Because our goats live naturally, their milk is naturally good, and it is with this good milk that we begin the process.
We are a fully licensed and inspected Grade A dairy. We are also licensed to operate a pasteurizer and make farmstead cheese. Farmstead cheese is cheese that is made start to finish, right on the farm where the milk is produced.
During the 2012 season we will be milking 23 does. We will average perhaps 12 gallons of milk per day. This means that we can make approximately 12 pounds of cheese per day. The cheese we produce is truely hand crafted.
We produce four cheese products. Chevre is a fresh cheese with a cream cheese consistancy. Feta is a cheese characterized by its destinctive flavor produced by the enzymes and salt. Tomme is an aged semi hard alpine type cheese characterized by its naturally moldy rind. And of course, yogurt served very fresh and full of microflora.
I had the great fortune of working one season with Roseline, a woman from France. Roseline gave me the recipe for the tomme. She had learned the recipe from a farm family in France. Thanks to Roseline, I have begun to understand what constitutes a truely good cheese and strive every day to understand more.
One afternoon I served some fresh cheese, chevre, to a gentleman from France. The gentleman came to me after eating the chevre. There was a tear in his eye as he told me the story of how he would ride his bike to his grandmothers on saturday afternoon and return home with her fresh chevre. He told me that the chevre we make reminded him of the cheese his grandmother made. This was a great compliment and I was very happy to have served him a real cheese.
On another afternoon a bus of French tourists stopped by to take a tour of the farm. As a part of the tour I provided the group with a tasting of our cheese. After the sampling, the tour guide came to me and exclaimed, "We are French, we must have this cheese."
The French know cheese and we are honored to be making a cheese that makes them happy.