dairy
Owners: Helen & Rick Feete Location: Galax, Virginia
Animals: Over 100 Jersey with some crosses mixed in
Cheeses/Products: Grayson, Mountaineer, Appalachian
In the 80’s Helen and Rick Feete went into dairying because as they saw it the profession was stable and they would get to spend more time with each other and with their children than if they worked other kinds of jobs. Both of them worked at conventional confinement dairies. In 1988, when they decided to get cows and started their own dairy, they reacted against conventional dairy farming. This was primarily because of the cost of running a confinement dairy; they did not have the capital to invest in the equipment or the ongoing purchase of corn silage to feed the animals. Around this time they saw an article in Farm Magazine about methods used in New Zealand dairies- grass-fed, rotational grazing- and also a book by Bill Murphy, Greener Pasture is on Your Side of the Fence, came out and they could see a style of dairy that they could afford. As a result, Meadow Creek Dairy- along with a handful of other New Zealand style rotational grazing setups in North America- stood out like a sore thumb in the world of cows milk dairies. The cows are outside on grass 365 days of the year and there are few structures and not so much heavy equipment around to support the dairy.
Six years into their own dairy business, without any non-family employees and not a single milking off, they began to wear out. So they considered their options and decided to try changing over to being a seasonal operation meaning they would breed their herd within one window. Any cows that do not get pregnant within that window must be cut from the herd. Not an easy decision to stick with, not to mention arranging your finances to get you prepared for the dry season- no milk production means no cash flow. Although this was a difficult decision to carry out, it also breathed new life into the farm...and we should all be thankful for this change as it gave the Feetes a chance to build a small cheese plant so that Helen could begin to take some of the grass-fed, raw Jersey milk from a few cows and turn it into cheese.
When we pulled into Meadow Creek Dairy Rick was just finishing up milking with Judith, one of their milk hands. Helen, Michael, and I trailed behind one of the last groups of cows milked out to the paddock they would graze that evening. The farm is beautiful with hills that may qualify as slightly more intense than rolling, a creek, a couple of ponds, and copious amounts of luscious green grass. We wandered out amidst the milkers (approximately 89 of them at the moment) who are almost all mostly Jersey with a few carefully selected breeds crossed into the herd. As with all other factors that impact the farm, Helen and Rick are constantly tweaking their breeding to improve the overall genetics of the herd. They are definitely doing something right as this past season they had 89 successful births (no dead calves or cows).
On our first night, Helen treated us to one of the chickens raised on their farm and spring lettuces from her garden. We got up in the morning and wandered up the path to the cheese plant where Helen had been busy for some time setting up the room for making Grayson, their raw milk Taleggio style cheese.
The make works best with four people and Helen had set up the crew to come in special on Saturday so that we could see them do it. Dixie was the first to show up (with homemade cinnamon rolls and butter and strawberry ice cream made from Meadow Creek cream), he has worked there for about 8 years. Then Helen and Rick’s daughter Kate arrived with her fiance Dan, they both work for Meadow Creek. We stepped in to watch Helen cut the curd and then cleared the room for a few minutes to allow them to set up all of the forms. Once they were ready to hoop the cheese we were directed to two spots where we could stand without being in their way. Kate stirred the curd gently and constantly to prevent it from adhering to itself, Dan scooped curd into buckets, Helen and Dixie ferried the buckets from the vat to the molds around the room. At a certain point, Helen stopped pouring curd and began flipping the cheeses that were hooped first. As luck would have it, we got to see the biggest Grayson make they have ever done- it was awesome to see a cheese make that involved so many people moving a lot of curd and having such a good time together.
Those cheeses were flipped at various intervals that day and eventually we helped Helen move them into the cellar. Helen is patiently waiting while the finishing touches are being done on a new cheesemaking room and in-ground cellar- an excellent excuse for us to go visit them again later this year.
The following morning they took us on a walk around their property. One could easily wander around on their farm and overlook one of the most important features- what is growing on the land. While we walked, Rick explained how one cares for a pasture when they are focused on long-term sustainability (environmental, economic, and social). When you kneel down and look at the variety of grasses available to the cows it is intense to think about the amount of work required to create this landscape (without the use of chemicals). He also talked to us about something other farmers have mentioned, the concept of a nutrient loop on a piece of land- I will do my best to give an explanation although it will be oversimplified. The cows go out and eat the grass which has grown from nutrients in the soil, they metabolize that grass and put it back onto the land via manure. One of the wonderful thing about grass based dairying is that you are closer to closing the loop because you are not taking hay from someone else’s land and moving those nutrients onto your own land... over time this depletes the hay farmer’s land.
Listening to Helen and Rick talk about their path through the dairying industry it is apparent that they are steady visionaries with the patience required to do something the right way. They are humble about what they have accomplished and yet they would never undersell the complexity of what they do- which is exactly as it should be.
May 2006
Name: Everona Dairy [Update: they do not appear to be in business anymore]
Owner: Pat Elliott
Location: Rapidan, VA
Animals: 100 East Friesians
Cheeses/Products: Piedmont (there are a number of specialty cheeses made by adding various herbs to the Piedmont recipe or smoking the cheeses after they are made), Old Rag, Stonyman
We were greeted by Carrie Ganoe when we pulled into Everona Dairy. She makes cheese there four days a week and the owner Dr. Pat Elliott makes cheese as often as she can when not tending to her patients. Yes, she is not only a sheep dairy farmer; she also has a full time medical practice which is located on the farm, adjacent to her home. The dairy at Everona actually began because Dr. Elliott bought a Border collie puppy on impulse one weekend back in 1992. Approximately a year after, she bought some sheep because the puppy needed something to do.
