June 2004 In the beginning there were Artisans

This is the beginning of Highfield Farm Creamery's blog site. We started this journey in June of 2004 with the thought that hand making real artisan cheese might be interesting. Having spent my entire working life reviving the hardware and software of computers all over the world I may have been a bit naive when concocting this plan. But sometimes it takes a new perspective to make a different kind of product. Living in Wisconsin, the land of cheese, one would think that learning to make cheese would be easy. I assumed I could just go down the street to cheese school. But no. Looking on the Internet I found the only place that offered cheese making classes in a commercial setting, West Highland Dairy, was just a bit further then down the street. While I was foolishly assuming things I also assumed that setting up a small creamery would be a relatively easy task. You know the old saying about assuming, at least I hope you do 'cause I don't remember it.

So there you are, we're off on this adventure which is still plodding along toward the goal of hand making cheese that is actually artisan. To my mind that means we would start with milk that comes from cows grazing on grass not fermented corn or a peculiar mixture of "stuff" designed to produce the maximum amount of milk at the lowest cost. The cows would not be shot up with drugs, left in stantions all day or crowded into a little building with no exercise except to walk three paces to eat that special food. I see a very small number of cows actually walking out in the sunshine, breathing fresh air and doing what cows do. The grass they're eating is not pelted with pesticides, herbicides or artifical fertilizers. Its just grass. The cheesemaking process is done by hand by real people and automation is kept to the legal minimum. We don't do marketing or advertising we inform and educate our customers who are also our friends. All the buzz words have been removed. I know it sounds pretty outlandish and I have had plenty of "experienced " people and agencies that have told me it can't be done.

Let's see if they're right.