[upbeat folk music]
- Inga: For my first stop, I traveled to Cross Plains
to the Dreamfarm to meet with Diana,
a goat farmer and cheesemaker.
- Hi, Diana. - Hi, Inga.
- Nice to see you. - Good to see you.
Welcome to Dreamfarm. - Thank you.
I'd love to check out the goats.
- Diana: They'd love to greet you.
- Inga: Dreamfarm is nestled on 25 acres of rolling hills,
which provide perfect pastures
for a herd of playful dairy goats.
Oooh, hi, hi.
Diana milks her goats daily,
and she uses that milk to produce a variety
of artisanal hand-crafted goat cheeses,
and she sells those cheeses to local stores and restaurants.
[goat bleating]
This is so fun to be out here with the goats
and just to be on the farm here.
They're so sweet.
- Goats have great personalities; they love people.
- They really do, and as I was walking up,
I saw them kind of just playing together
and just, you can't help but smile being around these.
- Diana: Most times, they make you smile.
- How did you find yourself getting into the cheese business
and getting into being a goat farmer?
- Well, it's a long story, but the short of the story is,
we were living in a rural setting
and we got some goats for our kids,
and bred the goats, had milk,
and had extra milk, so decided to make cheese.
And I was sharing it with the farm where I was working at,
at the time, that had a CSA.
They asked me if I'd be interested in providing cheese
along with their vegetable selections,
and I thought, that'd be a great opportunity.
- Can you explain what farmstead cheese is
for people that don't know?
- Diana: Farmstead cheese is made from the milk
produced only on your farm.
We don't purchase any outside milk.
- Inga: So, you're doing the milking,
you're doing the feeding, the taking care of the goats,
and you're also doing the cheesemaking too?
- Diana: Right.
- I like that system because I think it allows you
to be a little bit more intimate with that cheese,
and the cheese is gonna be
a little bit different each time, right?
Depending on what the goats are eating?
- And the seasons,
and the stage of lactation that they're in.
- Okay; goats have a little bit more butterfat,
is that right, than dairy cows? - It depends on the breed.
- Oh, okay, just like cows. - Just like cow breeds.
The Jersey has higher butterfat versus Holsteins,
the Nubians have more butterfat than the Alpines,
and so that's why I choose to do a mix of Alpine and Nubians.
- Okay; what is it about farming and cheesemaking
that really just, that inspires you, keeps you going?
- Diana: I think to wake up every morning
and just step outside into the beautiful environment
that you have to work with,
and then being greeted by these animals.
I can't imagine a morning not being shared with the animals.
- Inga: For sure.
- And then, just having that opportunity to provide food
for other people is really a humbling experience.
- That's really beautiful.
Well, I am so excited to see your creamery
if that's possible,
and just spend a little bit more time here
with these beautiful goats.
- I'd love to show you.
[light peaceful music]
- There's so many different varieties of cheeses
that you can make.
Can you explain to me what this variety is
and how you make it?
What's the process?
- This is called a fresh chèvre, or a fresh goat cheese.
So, it actually started yesterday.
We brought the milk up from the milk house
in our bulk cooler,
brought it up in buckets, dumped it into this facility,
which is a vat pasteurizer. - Okay.
- So because it's a fresh cheese,
it has to be pasteurized.
We got through the pasteurization,
and then we add a little bit of starter culture
to get some good bacteria
breaking down that lactic acid in the milk.
And then add a little bit of rennet,
and then it's set in here overnight.
And this morning, lift up the lid,
and you've got this nice vat of a soft curd.
And I take that curd and scoop it out with this ladle
into these cloth-lined baskets,
and it'll drain here until tomorrow morning.
Then we'll take it out of the cheesecloths.
It'll have a consistency of, like, a cream cheese texture.
We'll put it into bowls, add salt, add herbs,
and then package it into individual containers,
ready for sale.
- This has been so inspiring to learn about all this
and to be here and to see that it can actually happen
for me to have a small creamery as well,
so thank you for spending the time with me.
- You're welcome, thank you for your interest.
[upbeat folk music]