real cheese in sebastopol

sebastopol is still home.  

from the moment we met jack and hilary we knew we’d cross paths again. and again.

over the years, they’ve braved the chill to take classes with us at westminster artisan. we’ve been out to consult and even do a class there. and once we were able to join them for an intimate couple days breaking down a goat and a pig for charcuterie. and when hilary wanted to break completely from selected starters, she sent jack out to make cheese with us for a full month. i know she missed him, but he returned to her with the protocols for harvesting microbes down pat.

their website, backyardterroir.com, is more than worth falling into for as long as it takes to read about the farm, the animals, and the cheese, and of course the images are stunning. hilary’s enthusiasm is catching:

“My backyard, plus microbe-rich raw milk combined with wild starter-cultures propagated from my own herd's milk, would allow me too make cheeses uniquely representative of my animals, my property, and my practices: original cheeses.

This freedom transformed my role as a cheesemaker. Instead of working to replicate an industry-determined "Standard of Identity" for a pre-existing cheese—say, Gouda—I could instead embark on a creative journey of discovery. My own cheese was out there somewhere waiting to be found in the grasses of my fields, in the raw milk produced by my animals, and in the elbow-grease applied in my make-room. How fantastic was that!”