In the 80s, a small group of American Women began making cheese. They were at the front of a revolution that would catapult American Artisan Cheese onto the stage with the Old World icons. Icons like Comte, Stilton, Brie de Meaux, Parmigiano Reggiano and the delicate, goat cheeses of the Loire Valley. Some of the Women had formal training in cheesemaking; others were “winging it”.
One of those winging it in the beginning was Mary Keehn. Her early training as a cheesemaker was confined to reading books plus trial and error. In an interview with Michael Landis ACS CCP (Youtube video is below), she discusses how little she knew and how she went about learning. It worked…
Back in the 60s, Mary was living in a barn in Northern California with her husband and four daughters. Next door were wild goats employed as lawn mowers to control the grass and weeds. Mary asked her neighbor if she could buy one of the goats to milk. The neighbor told her if she could catch the goat, she could have it. Mary began putting out grain for the goats (much the same as I do for the critters I feed who visit our property) and little-by-little, she caught two and began milking them for fluid milk. And as it often happens, she found herself up to her neck in milk and began making cheese rather than waste the milk.
She had no formal training and used yogurt for the culture and started playing with her food ( a term I saw on the Cypress Grove Chevre website… and just had to use it…). She shared her cheese with friends and one talked her into taking some samples to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. She offered her cheeses to the good folks at the Columbus Distributing booth. Despite the saran wrapped not-so-pretty cheeses, they loved her cheese and made a deal.
Weekly, Mary would put her cheeses on a Greyhound bus headed for San Francisco and a Columbus employee would meet the bus to retrieve the cheeses for re-sale.
Time passes and the family bought 80 acres in Southern Humboldt and moved the kids and goats. They built a log
cabin with logs they dragged out of the forest; no electricity; sustainable living before it was fashionable… hippies in Humboldt County living off the land. By the 80s, Mary had mastered cheesemaking and founded Cypress Grove Chevre. The rest is goat cheese history. The beginning of the revolution.
One more bit of Mary Keehn trivia. Returning from Europe, Mary fell asleep on the plane and dreamed of Humboldt Fog; a dream that would become her signature award-winning cheese.
In my early Mongering days I was not a fan of goat cheese remembering the goat cheeses made on local farms growing up. Now that I know a little more about goat herding, I realize that the “goaty” taste of those cheeses came, in part, from allowing the bucks to remain too close to the milking parlor of the does. Today’s dairy goat farms separate the sexes which eliminates that less-than-appetizing flavor profile caused by a hormone the does make when in heat and near their suitors.
It was another of those early Women Pioneers who turned my way of thinking, Allison Hooper, Co-Founder of Vermont Butter and Cheese, now Vermont Creamery (you can listen to her story in the same Michael Landis video below). Allison visited my cheese kiosk in Portland and brought along several of her cheeses. You can read mine and Spaulding Gray’s thoughts here.
Recently Michele Haram ACS CCP, Director of Sales at Cypress Grove Chevre, sent The Man and me a “care package” of several CGC cheeses. One included was a five-pound wheel of Humboldt Fog. Because there was no way The Man and I could (or should) eat the entire wheel, I divided it into twelve pieces and shared it with friends… making me the most popular Cheesemonger in NE Georgia (well… I am the only Cheesemonger in NE Georgia…). I also shared the HF Remix and the Truffle Tremor. However I did save slices and made a beautiful cheese plate of these cheeses, along with a disk of Purple Haze. With these delicate cheeses I added Blue Haven Bee Sourwood Honey, 34 Degrees Sweet Vanilla Crisps, Blake Hill’s Orange Marmalade , Columbus Dried Salami, 34 Degrees Natural Crisps, and Dried Smyrna Figs.
The dreamy Humboldt Fog turns heads even before you taste it. Its simple beauty, resembling a layer cake, is an eye-catcher. As a bloomy rind, it ripens from the outside inward, creating a creamline as can be seen in the wedge The Man and I enjoyed. Humboldt Fog has not a whiff of goatiness; just a clean citrusy flavor profile with a floral finish. I paired it on the Vanilla Crisp with the Orange Marmalade.
I’m not a fan of truffles but the wedge was not to be wasted; The Man scarfed it down with just the help of the crisps and then he swooned… seriously swooned. His assessment, “Just enough pungency from the truffles to make it interesting. The paste is smooth like velvet and drizzled with the Sourwood Honey…aaahhh” he didn’t finish due to the swooning.
The lavender and the fennel in the fresh Purple Haze chevre are subtle; paired with the Orange Marmalade created a citrus salad in our mouths. We fought over the disk and came to an amicable tie.
We finished with the HF Chipotle and Cacoa Remix, which is not for the faint of heart. If you’re into spicy then you’re going to love this. The Man stayed away from it. More for me… plus the more heat, the better. I added sliced salami making an appetizing savory pairing. Then I topped it with the Sourwood honey… and I swooned. The sweet and the heat together caused my palate to dance.
As part of the background information I consulted an article from Culture Magazine and watched an interview Michael Landis conducted with Mary and two of the other Great women of American Artisan Cheese: Peggy Smith and Allison Hooper. Subscribe to Culture here.
A selection of cheese and food-centric magazines and ezines can be found here.
Please join our Facebook Cheese Study Group for up-to-date information regarding the ACS CCP Exam and other study suggestions. Check out my Cheese Education Page that deep dives into every domain within the ACS Body of Knowledge. Also follow our Instagram account for tips of prepping for the ACS CCP Exam. For my top Five books you need to read before sitting for the ACS CCP Exam, click here.
If you live in Franklin County, Northeast Georgia or Piedmont region of South Carolina you can purchase Curated Cheeses and Curated Specialty Foods from my Grab n Go fridge at Blue Haven Bee in Canon or Sweet Combs of Honey in Downtown Lavonia. If you don’t live in the area, you may purchase a selection of specialty foods at my Amazon Store.
In addition to being a member of the Internationale Guilde des Fromagers (Jura and Garde) and an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
Cypress Grove Chevre provided the cheeses discussed in this article; however, provided no further compensation.
The opinions are solely those of The Man and me (and Spaulding Gray – RIP – 2008 to 2013).
- This post contains affiliate links from which I receive a small commission from any purchases you make through those links. I thank you for patronization.
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