Rhonda Rider shifts large rounds of her Grande Rosa cheese at her farm in Winlock on April 2.
For those accustomed to munching on cheddar, it might come as a surprise to know that cattle, goats and sheep can all produce richly flavored and surprisingly varied cheeses.
That fact inspires the members of the Lewis County Cheesemakers Guild.
“We started (the guild) two years ago with the idea of trying to make a cheese tour map and help each other promote ourselves within the county,” said Brad Gregory of Black Sheep Creamery near Adna. Together with his wife Meg, the Gregory family makes cheese from sheep.
Members of the Cheesemakers Guild typically meet once a month during the winter and participate in local events, such as wine and cheese tastings. This year, the guild will host a booth at the Toledo Cheese Days celebration in July. Members share business cards and brochures, making sure to direct visitors to their farms to the next member in the guild. In addition, members work together to keep informed of legislative and legal issues, as well as providing a forum for discussing anything to do with cheese.
Most members sell their cheese from their farms, as well as at farmer’s markets throughout the western part of the state, and to restaurants.
Current members of the guild include Blue Rose Dairy and Creamery in Evaline, Black Sheep Creamery in Adna, Rosecrest Farm in Chehalis, Willapa Hills Farmstead in Doty, and as far afield as Dee Creek Farm in Woodland.
To visit any of the farms in the guild, check them out online and make sure to call ahead to see if the farm is open.
At Rosecrest Farms west of Chehalis, Sharon and husband Gary McCool have been making cheese from certified organic cow milk for four years.
“We stumbled on to making swiss cheese when we met a Swiss German fellow who had been making Swiss cheese his whole life,” said Sharon McCool. “He was retiring (at age 82) and we lucked out and bought all of his equipment and he shared the recipes and secrets his father and his grandfather had, making Swiss cheese back in Switzerland.”
McCool, who believes she may be the only artisan Swiss cheese maker in Oregon and Washington, sells her cheeses to such places as the Space Needle restaurant. She also has an “honor system” little country store at her farm, where visitors may purchase cheese.
“It’s worked out pretty good,” she said. “It’s amazing how honest people are.”
This year, new offerings include a smokey peppercorn and chive Swiss cheese.
At Blue Rose Dairy in Winlock, Rhonda and husband David Rider have been making cheese and running a dairy for 11 years.
“We were looking for something entrepreneurial to do, and we looked up meat goats and saw a goat dairy for sale in Winlock,” Rhonda Rider recalls. “We thought, ‘where’s Winlock at?’ And we came out and six months later we bought it. We make goat cheese and raise our dairy goats on 13 acres. We have 85 goats.”
Rhonda recently returned from Rwanda, where she helped native women learn about the goat trade — how to milk the goats and make cheese.
“I’m traveling to Kenya next winter, where I will teach the Women’s Co-op there,” said Rhonda. The women will be shown how to milk goats and use the goat’s milk for their babies, to prevent the spread of AIDS-infected milk.
“The goat’s milk will put nutrition and minerals into the little kids’ bodies,” she said. “Who would ever have thought? I live in Winlock, and traveled to Rwanda to teach about goats. It was lovely. Rwanda looks a lot like here.”