Dr. Elliott was a hobbyist cheesemaker for years, using milk from her neighbor’s cow. She had also worked in a sheep barn when she was in college so it wasn’t such a stretch for her to consider making cheese from the sheep milk from her own animals. As you can imagine, running a medical practice and a farmstead cheesemaking operation is a bit much for one person to handle. Over the years, Dr. Elliott has had a few people on to assist with milking and cheesemaking. Last July, Carrie drove out to the farm to meet Dr. Elliott and see the operation. Having worked for a couple years in restaurant kitchens and also retail cheese shops, Carrie was feeling an urge to get a closer look at where cheese is made and what it takes to produce it. After spending the afternoon speaking with Dr. Elliott, they agreed that it would be a good fit for Carrie to come on board and make cheese four days a week at Everona.
We didn’t make it to the farm in time to see Carrie making cheese that afternoon; she was finishing up cleaning from her second batch that day. The vat they use is a 20-gallon stainless steel stockpot, so during peak season Carrie often makes cheese multiple times each day to keep up with milk production. We watched as she cleaned up the heating element they use to warm and cool the milk and carved the batch numbers into the cheeses that had been made the day prior. She walked us through the aging room and around the farm.
The following day we got to spent a few hours with Dr. Elliott while she made a batch of Piedmont (the ACS award winner in 2005). She often makes cheese during lunch hour, before her afternoon patients arrive. She had a hunch that we might slow her down a bit and so she cleared her afternoon schedule so we could follow her around closely and ask all of our questions. After cheesemaking, we sat down with Dr. Elliott to taste the range of cheeses made at Everona. Their cheeses are sold at the local farmer’s market and also at some retail stores around the country. Although the herd has grown considerably, Dr. Elliott shows no sign of slowing down; and she hasn’t stopped breeding border collies either.
May 2006
Name: FireFly Organic Farm
Owners: Mike Koch, Pablo Solanet, Ron & Beth Brenneman
Location: Bittinger, Maryland
Animals: Recently sold off most of their 200 plus mixed herd. Currently purchasing milk from four, local Amish goat dairies
Cheeses/Products: Merry Goat Round, Allegheny Chevre, Mountain Top Bleu, Buche Noir...plus two aged goat milk cheeses that are only sold at farmers’ markets
We arrived at FireFly Farms one week after they had made a big change in their operation: no more goats on the farm. After much debate, the six people who collectively run the farm decided that the cost of labor involved in caring for 200 plus goats, the complexity of expanding the herd for more milk, and the ease of acquiring high-quality goat milk from other sources in their area meant that it was time to sell the herd. Andy, the office manager (this is the closest we could get to a job title that was loose enough to include all that she does), was concerned that we would be disappointed with this change on the farm while we were thinking- how much more interesting does it get to walk onto the scene after such a huge change?
FireFly made the Cheese by Hand cut because of its unique ownership setup. Four friends Mike Koch, Pablo Solanet, Ron & Beth Brenneman came together to combine their respective expertise- cheesemaking and dairying. One of the things we have noticed in small-scale cheesemaking is the burnout potential, especially with farmstead operations. We were intrigued to see if having four people on board meant a more sustainable lifestyle and to understand how well a farmstead cheese operation could support two families.
So we hauled our lot out to the western most point of Maryland. Although the landscape is incredible and we drove through the tip of the Appalachian Mountains on our way there, the overcast and stormy weather made the situation seem bleak. The road out to the farm is beautiful with rolling hills and loads of grazing cattle. We arrived just in time to clean up after the final batch of cheese was made. There are three full-time employees at FireFly: Matt, the current head cheesemaker (and Andy’s husband), and his apprentice, a 17 year old local named Dan. Matt gave us a tour and explained a bit more about the selling of the herd and what that has meant for the farm. At this point FireFly is receiving goats milk from four Amish goat dairies one to two times each week, storing it in a bulk tank, and pulling from that throughout the week making cheese two and three times each day. Like many other American artisan cheesemakers, FireFly cannot keep up with the demand for their cheeses.
Now that FireFly is receiving milk from other farms they can determine the quantity of milk that they have the capacity to turn into cheese. This is both a luxury and a burden (projecting sales is not always easy) although everyone involved seems comfortable with the arrangement they have made with their suppliers.
When they first started using milk from the local Amish dairies they had to take all milk being produced as they had no way of taking what they needed and then getting the rest to another producer. They were overwhelmed with milk for a couple months and forced to develop some new cheeses- they made two styles of aged goat’s milk cheeses- both are tommes, one is a washed rind- which turned out to be fantastic. Not only did they get two great new products from this too-much-milk predicament but they also retooled their relationship with the farms and connected with a milk distributer who now collects milk from the Amish dairies, drops off only what is needed at FireFly, and then takes the remaining milk onto other goat milk cheese producers. A winning situation for all parties involved.
Matt sent us on our way with bellies full of aged goats milk cheeses- mmmm- which we topped off with some excellent, surprisingly authentic Mexican food at El Camelo in the lovely little town of Frostburg (Frostburg State University anyone?).
The following morning we arrived in time to watch Dan put the Allegheny Chevre into cloth sacks, work some of the whey out of them and hang them to drain. Dan keeps the cheesemaking flowing a couple mornings each week while Matt drives their orders to Pittsburgh. The chevre had been cultured and set (rennet added) the night before and then left in the warm make room overnight. Another batch of milk had already been pumped into the pasteurizer so that by the time the chevre was hanging the milk in the pasteurizer would be ready to culture and set so that the next batch of cheese, soft-ripened Merry Goat Rounds, could be hooped later that afternoon. After clean up from chevre bagging and hanging, we watched Dan prepare for logging. Logging? Yes, logging.
