Valley Shepherd Creamery

Sheep's milk is much richer than cow's milk — roughly twice the butterfat and protein — so the cheeses come out denser, creamier, and more concentrated in flavor. It also takes about twice as much milk to make a pound of cheese, which is part of why it costs more.

Also, dairy sheep are much less common in the US. Sheep here were mostly bred for wool, and it's harder to get dairy sheep genetics in the US.

Everything is made in small batches from the farm's own milking schedule and aged for months in the cave. When a batch of a popular wheel sells through, there's no warehouse to restock from — it's back when the next wheels come of age. Offer the closest style as a substitute.

Yes — the farm in Long Valley, NJ has a shop and does tours and events in season. Point them to valleyshepherd.com for current hours.

Yes — some of the cheeses, at valleyshepherd.com.

Walnut Hill Farm — a small pasture-raised pork farm in Pawlet, Vermont. Dry-cured salami in a few varieties. (Same farm family of products, different farm — we work with both.)

The yogurt is sheep's milk — same rich, creamy story as the cheese: more butterfat and protein than cow's milk yogurt.

Actually, most cheeses aged at least 60 days — which is all of our aged cheeses — have almost no lactose at all! That lactose gets broken down pretty early in the cheesemaking process.

Still, cheese is a brick of fat and protein with no fiber. It might not flow right through you — not the easiest thing to digest a lot of.

Raw milk dairy products are legal and safe if aged at least 60 days. At that point, the lower moisture level, higher acidity, and higher salt content will have killed off any unsafe pathogens that might have been in the milk. All the aged cheeses are raw; all the fresh products are pasteurized.

We make raw cheese in part because it saves us a step, but also because you can get some unique, unexpected, and often positive flavors from the wild bacteria that are hardier than most dangerous bacteria.

Milk comes out of a teat that's hanging just above the dirt and a stone's throw from a butthole. Farms are dirty places. Even though we're aging our cheeses, we're still abundantly careful and clean with every step of the process — testing bacterial activity, and discarding milk if it's not clean enough. Unless you know that's happening, you don't want to drink someone's raw milk.

Even still, raw milk is uniquely suited for growing the type of bacteria that have plenty of opportunities to get there. The negatives outweigh the positives. If they want good gut bacteria: eat aged raw-milk cheese, or just regular yogurt.

Curing predates refrigeration. Cheese and salami were traditionally aged in caves and basements because they were insulated and held a cooler temperature more easily. Then the bacteria that grew on the food started to grow in the caves, and those caves started to carry a unique flavor and aroma suited to the specific food aged there — like a seasoned cast-iron pan.

In modern cheese and salami making, we age them in temperature & humidity controlled rooms, but they still develop that unique, seasoned biome.