I was fortunate to begin my cheesemaking by buying milk from my friend and fellow cheesemaker Marcia Barinaga, who owns the Barinaga Ranch sheep dairy in Marshall, CA. Sheep milk is very hard to come by! Since Marcia needs every precious drop of her flock's milk for her own cheese production, she could no longer sell me the amount of milk I need to keep my cheese in production. So, I had a choice to make: (1) stop making sheep cheese, (2) move to Wisconsin where they have lots of sheep milk, or (3) buy my own sheep and become a shephardess-cheesemaker. I went with option #3. In December 2009 I purchased my starter flock (CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE TRIP) from Swedish Mission Farm, a sheep dairy in Wisconsin and member farm of the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative. These ewes are specialized 50/50 crosses between the East Friesian and Lacaune dairy breeds which are common throughout Europe. East Friesian sheep originated in Germany and are considered to be the highest producing dairy breed by milk volume, while the French Lacaune sheep produce milk with slightly higher milk solids. The famous Roquefort blue cheese from France is made exclusively from the milk of Lacaune sheep. Each of my ewes has been bred to a Lacaune ram from the University of Wisconsin's Spooner Agricultural Reseach Station, the only university in the United States with a program dedicated to sheep dairying. If all goes well, these ewes will give birth to lambs in April 2010 and I can begin milking them in May 2010. Each year I plan to increase the size of the flock by keeping all of the ewe lambs and purchasing additional ewes. Eventually I'd like to be milking between 100-200 ewes and will use every last drop of the milk for my cheesemaking. Meet the flock! My 10 ewes with their names and birth year.... |