Matt and Dan had alluded to the antiquated method they use to create their completely handmade chevre logs and buche noir. Having seen other cheesemakers make chevre logs during our trip we assumed they had a hand-crank extruder. It is even more "handmade" than that. Dan covered the work table with long strips of plastic wrap and began to lump chevre onto it, gradually forming it into a tube shape. Once he had a strip that ran almost the length of the table he wrapped the plastic around the fresh cheese, twisted the ends to seal them and began to stretch the tube by running his hand along it. "I had to lift for four weeks to develop the muscle set to do this," he explained while we picked our chins up off the floor. So we filled the next two stations on the assembly line to help out; Michael unwrapped the snake-like logs and cut them according to the cheese ruler while I wrapped each one in plastic and stacked them neatly on a tray so they could be moved into cold storage before being wrapped in cheese paper and shipped out.
The by-hand bit doesn’t end here. Once all the chevre was logged, cut, and plastic wrapped, we pulled the trays out and with each log we had to wrap them in cheese paper, attach an Allegheny Chevre label, stamp them with both the julian code and the batch number, and lastly, attach the hand-written weight sticker. Uhm. Wow. And to think that on a normal Tuesday, with Matt making deliveries, Dan would have done this work on his own. Impressive. By the time we had finished this up Matt was back from Pittsburgh and the two cheesemakers got busy with cutting, draining, and hooping curds for Merry Goat Rounds. As with all cheesemaking we’ve seen this is the part that goes by in the blink of an eye; before you know it you are back to cleaning.
Michael and I prepared to interview Matt and Andy who are managing the day to day operations at the creamery. We left Dan to prep another vat of chevre that would sit through the evening and be ready for bagging and draining the following morning. Michael asked him if he thought he would stick with cheesemaking for a while...I’ll paraphrase his answer- I started working when I was 12 (he was home schooled so his scheduled allowed him to do this) I’ve worked construction, I’ve worked as a butcher in a slaughterhouse and eventually I asked myself what kind of work I’d still be wanting to do when I’m 40. This is hard work but the temperature swing is only 50 degrees and that is better than standing outside on a roof in freezing rain and sleet. Plus I got in on the ground floor here- I’m going to stick around this place.
FireFly is lucky to have him- we’d be happy to log alongside him any day.
May 2006
Name: Westfield Farm
Owners: Bob & Debbie Stetson
Location: Hubbardston, Massachusetts
Animals: Westfield Farm gets its milk from four local goat dairies and cow dairies
Cheeses: Hubbardston Blue, Blue Log, Fresh Goat Cheeses (with various flavors - we highly recommend the Wasabi and Chocolate), Bluebonnet, Camembert, and many others
When we called Bob Stetson to confess that a 3pm arrival at Westfield Farm was a long shot, he graciously invited us to join him and his wife Debbie for dinner that evening. So we slogged through Boston rush hour traffic and pulled into a hotel near their farm where we had an interesting chat with the receptionist about the cheeses at Westfield Farm. She is a native of Hubbardston (where the farm is located) and said that one of her childhood friends who now lives out in California called her one day to tell her that cheese was not only being made in their hometown but also written about in a national food magazine. This was clearly a point of curiosity and pride for them both- as she said, “Almost no one even knows where Hubbardston Massachusetts is, let alone that there is cheese being made there.” Kind of the classic tale of many small American cheesemakers- people across the country might know about them before members of their immediate community do.
The Stetson home is situated in a clearing near the top of a rolling hill in a town called Hubbardston. The house they live in is literally as old as our country and still in beautiful condition. Bob and Debbie moved here from Boston approximately ten years ago to take over the cheesemaking operation from Bob and Letty Kilmoyer who started the farm approximately ten years prior.
As the story goes, Bob Kilmoyer (a university math professor) was asked by one of his students to watch a few of his goats for the summer and the student never returned- at least not for the goats- and thus began Westfield Farm. The herd grew, an entire line of cheeses were developed (not to mention a market for specialty goat milk cheeses), and a number of employees came on to work the farm and live with the Kilmoyers. Nearly a decade later, the workload and cooperative living got to be too much for the Kilmoyers and they decided to sell the goats and place a small ad in the Boston Globe for a goat cheesemaking business.
The Stetsons had been working in shipping in Boston and Bob had an increasing interest in shifting his work away from selling services- he wanted to produce something tangible. He saw the ad in the Globe and it piqued his interest. They drove out to visit and although they had never even tasted goat cheese, they saw the creamery as a viable business. So they moved in with the Kilmoyers shortly after that and learned about milk collection, cheesemaking and distribution. Approximately one month later the Stetsons were living the dream. Over the last ten years they have nearly tripled the volume of cheese produced on the farm. They made additions onto the cheesemaking facility shortly after taking over and now use the old barn for packaging and cold storage.
Westfield gets milk from four local goat dairies. These dairies have evolved because Westfield Farm created a local market for goat milk. A couple of the dairies they work with shifted from cow dairying to goats because there is now more money in selling goats milk for cheese than selling fluid cows milk. The weekly make schedule seems relatively set and since most of the cheeses are fresh (less than 60 days old) the majority of their cheese are pasteurized.
Ten years into the business Bob and Debbie are still encouraged by the tactile nature of what they do. They modestly give nearly all the credit to the Kilmoyers who, for all intents and purposes, established the farm, the vision, and got the cheese on the radar of retailers and restaurants. That said, it is rare to find people willing to take over an established business who understand which pieces they should tinker with and which they should leave alone. Lucky for all consumers of Westfield Farm cheeses, the Stetsons are indeed that kind of people. We will take their modesty so long as they continue to pump out their delectable line of goat and cow milk cheeses.
