Taste Buds: Artisan Sheep Cheese at Shepherd’s Way Farms

Anyone want to answer me first? Before it taste buds, let's go. Hey taste buds, guess where we are today? Yeah, I know. I wore my overalls for you because we are farming it today. We are at Shepherd's Way Farm. They are craft artisan cheese makers located in Minnesota and these are their sheep that they raise, they milk, and then they turn it into some of the world's most delicious cheeses right here in Minnesota and we're going to also show you how that cheese gets to retail their son has a shop called Shepherd's Table and i'm going to take some of their Frissago cheese and make something at home that's going to be easy that you can do and super delicious that will really highlight the artisan quality and craft of these beautiful cheeses are you ready for it sheep are you ready for it taste buds let's go Buds, I am here with my friends Jody and Stephen at Shepherd's Way Farm. How long have you guys been making cheese? More than 25 years. Started in August of 1998. Yeah, it's a super cool story. You are, like, I think, some of the premier artists and cheesemakers in the country. I have been a fan of your cheese for a very long time. Are you ready, Taste Buds, to see all of the beautiful things that are happening at Shepherd's Way Farm? I'm ready for it. Let's go. All right, so all this milk is going into a very official-looking PVC pump system. Yep, it all goes down. This is what's called a low-line system. So the milk goes down, and then it goes into a transfer pump where it's pumped into our milk room. And that's where the refrigeration happens. So it's continually being pumped into the bulk tank. It's being immediately cooled down. And you are milking, I don't know, like 20 sheep? About 24 sheep in each lot. We're milking about 150 sheep a day, twice a day right now. Okay, so there's more than one group that's coming in. Yep, so probably around six or seven groups. And this happens rain, shine, snow? 20 below, 90 above. Brr, okay. So now this girl is fresh. Okay, so she's a fresh... Go ahead, Stephanie, touch that udder. And she can't kick me. Touch the udder, Stephanie. I'm sorry honey yeah. So you feel how tight that is? Yes. She wants the milk. She's very ready to go. Oh yeah, it's almost like you can feel the like liquid in there. Yeah. Okay, your turn's coming up soon, young lady. There is too like so much craft involved in what you do and we haven't even got to the making of the cheese part. Jodi's a superstar. Okay, so she does the craft, we feed her the milk. okay so you're in charge of like all of these parts, these parts, those parts exactly I feel like we're ready to go to the next spot but can I touch that one go ahead, it's just okay coming in, not wanting to scare you, oh they're so warm all right, Jodi welcome, yes thank you this is your part of the operation now yes now you're in my land, I love wearing professional food outfit, you look official now. Glamour Girls, let's go. So these are some of the burroks that are aging. We only make a few batches of this every year. I don't even think I've ever had this. This is an award winner. It's one of blue. Yeah, you have a lot of award winners. I am lucky that way. Yeah, you're a good cheesemaker lady. Okay, so it's aging. Yep, so these age at least nine months before we release them And then these are Frizzagos. Oh, another award-winning cheese. Yes, that one is. I know, you're so humble. And this one has like, is there, like this one is a little dustier on the top. Yep, this one hasn't had its face washed yet. We brush them down a bit before we send them out. And this cheese would be comparable to what that someone might know? In the family of a young manchego. Young manchego. So sometimes I hold onto some for six months or more, and then it has a different texture and a deeper flavor. And then do we call it old manchego? It is old. We call it extra aged. Aged, not old. We are fine aged cheeses. All right, we've washed up again. We're prepared. We are making Big Woods Blue. We're going to salt them. All the cheese, except cheddar, has salt. They either go in the brine or they get salt in the curd, or they get hand salted on the outside. Bigwood's Blue has a little bit of salt added to the curd during the make, and then it gets salted three separate times before we pierce it. This is the second salting. So the first salting is heavy, the second salting is lighter, and the third salting is just a little bit. And it goes on like that. Just give her a little love. And we're not rubbing it in, we're just putting it on. Okay. And then it goes around like this. So you're not like pressing firmly, I'm just putting it on top and then we're looking make sure it goes all the way to the sides, it looks fairly even, that little spot looks a little light I'm just always so blown away when you get in these artisan processes like how labor-intensive it is, we jokingly call it cheese fit in here because you're lifting a lot of cheese in small amounts, yeah I'm ready I'm nervous, you'll do great, oh it's heavy okay so this is like you don't have to go to strength training class, no you just lift cheese okay so a little in my hand, yep, and then make a circle okay I feel like I could do this, and then turn it over and do the other side, it feels like putting lotion on a piece of cheese, like you're just kind of smoothing it over, I think I probably put more than I should have, no, I think it looks okay, okay because it feels pretty grainy, it should, it will soak it up, all right, all right, how much does this cheese wheel weigh around five to six pounds, okay making artisan craft food is so physical, typically very physical, it's time intensive, I make every wheel of cheese on the farm still, Big Woods Blue, let's go wash up and try some cheese, sounds good so how