by Danika Reed
All year long we have people coming into Vivant asking for local cheese. Most are visitors to our beautiful area, and still some are locals. Many are perplexed at the shortage of local cheeses this time of the year. My standard answer when asked to explain the shortage is “the goats are pregnant”. Not many ask further questions, seemingly uncomfortable with discussing such topics, so I thought this might be the best place to explain in further detail.
In the cheese world we talk about terms like “farmstead” cheese, “artisan” cheese, and “commodity” cheese among others. To understand these terms, we must first understand the animals that are producing the milk to make our glorious cheeses.
Local Farmstead Operations
In our region of the Central Coast of California, there are a select few “farmstead” cheese operations. This is defined by the animals being raised on the same property (or farm) that the cheese is being produced. Using this method, the animals, mostly sheep and goats here on the Central Coast, are grazing as much as possible, and fed other supplemental grains and forages when the natural grass doesn’t grow due to lack of rain.
To produce milk, the female goats and sheep (and cows, and yaks, and buffalo, ok you get the idea) must be impregnated once per year and give birth. After they give birth and the babies are allowed to feed from their mothers for a short time, they are weaned and their mothers begin milking. Farmstead cheese makers will then begin a season of cheese making, which starts with what they call the “Spring Flush”. Hence the name, in most farmstead cheese making operations, they begin milking in spring after the babies are weaned and continue until the moms need to be impregnated again in the fall.
With all of that said, the question still remains, why don’t we have local cheeses this time of the year? While most of our milking stock dried up (stopped producing milk) in the fall, they are now pregnant and getting ready to give birth in the spring. Most local farmstead cheese production was over in October. That means most fresh cheeses were unavailable by mid-October, and any hard cheeses the cheese makers made early in the year are sold out by this time of the year.
Year Round Cheese Producers
We do still have local cheeses that are being made year-round. This is accomplished by buying milk from farms that are staggering “strings” of animals. This means that farmers group the animals within their herd into strings of animals that will get pregnant at different times of the year. This will allow them to milk a portion of their heard year round.
When a cheese maker buys milk from another farm, not on the same site as his cheese making operation, he can no longer call it farmstead. Depending on how much volume the cheese maker is producing and his production methods, he can still call his (or her) cheese “Artisan”. So, during our harsh cold winters here on the Central Coast (ok I think it has actually been 75 degrees since October but we still wear jackets!!) we might not have a huge selection of local cheeses, but with spring just around the corner, we can look forward to an abundance of fresh cheese in just a few short months. Hang in there people: more local fresh cheese is just around the corner!! In the mean time, we have hundreds of other cheeses in stock to meet your every cheese desire!
Vivant is Moving!
Stay tuned as Vivant is moving in the next couple of months. If you want to stay up to date with our new adventures, send your email address to [email protected] and I will add you to our newsletter list.
Danika is a local girl who, armed with a degree in Dairy Science and Ag Business from Cal Poly, went out to conquer the cheese world. Now, with nearly 20 years of experience in buying and selling cheese she shares her knowledge and passion for the fromage with us through her store and website in Paso Robles, CA at Vivant Fine Cheese.
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