May 2006
Name: Hendricks Farm [Update: No longer in operation]
Owners: Trent and Rachel Hendricks
Location: Telford, Pennsylvania
Animals: 36 Ayreshires and 2 Jerseys, 100 Saanen and Alpine goats (not yet on their new farm), a few working Horses, at least 10 pigs, and a handful of chickens
Cheeses/Products: Cabriejo, Goadacious, Bluebells, Ticklemeblue, Bavarian Swiss, Gruyere, Telford Tomme, Telford Reserve, Aged Gouda, Parmesan, Cow Pies, Cheddar Blue, Pub Cheddar, BlueBeard, Franconia Jack, CaerPhilly, Asiagoat. Grass-fed beef, goat, lamb, whey-fed pork, eggs, raw cow and goat’s milk, cream, whey, buttermilk, yogurt, butter, cottage cheese, cheese curd.
Trent Hendricks is a first-generation farmer in a family of real estate developers. He and his wife Rachel (and their four children) are creating something we should all be paying attention to in eastern Pennsylvania. Last November they relocated their farm to a spot about two miles down the road from the original operation.
The farm has grown out of the Hendricks’ interest in having food for their own family that is produced in a truly sustainable way, meaning ecologically and financially. Trent is committed to continually reducing the farm’s reliance on fossil fuels. When we arrived he was out by one fo the old farm structures with his daughter watching the pigs and checking on the young calves and newborn horse. It doesn’t sound so different from another farm until Trent explains that the horses are working horses and he shows us the new John Deere manure spreader he recently acquired. It is a horse-drawn model with steel tires- selected for its independence from petroleum products. He also confirms that the main reason he brought pigs onto the farm was to have an outlet for the whey from their cheesemaking. A local bakery has partnered with the farm by giving them their day-old bread and scraps to feed to the pigs.
We walked the property with Trent for the next couple of hours. The highlights as we saw them were:
- Heating for the parlor, cheesemaking facility, offices, farm store, etc. is produced by a digitally controlled wood-burning furnace. The furnace heats water which then travels through pipes throughout the building and there are fans that can be turned on in each room to blow air over the pipes to create warm air.
- They built a state-of-the-art pit-style milking parlor with two interesting features- both of them involve iodine. The high-pressure hose that mixes water with iodine to spray down equipment in the parlor and the iodine mixed with air to make a foam that is used to clean the teats.
- Their custom-designed barn takes advantage of natural cross breezes to keep the area cool and comfortable for cows. Trent got the construction crew to use the paneling that was intended for the side to be used as a roof addition that creates a small sheltered area for storing and feeding hay.
- Trent is making all 17 of his cheeses in a 70-gallon vat and using an old fashioned press for his hard cheeses.
- There are plans for an on-site demo kitchen where there will be cooking courses that use foods from the farm.
At Hendricks, they are milking 32 Ayreshires who are strictly grass-fed. Trent has them on a rotational grazing program. After they finish grazing in a paddock, sheep go through and finish the grass- taking it lower (which improves the regrowth) and also helping to manage parasites. When different species go out on grass the parasite’s host cycle is broken.
As for the cheeses, Trent is producing an impressive range of styles of cheeses: pressed and soft-ripened and also some surface ripened blue cheeses. And to us, he is curious enough that he will continue to expand his line of cheeses. We finished up our tour with a big tasting of more than ten cheeses. The variety of textures makes his offering a beautiful selection. The bad news about the cheeses (for those of us not so close to eastern PA) is that they are sold almost entirely on the farm. The good news about them is that when you do go to the farm you will be richly rewarded with promising cheeses and all of the other products available for sale: raw cow and goats milk, butter, cream, yogurt, eggs, beef, chicken, lamb, whey-fed pork, and goat. The bonus?
These are all foods that you can feel good about purchasing- both because they are delicious and because your money will be supporting a farm that is taking the best of old practices into the new age of agriculture.
May 2006
Name: Appleton Creamery
Owners: Caitlin, Brad, and Fiona Hunter
Location: Appleton, Maine
Animals: 32 American Alpine goats. She also buys sheep (Dorset Freisian cross/Freisian) and cow’s (Jersey/Holstein cross) milk from neighbors
Cheeses/Products: Chevre, Feta, Chevre in olive oil (YUM), Crofter’s Cheese, Sheep Milk Yogurt, Caprino di Vino, St. George Blue, Brebrie, George’s Highland... really you just need to catch her at the farmer’s market because she changes it up often. We hear a new Camdenbert is on the horizon.
Farmers’ Markets where you can find Appleton’s cheeses: Orono, Belfast, Camden, Rockland, Damariscotta, Bath (check the Maine Organic Farmers and Grower’s Association, MOFGA, for days and hours of each market)
We pulled into Appleton Creamery around 4 pm and cheesemaker Caitlin Hunter’s husband Brad greeted us.
He walked down from his sail-making workshop (New England is almost irritatingly rife with craftspeople), which occupies the structure next to their home. Brad walked us through their 5 acres which are aesthetically pleasing and, more importantly, laden with incredible projects. As we headed down the stone path, flanked on either side by a thriving flower garden, toward the barn Brad pointed out the micro-vineyard behind the house, now in its fifth year of growth. There is a lot of cheese being made on the farm and he feels obligated to develop a variety of washes for them so he is grafting some rare cider apple species onto older root stock on one end of their land and growing hops up the side of his workshop for home brewed beer later this season. They are preparing to seed their fruit and vegetable garden and we will do our best to get back for the harvest as they focus on heirloom varieties.