did you two start making cheese together we started milking and the plan was we were just just going to milk, Jodi and a group of other dairy shepherds set up a milking cooperative to buy the milk and sell it to somebody else to make cheese And after a few years, the milking co-op wasn't able to guarantee that we had a market for our milk We had to figure out something to do with the milk. Undertaking cheese making was hugely intimidating. How would we do it? Where would we do it? Who would do it? And it just so happened that the University of Minnesota had pioneered dairy sheep back in the early 90s, and the cheesemaker at that plant had made sheep milk cheese. I did a quick market survey talking to some of the chefs in town, Lucia Watson among them, and said, we milk sheep. We're thinking about making cheese. What would you like? They were all very gracious and in August of 1998 we made our first batch of cheese. Our flagship cheese is the Pejago. Food & Wine magazine called the Pejago a must try. Okay. Mild, grainy texture, nutty finish. Multiple award winner at the American Cheese Society. It's like you've done this before. And our most recent is Sogan, our home style. Do the same thing with Sogan while I eat some. Young Tome, fruity note, salty finish mild it's actually won the gold medal two of the last three years at the American Cheese Society a little funky but in a like feta-y kind of way it's delicious it has that salt forward and do people eat blue cheese with fruit or do they just eat it blue cheese is lovely with fruit it's also really good with chocolate these are some chocolate truffles okay that is caramelized red onion oh so that will be that would be a good combo also a good bite wow oh this is so good i'm telling you Bigwood's blue really is so accessible right like i would never reach for a hunk of blue cheese just because i'm that weirdo but this is so good i'm gonna reach for it every time oh yum and now that i know like how geeked out you are about the sheep and the milk i get it sure because you can use sheep milk in lots of things but maybe people don't know so how would you sell sheep milk to someone coming to your stand at the farmer's market rich creamy and a little sweet rich creamy and a little sweet sounds like someone i want to marry it's you know and it's new it's a superfood it's nutrient dense high calcium high protein it's easier in your body easier to digest this checks all the boxes they agreed they're like yes are we gonna do it at the same time sure okay i'm gonna do it again i'm gonna say oh it tastes like milk because you kind of have this expectation that it's going to be like butter milky or thick it's just delicious milk right why aren't we drinking more sheep's milk is it hard to make more than cows there's only about a half a dozen people in america that bottle sheep's milk and you don't get very much it's worth it yeah this has been just a delight thank you for sharing your farm your family thank you for doing what you do and for having this artisan craft that you share with people so that people can learn like it's important to support family farms that do this work right yeah yeah because you aren't going to get the care and the detail on these kinds of cheeses in factories you're just not cheers thanks taste buds thank you thanks for coming taste buds our time at shepherd's way farm has come to an end we are going to go from here to Shepherd's Table where we're going to meet their son Alya and then I'm going to grab some cheese I'm going to grab the Friesago I think because I'm really into it and I'm going to show you something that you can make at home that'll be super delicious let's go Alya you have created a store Shepherd's Table for not only your family's cheeses but like all our friends. People ask me sometimes they'll be like why is it a Shepherd's Table and I tell them well the shepherd part's easy my family and our shepherds we have sheep and then the table is it's a reflection of my table and since all the things that I like yes and then what's been really fun is in the first you know nine months of us being open it's become a reflection of the community's table. You really are rooted in this community. It really happened during the COVID years. I started really worrying about our local farmers and our local producers and wondering where they would find a home. And the wonderful thing has been just discovering that people want that. Yeah. And people want a place they can find a shop local. They want to support their neighbors. When you talk about how much better the cheese is when a good cheese maker is making it. One thing that that is hard for folks to understand because when you're looking at two cheeses on the shelf it's hard to know what the difference for sure and one thing that my mom I'm sure yesterday didn't brag about is that she has handmade every wheel of cheese for almost 30 years and that when you're doing that level of work you're part chemist part artist and so when she picks up a wheel of cheese she can tell if that cheese is going to work out or not and before the cheese is even curdled when it's milk she can look at it and stir it and just tell from the feel of the milk how it's going to be and that's how that Hinton Falls always comes out just perfectly creamy. It ripens from the rind and when you taste it you can taste the grassiness of the pasture and it tastes like home to me. I love how personal all of these cheeses feel to you. Yeah. So if people are wondering where they can get the sheep milk in town it is here. Well us and Just Foods now down in Northfield are the only stores in the United States that carry sheep milk. And the reason that we carry it is it's wonderfully nutritionally dense, but it's really just a nice rich milk and ooh, steamed in a latte. Yeah. Unbelievable. Baking, unbelievable. I