What we're up to:
Our goal as cheesemakers is to show off the amazing quality of our milk. We’ve developed cheeses to highlight and take advantage of the flavor profile inherent in our herd. We monitor our animals’ milk composition and taste and blend depending on the cheese we are trying to make.
Our precocious La Mancha goats provide silky, delicate milk that lends itself to fresh cheese. We blend it with Nigerian Dwarf milk to create something really special in our young cheeses. Our Nigerians are incredibly efficient little animals. Their milk is a concentrated protein and butterfat bomb (almost like sheep milk) that just calls out to be made into raw rustic tommes.
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Another aim of our endeavor is to create cheeses that we want to eat… all the time. We’re all food focused people on this farm and our taste for delicious eats fuel our passion for good cheese.
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We honor the long European history of our cheeses with a grateful nod to classic technique, but we yearn to create something more. We hope to contribute some amazing original American cheese to our country’s growing cadre of fine fromage.
Our Cheese:
Fresh Chèvre: This is just the simplest expression of our milk. We’ve heard the phrase, “any fool can make a chèvre” and that may be true, but we think ours is a pretty good one. We may even be fools for it.
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Paradise: Named for the last stop before the big climb up The Mountain, this cheese is a soft-ripened beauty. We call it our Northwest crottin. It has a delicious downy rind that melts into a soft, lingering paste. It just so happens, this cheese is AMAZING with bubbly. It’s no coincidence that Champagne happens to be one of our favorite beverages.
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Knapsack: Our new Feta-style, this approachably salty, pasteurized version brings forward lemon and florals. Inspired by the pass East of Mowich Lake, we've made the perfect cheese to take to your favorite spot in blocks or in ready-prepped crumbles.
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Tipsoo: Tipsoo is a blend of our milk and delicious Jersey milk from our friends at Meadowwood in Enumclaw. It is a pasteurized, semi-soft, washed-rind beauty in small wheels. We wash it with hard cider from Rockridge Orchards and age it for at least four weeks. The result is a creamy, spreadable cheese with more stinky bark than bite. A real crowd pleaser around here.
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Devil’s Dream: This raw aged goat tomme coated in peppercorn is piquant, not quite sharp, leaning towards a romano flavor. It’s definitely a special cheese that has a distinct bite on the back end.
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Wonderland: Named for the gorgeous trail that circles Mt. Rainier, Wonderland is our version of the classic mountain tomme. A simple but delicious cheese with a nutty paste and fruity notes. We use our rich goat milk to create a raw cheese that is perfect for snacking on with salami and olives, shaving on a salad or grating over roasted vegetables.
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Glacier: This cheese is a marvelous accident that stuck around! So many of our customers requested this little cheese that we decided to make it every week. More like a traditional French crottin, Glacier is firm and dense, but creamy on the tongue. It will become more firm and flavorful with age, and eventually makes a great grater.
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Summit: This is our little homage to The Mountain in our backyard. Summit is a delicate soft-ripened cheese coated with ash and a fine bloomy rind. This cheese is a labor of love and one that we make in very limited quantities.
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Buttercup: DISCONTINUED Udderly buttery, creamy moist raw aged cow’s milk tomme with a natural rind. A wonderful melter and crowd-pleaser. 100% raw jersey cow milk from Meadowwood Dairy in Enumclaw, Washington.
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Sunrise: DISCONTINUED Another tomme style here, but in a small two pound format. This cheese also has the lovely addition of a rind rubbed with dried elderberries. The effect is an herbaceous, sometimes chocolaty flavor that permeates through the cheese. These plants grow on our land and it is nice to bring in more of that Northwest flavor.
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What's in a name:
We live 25 miles due west of Mount Rainier. We’re in the foothills, and when “the mountain’s out", we’re looking right at it. Because it is such a focal point in our lives, we’ve named a majority of our cheeses after that beautiful volcano.