After seeing the spread of active projects happening on their farm we should have expected to discover a cheesemaker producing a crazy variety of goods but based on the size of the cheesemaking room we thought otherwise. Brad described it accurately when he said, “It is like making cheese on a boat.” The cheesemaking room is one section of the barn (which was built by Brad for Caitlin’s five goats years ago), making up about 20 % of the overall space. The room is a long rectangle, maybe 6 feet wide and 20 feet long. Everything has its place and Caitlin moves around fluidly in this space, she has been making cheese her for over a decade.
When we wandered over to the barn, Caitlin was finishing up cheesemaking with her first apprentice of the season. Now- let me just say that if I worked in a “cozy” make room and was at the end of my day and already deep in the throes of teaching one person, I am not sure that I would have invited two people inside to hover over me for a couple hours. Lucky for us, this is precisely what Caitlin did. Once we began talking to her about how she became a cheesemaker this magnanimous behavior made sense and also made us some of her biggest fans.
Caitlin is a back-to-lander who became interested in goats and cheesemaking in the late 70s. She is largely self-taught as there wasn’t anyone to learn from in cheesemaking or goat rearing. As a result of going it on her own and growing her business slowly, she keeps her equipment low-tech, “if I can’t fix it myself, I don’t really want to use it.”
Another interesting outcome of her own path of development is her commitment to new cheesemakers having access to better information than she had. She has learned so much in her years of cheesemaking and has a lot of knowledge to share and every year she does just that by bringing on not one but often two apprentices. I know from experience at both Murray’s and Artisanal (in NYC) that having interns is both an enormous help and also a big commitment of time and energy. Teaching in the cheesemaking room requires a special kind of patience and Caitlin has endless amounts of it.
It is clear that the goats were her entry into the cheese world; making cheese was a way to keep the goats around. After years of larger and smaller herds, she has settled on a number that is manageable for her to care for (also keep in mind their land base of only 5 acres) and leave enough time for all the cheese she needs to make and sell at farmer’s markets. She has the great fortune of being surrounded by neighbors who were looking for outlets for their own milk. One neighbor sells her cows milk and another who wanted to be a shepherd but wasn’t quite ready to get into cheesemaking herself so she found Caitlin as an outlet for her sheep’s milk. This is a cheesemaker’s dream- you get to have a herd size you can manage and you have great sources for additional milk so you can produce a more reasonable volume of cheese (not to mention the fun of working with a variety of milk types).
If you are wondering why you have not seen many Maine cheeses in your local cheese shop that is because there is something unique happening in the state of Maine right now: cheesemakers are selling out locally. After tasting Caitlin’s cheeses this makes me feel both bummed (selfish me who wants to eat Maine cheeses wherever I am) and psyched that the products are consumed where they are made. Appleton Creamery is ideally situated to serve four farmer’s markets in the mid-coast region which is chock full of tourists at the height of milking season. Caitlin is the president of the Maine Cheese Guild (I know- we can’t believe it either- and she still has an off-farm job twenty hours each week in the local school system) and explained that as a group, the cheesemakers are focusing their attention on training more cheesemakers in the state rather than marketing their cheeses nationally. We appreciate this because every time we look at the beautiful Maine Cheese Guild poster our mouths water and our tummies grumble for all those cheeses we have to venture to Vacationland to get!
(If you are looking for some good cheese decor I highly recommend the posters- they are for sale on the Maine Cheese Guild website)
May 2006
Name: Willow Hill Farm [Update: Willow Hill Farm no longer makes & sells cheese. They have transitioned to a you-pick blueberry farm–something they always offered in addition to their farmstead cheesemaking.]
Owners: David Phinney and Willow Smart
Location: Milton, Vermont
Animals: 80-90 sheep (plus 80+ lambs) East Friesian and Icelandic Friesian crosses, 6 cows Dutch Belted and Brown
Swiss
Cheeses/Products: Sheep milk yogurt, Alderbrook, Autumn Oak, Blue Moon, Cobble Hill, Fernwood, La Fleurie, Mountain Tomme, Summertomme, Vermont Brebis, whole grass-fed lamb, wool blankets
David and Willow have truly rolled with the changes since they purchased their land in the early 90s. Beginning as an in-ground fruits and vegetable crop operation, they now have their feet firmly planted in the shepherding and cheesemaking business. A few vestiges of their old life remain- the single rectangular plot of Christmas trees now serving as a windbreak for pastures, the last of the beef cattle that will go this year, and even a couple retired chicken coops remain near the barn. Some pieces of these earlier businesses have been consistent: they have a booming, seasonal business with their organic blueberries and currants which they open up each summer for people to pick on their own and also sell at local farmer’s markets.
The big thing happening these days at Willow Hill Farm is the final construction on their new production facility. David and Willow took us on a tour of the new facility as well as the old to give us a sense of the main goal for the new building: increased efficiency. They will absolutely achieve this and they will continue to work their tails off.
David will be milking a minimum of 80 sheep and at least 5 cows while Willow will crank out over 15,000 pounds of cheese (she supplements her sheep’s milk with milk from Bonnieview Farm). Oh, and let’s not forget that David is also producing the delectable sheep’s milk yogurt and that Willow has to age, package, and take her cheeses and their organic blueberries and currants to market each week. Think about this for twenty seconds and you can understand why these two would strive for efficiency.