also really want to talk about Northfield Cafe. Oh, he's so nice. He is such a wonderful man. And I always tell people will go, you're Minnesota focused. What do you do when you can't get it from Minnesota? Yeah. And my answer is always as short a chain as possible. With coffee, they're located here in Buffalo, Minnesota, but it's Leo's family farm in Columbia. And so we brew our coffee very strong here in our shop. Stronger than, I always say in Minnesota, there's like two ends of the spectrum. For me, it's Lutheran church basement coffee. And then our coffee's on the other end of the spectrum. I like it. One cup will do you. Alright, we've moved outside. We've grabbed our coffee. Our very strong coffee. You weren't kidding. That light roast is growing hair on my chin. We've got some samples too of some products that you like. These look fun. What are these? So, that's a great spot for us to start. Yeah, Cryin' Ryan. I'll tell you that these pumpkin seeds, Cryin' Ryan's pumpkin seeds, they're for sure in our top three most selling items in the shop. You know how you eat like a lime Tostito? Mm hmm. There's that like limey, briny, salty, they're fantastic. And then the other item that we'll be trying is from our friends at the Minnesota Dairy Lab, Leif and Phil, and this is their collaboration with Rectangle Pizza. So it's Jeff's Delight and it is superb. So it's a M&M cookie, their vanilla bean ice cream, and then it has crushed Oreo in there as well. And I think this is why people should try local food and local makers and local producers because you could take something you think you've had before and it's better because it's made with local ingredients it's made with intentionality and we can barely keep these on the shelf i feel like i'm gonna get fired when i leave here because you're so much better at this than i am thank you all right it was great day it was my pleasure two days of spending with your absolutely fantastic family what a gift we'll see you back in my kitchen taste buds taste buds i love when you get to experience some of my friends. Shepherd's Way Farm has been friends of mine for a long time. I love that they can showcase their products. When I thought about their cheese, one of their cheeses that I really love is called Frisago. It's a harder cheese, almost like a Manchego. So today we're going to take this beautiful cheese, julienne it, then we're going to julienne the apple, and then we're going to make a simple chive dressing. And this is a salad that I have had at a restaurant that closed here that I still think about because I loved it so much so let's just get to it taste buds we're going to talk a little bit about the julienne tools so to julienne something you can use a tool like this that has little teeth in it or you can use a mandolin I don't use a mandolin because I feel like I will be an accident waiting to happen I'm just going to use my knife so I've cut them all into planks and I've lined them up and we're just cutting them into thin matchstick strips. And you want about a cup of cheese to a large apple. You're just gonna get that salty sweet with the apple. And then you're gonna get the oniony of the chive. Okay, so we've got our matchsticks julienned, as it were. Now we're going to take our apple and we're just going to julienne it. We're getting pieces that match our cheese strips. And I'm gonna do this to the whole apple. And when you pick your apple, I like Honeycrisp. You could also use a green apple for this if you wanted to. Did you know Honeycrisp apples were started in Minnesota? Started at the University of Minnesota. This is the basis of our salad. From here, we're going to make up the dressing. We've got a tablespoon of olive oil, about a tablespoon of chives. And I cut these from my garden. We have about a half a teaspoon of pepper, a little bit of salt, I'm gonna use about a half a teaspoon. And remember, when you use your chives, if you put them in water, they will last a lot longer. So we're gonna put those back in the refrigerator, but I'm gonna put my cheese in here, about a cup, and we're gonna lightly toss, because we wanna keep our cheese batons as whole as we can. We're going to add our cheese batons to our apple shreds. get in there. We don't want to waste any of this delightful cheese. Especially like now you know how hard they work to make cheese. And just get this all mixed up. Tossing. Mounding. And this is pretty rich. So this portion will probably feed four people. Let's have a few little like sprigs of chive to make it look pretty. We'll hit it with a little bit of our pepper. A little bit more salt. and now I need a fork but this is it maybe you're thinking like what she just made a salad with apples and cheese and olive oil and chives and that's all she put in it plus salt and pepper yes friends that's all I put in it but I'm telling you that cheese flavor of that beautiful fresco cheese is carried through the acid of the apple gives it the tartness that you want it is going to be delightful this is exactly what I was looking for you have the sweet tart juiciness of the apple that is interplaying with the salty texture of the cheese and then you have the chive that's giving you that tiny little onion hint but just in the back and all of that coming together is really giving you a bite that is so unexpected so delightful so delicious oh all right taste buds that's it for this cheesy sheepy farmy edition we had such a great time at Shepherd's Way you guys and when you have beautiful sheep making such delicious lovely ingredients they shine on their own like you don't need to do much to make that cheese completely delicious and let that sheep that did all that work to make that cheese along with that farmer you let them shine that's it for this week taste buds we'll see you next week