CHEESEMAKER BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
FDA LISTENING SESSION
February 11, 2016
Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese
Point Reyes, California
Presenter: Lynn Giacomini Stray
Tobias Giacomini left Northern Italy to farm land in Northern California in 1904, and four
generations later, the Giacomini family is still passionate about connecting with, and protecting
the land. In 1938, Tobias’s son, Waldo, moved his family to Point Reyes, California; and in
1959, Waldo’s son Bob purchased a dairy farm, just 3 miles north of his parent's own farm, to
sell milk to the local creamery. Bob and his wife Dean started with 150 cows and raised the herd
to over 500 by the mid-1990s.
Bob had a dream to make cheese, and with the help of his four daughters Karen, Diana, Lynn,
and Jill, that dream was realized in August 2000, when the first wheels of Original Blue,
California’s only classic style blue cheese, were made. Today, in addition to their award winning
cheeses, Point Reyes has expanded to offer farm-to-table educational experiences at The Fork,
a culinary and educational center at the farm.
The family’s goal is to share their appreciation of farm-fresh food and their love for the land,
water conservation, sustainability, and land stewardship. In 2009, they installed a methane
digester to provide renewable energy on the farm while reducing its carbon footprint. In addition,
multiple, on-farm reuse and recycling efforts helped garner the family the prestigious 2013
Leopold Conservation Award.
Point Reyes now employs a staff of 70, produces one million pounds of cheese annually, and is
an important part of protecting and growing a sustainable, local economy.
Uplands Cheese Company
Dodgeville, WI
Presenter: Andy Hatch
In 1994, after years of farming separately as neighbors, two families, the Gingriches and
Patenaudes, bought a farm together in southwest Wisconsin in order to join their small herds
and manage them in a seasonal, pasture-based system. The cows grazing this way were
producing milk with exceptional flavors, and the farmers began looking for a way to take
advantage of these flavors. They looked to other regions in the world where cheese is produced
seasonally from grass-fed cows, and fell upon the cheeses made in the traditions of the Alpine
regions of France and Switzerland. In 2000, they settled on a recipe and began making
Pleasant Ridge Reserve.
Seven years later, Andy Hatch came to work at Uplands. What began as a cheesemaking
apprenticeship led to a role as manager and, finally, as a co-owner of the farm. Andy and his
family joined another family in purchasing the farm from the Gingriches and Patenaudes in
2014.
The dairy farm sits on Pleasant Ridge, in the Driftless region of Wisconsin. The farm spans 300
hilly acres, all of which are pasture, segregated into small paddocks. Each day the cows are
moved to a different paddock, which ensures two things: first, that the cows are always eating
fresh grass and will thus produce healthy, flavorful milk; and secondly, that the pasture isn't
overgrazed and will re-grow in time for the next grazing.
Uplands now produces two cheeses, Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Rush Creek Reserve, both
seasonal cheeses that take full advantage of the unique qualities of the farm’s milk. Production
volume ranges from 90,000 – 100,000 pounds annually, and varies based on the quality of the
milk. Only milk that meets stringent flavor profiles is turned into cheese, with the rest sold as
fluid milk.
Pholia Farm Creamery and Dairy
Rogue River, OR
Presenter: Gianaclis Caldwell
Pholia Farm Creamery was established in 2006 on 23 acres of Gianaclis Caldwell’s family’s
land, originally homesteaded in the 1940s. It is located in Oregon’s Rogue Valley which has
become well known for its local artisan produce, cheese, specialty foods, wine, and beer.
Gianaclis, along with her husband, Vern, and their children founded the dairy as a way to move
back to the family land after Vern’s retirement from the United States Marine Corps in 2005.
Pholia Farm quickly became well-known for its small batch, aged, raw milk farmstead goat
cheeses. Their production volume is limited to about 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of cheese per year,
and they now sell part of their milk to another local, pasteurized milk cheesemaker. The farm is
run exclusively by the family.
Gianaclis has written several books geared toward teaching proper practices for artisan and
farmstead cheesemakers and dairy producers, and she teaches and consults in the United
States and occasionally abroad.
Sweet Grass Dairy
Thomasville, GA
Presenter: Jeremy Little
Al and Desiree Wehner were conventional dairy farmers who, on a trip to New Zealand, were
inspired to introduce a New Zealand-style rotational grazing system for their cows. Upon their
return to Georgia, they began the process of converting their dairy farm from a highly
mechanized operation with confined animals into a setup that has their herd out on grass 365
days a year. This approach maintains fresh grazing pastures and provides a healthy
environment for the cows.
The couple decided that artisan cheeses would be the best way to showcase their high quality,
grass-based milk, so in 2002, with the help of their daughter, Jessica, and her husband, Jeremy
Little, they launched Sweet Grass Dairy cheeses. In 2005, the Littles purchased the business
from Jessica’s parents and expanded their range of cheeses as well as their distribution, now
reaching over 38 states. The Littles continue to purchase cow milk from Jessica’s parents, who
own Green Hill Dairy nearby.
Sweet Grass now consists of a 140-acre farm and production facility, an online mail-order
business, and a local cheese shop and wine bar featuring their raw and pasteurized milk
cheeses. The dairy employs 15 people, and produces over 350,000 pounds of cheese annually.