We were fortunate to visit post-lambing yet pre-milking (unlike cows and goats, sheep aren’t weaned from their mother’s milk for 30 days or so). The milking and cheesemaking will begin later than usual this year
because of the new production facility construction. The production facility is built on tiered levels, like steps, to allow the milk to be brought into the make room using gravity feed rather than pumps. Along the side of the make room are large windows to allow visitors to see the process and after the cheese is made, aging and brining rooms are the final stop before shipping. To get some relaxed moments with a shepherd or cheesemaker is a rare privilege; our visit with Willow and David was like a goldmine. After arriving and taking a tour of the new make room being constructed, we hovered over them as they did chores around the solar ban used for lambing season. The next morning we followed them around for chores again, watching as David tagged some lambs born only days ago. Then we went to see the old cheese production facility and meet the cows in the original barn.
One thing that stuck with us after spending two days with them was the level of commitment to their farm’s philosophy- it is truly inspiring. Regardless of the additional work (and sometimes cost) associated with the tenets they believe in, they do things the way they believe they should be done. David and Willow are believers in the true roots of the organic movement- meaning sustainable land management. They follow organic practices in their pastures and continue to feed their animals organic grain even though they recently de-certified their cheeses because they are supplementing their cow milk with milk from a neighboring dairy that is not organic. They could have asked their neighbor to convert to organic, or they could have searched for an organic milk source outside of their local area. It was too much, in their minds, to ask another farmer to convert to their philosophy and yet, remaining true to their own beliefs they continue with organic practices on their farm.
Animal comfort is also a high priority on the farm. When David explains why he doesn’t dock tails on his sheep, you can see that he considers the experience of the animal, the tail is the only defense that the animals have against biting black and horse flies that are around all summer long while they are on pasture. He didn’t have any assistants until recent years and when he mentions that he didn’t have a day off from milking for 8 years there is no bitterness in the statement, in his mind I think he just sees it as what has to be done for the animals and their operation.
Proper care for the animals and the land results in clean milk with wonderful nuances in flavor and this makes beautiful cheese. Willow will continue to produce both pasteurized, soft-ripened cheeses that are aged for only a couple weeks and also raw milk cheeses held for 60 days or more. She is cautious about her excitement for working in the new facility, as she knows, from years of experience, that any small change can impact the finished product.
We have total confidence that she will rock these changes as she and David have all the ones that have come before.
May 2006
Name: Vermont Butter & Cheese (changed to Vermont Creamery)
Owners: Allison Hooper and Bob Reese
Location: Websterville, Vermont
Animals: VBC gets milk for their cheeses from approximately 25 farms. Many are in Vermont, and they are working to help these farms grow, and some are in surrounding areas- New York and Quebec. All are within a 200-mile radius.
Cheeses/Products: Chevre, Creamy Goat Cheese, Creme Fraiche, Quark, Fromage Blanc, Mascarpone, Cultured Butter, Bonne-Bouche, Bijou, and Coupole
When we grow up we want to be like Allison Hooper. A pioneer in artisan cheesemaking, she is a humble, straight shooter with a palpable passion for what she does. She and Bob Reese, the co-founder, and owner of Vermont Butter & Cheese (VBC), have grown with the industry and are now expanding it with their new production facility. In a sense Allison is returning to her cheesemaking roots - the new cheeses VBC is producing (Bijou, Bonne-Bouche, and Coupole) are the kinds of cheeses that drew her into the profession over 20 years ago when she spent time on farms in Brittany, France.
When we arrived at VBC we went right to the new facility and watched as Allison and Adeline Folley, the operations manager who moved to Vermont from France to work with Allison on the new production facility, carefully drained and flipped each rack of Bonne-Bouche (during the first 24 hrs there is much hands-on care needed). After this, we walked through each aging room to see how the equipment works, see how the cheeses look and smell the variety of aromas that come from the cheeses at each stage in their development.
Allison cleared her afternoon (this is no small feat) and took us out to one of the goat farms that supply VBC with milk. [2]Oak Knoll Dairy is in Windsor, VT about an hour and a fifteen-minute drive from VBC. Karen Lindbo and George Redick have approximately 600 goats on their land. Their goats are not pastured because they don’t have the land required to sustain this, especially given that goats are not grazers (grass eaters), they are browsers. The plants they like to eat take even longer to re-grow than grasses, which makes pasturing goats a big challenge with any size herd. Oak Knoll grows their own feed for the goats so that they know exactly what they are getting.
Karen, George, and their most trusted herding dog Moss gave us the full tour from the big, beautiful old barn, which houses the kid pen and maternity ward, to the pens of young goats and the main barn, milking parlor and milk bottling/yogurt making room. They treated us with bottles of chocolate goats milk- YUM- that has an incredibly thick and rich texture.
We spent the evening with Allison and her family just steps away from where the dream began- in the old barn across from their house. Day two we were out the door at 6:30 to start un-molding Bonne-Bouche with Adeline. After removing the cheeses from their molds, we sat down with Allison and Adeline to taste Bijou, Bonne-Bouche, and Coupole from various batches over the past month. They are doing some revolutionary things with these cheeses- defining the specifics of the flavor profile of each cheese and tasting to those profiles and designing special packaging that provides a mini-cave for each piece/package so that it can make it through the distribution channels and taste how they want it to at each stage in its development. And the results are terrific even while they continue to test and nail down the profiles of each cheese.
Adeline gave us the full tour of the old and new facility. She knows the place inside and out; we saw how all the cultured (creme fraiche, fromage blanc, quark, feta, chevre, creamy goat cheese and butter) and fresh (mascarpone) products are made and packaged. Of course, we also saw all the behind-the-scenes aspects of the new plant- the compressor room will make your brain hurt with all of the wires and switches and pipes overhead. Adeline knows what every single pipe feeds and what every switch and valve controls. It is apparent that the design, construction, and operation of this new facility have all been meticulously planned.
