Saturday, May 4, 2013

I Love a Goat Cheese Success Story

Last night Michael surprised me with a 5 star dinner at Binkley's here in the Phoenix Valley. I've never eaten such a selection of amazing food. Holy moly....Holy cow...just kept coming out of my mouth.  One of our farm volunteers - Seth - serves there and suggested the visit (thanks Seth - we felt so honored).

Anyway, the cheese platter of suggestions came and several goat cheese options were displayed. One from our amazing friends in Black Mesa Ranch - David and Kathryn. Truly wonderful chevre from their incredible herd of Nubians. You can read how we met David and Kathryn here. The other goat cheese is from a well known goat dairy in California called Cypress Grove. We chose their Humboldt Fog.

This morning (in between farm and house chores - on a day off of course) I thought I'd check out their web site (goat people LOVE seeing what other goat people are doing).

Mary Keehn

After reading just this much I knew I had to share with you....

The seeds of Cypress Grove Chevre were sown in the 1970s when Mary Keehn, a single mother of four daughters living in Humboldt County, began looking for a healthy source of milk for her family. As luck would have it, a neighbor had two goats. When asked by Mary if he was interested in selling them, he told her, "Lady, if you can catch them, you can have them."

Armed only with her resolve and a coffee can full of oats, Mary captured not only the two does and her healthy source of milk, but also a career and a unique place in American food history.
Possessing a background in biology, Mary's interest turned to breeding her goats. Within a few years, the size of the herd had increased significantly and she found herself with excess goat milk. She started experimenting with cheese making in her kitchen, and in 1983, with a regular customer base already developing, she officially founded Cypress Grove Chevre
Read the rest of the wonderful story here.....

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