Sweet Grass defines who they are as follows: “We are a family, a team of community
conscious, food loving, artisan cheese makers and sellers. We’re do-gooders who care about
education and sustainable agriculture. We strive to be the kind of people that you want to
hang out with on your front porch.”
Jasper Hill Farms and Cellars at Jasper Hill
Greensboro, VT
Presenter: Mateo Kehler
With the desire to create a business that provides “meaningful work in a place that we love”,
brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler founded Jasper Hill Farms in Vermont. Jasper Hill is a social
enterprise focused on economic and agricultural development and the conservation of
agricultural soils and the “working landscape” in Vermont through the production of high-value
artisan cheese. The Cellars at Jasper Hill is a centralized facility that was created to lower the
barriers to entry for artisan cheese producers by providing ripening, marketing and sales, and
distribution and administrative services with the intent of allowing farmstead and artisan
cheesemakers to take advantage of economies of scale.
Jasper Hill’s future growth will be focused on a 10-mile radius of the Cellars, which is located in
Greensboro, VT, a village of 670 inhabitants in Vermont’s economically depressed but
picturesque Northeast Kingdom. Jasper Hill is building a network of farmstead cheesemakers
with the intent of connecting 10 farms, collectively producing two million pounds of cheese, and
generating over $20 million in sales, all while providing stewardship to guide over 5,000 acres of
agricultural land into the fastest growing market in the dairy industry, Specialty Cheese.
In 2015, Jasper Hill:
 Had 75 employees
 Generated $2.426 million payroll
 Injected $12.5 million into the local economy in 2015
 Spent 90% of payables within 50 miles of Jasper Hill
 Estimated 10-year economic impact: $200 million
Holland’s Family Cheese
Thorp, WI
Presenter: Marieke Penterman
Rolf and Marieke Penterman are first-generation Wisconsin dairy farmers who moved from the
Netherlands to Wisconsin in 2002. Having both grown up on typically small, 60-head dairy farms
in the eastern part of Holland, Rolf and Marieke wanted to pursue their passion for dairy farming
in an area that would afford them the capabilities of expansion. On their Wisconsin farm, they
now have a 435 cow herd which consists of half Holsteins, one quarter Brown Swiss, and one
quarter crossbred between the two breeds.
After earning a Bachelor's Degree in Dairy Business, Marieke started a career as a farm
inspector. In the meantime, her future husband, Rolf, emigrated to Thorp, WI and started a cow
dairy farm in May 2002. Thorp, with a vast dairy base and farm-friendly people, was an ideal
location. Marieke followed Rolf a year later.
Once settled in the United States, Marieke missed the cheese from back home and began
researching how to start her own cheesemaking business. In 2004, Marieke began working
towards earning her Wisconsin cheesemaker's license and also traveled back to the
Netherlands in order to learn the process of making "boerenkaas," the authentic farmstead
Dutch Gouda cheese.
In November 2013, the Pentermans opened a brand-new state-of-the-art facility which includes
a store and viewing windows where visitors can see the farm and cheesemaking up close. This
is where their ultimate dream came true: the opportunity to have a location where they can
share their passion for modern family farming and handcrafting artisan cheeses in an open and
educational environment. Holland’s Family Cheese now produces 245,000 pounds of Gouda
annually and has brought about 30 jobs to the Thorp area. In 2015, Marieke became the first
female recipient of the Wisconsin Outstanding Young Farmer Award.
Spring Brook Farm and Farms for City Kids
Reading, VT
Presenter: Jeremy Stephenson
Spring Brook Farm is a traditional 1,000 acre dairy farm with over 100 registered Jersey cows,
42 of which are milked to produce over 600,000 pounds of milk per year. The milk from the
cows is used to make five types of handcrafted cheese: Tarentaise, Tarentaise Reserve,
Reading, Ashbrook, and Windsor County Tomme.
Over the past eight years, the cheese program has grown to financially support all farm and
cheese operations, creating nine full-time and four part-time positions, and allowing all
donations to directly benefit the educational program. Currently, approximately 180,000 pounds
of cheese are produced annually. In the process of expanding cheese production, Spring Brook
Farm operations have expanded to fully support two nearby family-owned dairy farms. All of the
milk produced by these farms is purchased based on an annual contract price. When combined
with incentives for quality and cleanliness based on microbiological and component testing, this
price is generally at least 50% higher than the commodity market in a given year.
For the past 25 years, Spring Brook Farm has been home to Farms for City Kids Foundation, a
unique educational program combining classroom studies with experiential learning on a
working dairy farm. The educational program is designed to give students an understanding of
how academic study can be applied to everyday life, while at the same time challenging them in
a new and different setting. For example, students practice math skills by calculating cheese
yield from milk and the income difference between selling fluid milk compared to a value-added
product such as cheese.
Teaching opportunities for the subjects of chemistry, microbiology, and hygiene are many in the
context of a dairy farm and cheese plant. In addition to learning about caring for a dairy herd,
they learn about economics and health and nutrition while helping to grow many kinds of fruits
and vegetables. Teaching self-reliance and encouraging personal accomplishment in the
context of teamwork are the essential goals of this program. To date, over 10,000 children have
benefited from this educational opportunity since 1994.