The new make room is a big risk for Vermont Butter & Cheese. It is a large capital investment for them, but it is a bold move that is summed up best by Allison when she said it is better to be bold and lie awake at night worrying about things working out than to be timid and lie awake thinking about missed opportunities. We couldn’t agree more.
We interviewed Allison and then she sent us off with some crates of Bijou and Coupole to share with cheesemakers down the road- we told you...she is a class act!
Shaping Coupole
Next stop: Willow Hill Farm
May 2006
Name: Twig Farm
Owners: Michael and Emily Lee (let’s not forget 8-month old Carter)
Location: West Cornwall, VT
Animals: Goats
Herd Size: 17 does, 14 kids
Cheeses: Twig Farm Cow’s Milk Tomme, Twig Farm Goat’s Milk Tomme, Twig Farm Wheel
When someone says "Vermont farmstead cheese" I think people imagine a place like Twig Farm. Michael and Emily Lee milked 17 goats and in their first cheese-producing year and made 3,000 lbs of cheese. That is a little less than 60 lbs per week. In Vermont lingo they are "flat-landers" meaning they live down in Addison county where the landscape is somewhat conducive to farming. Their barn and home blend seamlessly into the surrounding land that is thick with spindly trees and brush.
The surrounding land is ideal for goats to work as goats are technically not grazers–they will eat grass–their preference is what is called browse. Basically this is anything you would not want to walk through if you were out for a stroll in shorts and sandals; the thickety bushes with tiny leaves and brambles. These inconvenient plants are the very things that can create such stunning flavors in Twig Farm’s cheeses. Michael commented that he wished he had an entire field of honeysuckle to put the goats in... we do too, but for the time being we will settle for the garden variety of plants that nature provides.
Michael is up at 4:45 AM for chores and to prepare the milking parlor. When weather permits he walks the goats out to small paddocks after their morning milking. They browse for the day and return to the barn around 4pm for the second milking. Sounds like lots of downtime in the middle of the day right? But there are many other things to be done even on a farm this size. Milk is collected from neighboring farms for cheesemaking (17 goats don’t produce enough milk for cheesemaking multiple times a week), chores in the barn, setting up fences around new paddocks, brining, washing and turning cheese in the cellar and then boxing up orders.
Although we slept through morning milking on our first day- we woke up to watch the goats doing their springtime pecking order exercises which consist of rearing up on their hind legs and coming down head to head with one another. We got to walk the goats out out to one of the paddocks with Michael, then I did a bit of cheese turning and patting in the cellar while he packed up some cheese for Saxelby Cheesemongers. He took a couple hours out of his day to sit down for an interview with us (we’ll be posting some clips soon). This brought us right up to the afternoon milking. We "helped" Michael a bit in the barn and then washed some fiddlehead ferns for the big cheesemaker feast...
Addison County is loaded with cheesemakers. On our second night at Twig Farm Michael and Emily offered to have some over for dinner so we could meet them and taste their cheeses. The meal was superb- both the company and the food. Along with Michael cooking a pork shoulder that slow cooked in some of his amazing goat’s milk, Carleton Yoder and his wife Moira from Champlain Valley Creamery brought two cheeses, mozzarella and a new soft-ripened, triple creme, and CHEESECAKE made with their ridiculously real cream cheese. Hannah Sessions from Blue Ledge Farm had two of the farm’s goat’s milk cheeses with her- the elegant Lake’s Edge and a new washed-rind that her husband Greg has been experimenting with. The new folks on the scene were the Crawfords (siblings Jim and Sherry) and their cheesemaker Maria Trumpler with their raw cow’s milk cheese Vermont Ayr. Of course Michael cracked open a wheel of Twig’s Soft Cheese for the occasion as well.
The opportunity to meet these cheesemakers was excellent and also made us just a tiny bit sad to know that while we are visiting many farms, for every one that we do see there are probably 5 more that we’re not seeing. Poor baby, I know- we don’t expect any sympathy from you- its just an observation!
Next stop: Vermont Butter and Cheese
May 2006
We could not have pulled out of New York so confidently without the help of our friend, and fellow cheese enthusiast, Anne Saxelby. She has taken our cat Chubbs in for the next four months. Although Chubbs does not eat cheese he definitely enjoys the company of people who are crazy about cheese so Anne’s Brooklyn apartment seemed like the ideal summer home for him.
Anne’s cat care offer is particularly magnanimous given that she is opening a cheese shop of her own called SAXELBY CHEESEMONGERS in NEW YORK CITY this coming SATURDAY MAY 6th at the ESSEX STREET MARKET on the Lower East Side. Anne’s shop will focus on American cheeses. Comfortable behind the counter, in the barn, and up to her elbows in curd, we think Anne will make the most exceptional proprietor.
We are sad that we will miss the opening day but we want to encourage anyone who is in New York this weekend to head down to the Essex Street Market for her grand opening on Saturday.
April 2006
WOW! What a great night last night! Thank you to all who came out to support us on a Tuesday night!
How can we possibly express the level of gratitude we feel for all the people who supported Cheese by Hand at our kick-off event last night. We know that you can find links to all these folks in our Special Thanks section but we are so moved by their generosity that we want to give one more round of shout outs.
Vintage New York donated their beautiful space to us for the evening and provided us with everything we needed logistically to make the event what it was.
Food
Blue Hill introduced me to something I will crave from this day forward: the Fennel Burger. Sweet, seasonal, and aesthetically pleasing- precisely what one becomes accustomed to when they put their taste buds in the hands of Chef Dan Barber. And what a treat to have Parmesan Lollypops passed throughout the night by Blue Hill’s team to accompany those tasty Fennel Burgers!
Even though I was incredibly tardy getting my trays to Mas (farmhouse) yesterday, all of their staff was enthusiastic about the project. This might be because it meant they got to sneak a sample of the exquisite steak tartare. One could clearly stop there but their chef Galen Zamarra is in a different league- he also crafted smoked cod fritters topped with a dollop of saffron mayonnaise that was dotted with chopped capers and cornichons and the entire bit was topped with a sunchoke chip.
Last but in absolutely no way the least is the crostini that I began referring to as "springtime on a toast" from the Tasting Room. Chef Colin Alveras never misses a greenmarket beat and last night was no exception. Upon first glance, one might have thought "who brought the spinach dip?" until the dip crossed their lips. Colin used ricotta from one of his favorite New York state cheesemakers, Tonjes Farm, mixed in ramps and dandelion greens and finished it off with a splash of Tonjes’ buttermilk.
Wine
Millbrook Vineyards and Winery from Hudson Valley in New York provided us with their Special Reserve Chardonnay. Millbrook has several wines to choose from but when it is spring and there is food to be had, we love their Chardonnay. It is a Burgundian style with malolactic fermentation in barrel and provides a lovely acidity to compliment the food.
And our good friends Bruce & Christiane Schneider donated their amazing Cabernet Franc and Syrah. Schneider Vineyards is out on the North Fork of Long Island. Their Le Breton Cabernet Franc is in the Loire style with
wonderful hints of pepper and vegetal notes but stays in balance with the acid to make it such a great food wine. And the Syrah is a rich muscular red without the overpowering tannins often associated with Syrah from the south of France. Two great wines!
Both of these producers demonstrate that, right here in New York, there are delicious and affordable wines being produced. It was a treat to pour their wines.
Cheese
So great to have so many cheese enthusiasts in one place, especially because we had the goods to satiate their cheese needs. We were only able to do this because of the generosity of three stellar, American cheesemakers.
The Kehler’s brothers sent us a smattering of cheeses from Jasper Hill. Their soft-ripened Constant Bliss was in rare form. Bayley Hazen Blue, as promised by Mateo, was not a "slap you upside the head" kind of experience rather it allowed us to taste the milk alongside the mild blue flavors. The spruce-bound Winnemere tasted as good as it looked- delicate woodsy flavors, sweet milk, and a pungent exterior came together to make something totally cool happen on the tongue. The Cabot Clothbound was excellent- this cheese is going to revolutionize the way cheese people think about pasteurized cheddar- it is bursting with flavor.
Mike and Carol Gingrich from Uplands Cheese shared some of their treasured Pleasant Ridge Reserve Extra Aged with us last night. This is the cheese that won Best in Show at the American Cheese Society in 2005. Uplands does not mess around- they are only making cheese when the cows are out on pasture- and even then, they taste the milk daily to decide which batches are worthy of cheesemaking. Such a treat to have this at our event.
Our Texas hero Paula Lambert of the Mozzarella Company sent us one of her most unique cheeses, Hoja Santa. Wrapped in the fragrant (and huge) Hoja Santa leaf this cheese is not only beautiful but also has some of the most interesting flavors of any American cheese out there.
February 2006
This was a very big weekend for Cheese by Hand. We made our way up to Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, VT to do a "dry run" of our upcoming tour of American cheesemakers. Greensboro is in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, a name which I find both amazingly boastful yet accurate! Brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler have been kind to us for over two years now - we have visited the farm before and they always make us feel welcome and part of the family.
Andy handles the animals, in this case, 35 milking Ayrshire cows, which requires two milkings a day, every day, no matter what. I do not envy Andy’s job. His wife, Victoria, runs the cellar - aging and maturing the cheeses before they go out into the wild.
Mateo handles the cheesemaking. They are a raw milk maker and have developed five cheese to date. Mateo is always experimenting and looking to make new cheeses. His wife Angie runs the Accounts Payable and Receivable, as well as the website and their 15 month-old son, Reed.
Although on previous trips we’ve spent time in the various parts of their operation–the cheese house, the barn, the cellar, and even each of their dinner tables–this time was different. Part of the difference was in us- we were paying much closer attention to how things worked and listening carefully for the sounds of the place. The farm itself has also changed, the ground is covered with snow and the foundation has been laid for a new barn across the dirt road from the existing barn. This was the first time we’ve been to visit when the cows are all inside the barn because the danger of them slipping on ice or losing sound footing in mud is too high. There are some new faces on the farm too- Amy, Josh, Princess, and Tim- the four of them help in all areas of the operation.
We also realized this weekend that finding a quiet room to record audio poses quite a challenge on a working farm...there is always something going on. Compressors, motors, cleaning, moo-ing - well moo-ing is ok.
Although we arrived late Friday night, we didn’t sit down to interview Mateo until late Sunday afternoon. Given how busy they are it is difficult to get both brothers in a room together so we will return later to talk with Andy. Over the last two years, I have talked to Mateo in-depth about the farm, and yet in this conversation, I learned so much more. It left me with the feeling that we had only scratched the surface.
Mateo made one statement that stuck with me- I found myself thinking about it all day today. He said- and I paraphrase here- that the creation of Jasper Hill Farm was his and Andy’s response to the globalization of our economy. He fully acknowledges that he and his brother rely on that economy in many ways - he is not in denial, he is aware of the situation and taking action. This inspired me to think today about things that weigh heavily on my mind and conscience.
I find it disconcerting that we’ve lost a connection with what it takes to produce the majority of what we consume. Listening to Mateo speak about the reality of what it takes to "live the dream" on the farm was satisfying in a way that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Today, back in the cheese caves, it struck me that maybe this project, this effort to explore the production of hand-made cheese and share it with the public, is my response.