Serious Eats
Serious Cheese: Counting Money? No, Counting Sheep
Every Tuesday, Jamie Forrest drops by with Serious Cheese.
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article about folks who have given up the corporate life for a life on the farm making cheese. It profiles Wisconsinite Brenda Jensen, whose Hidden Springs Creamery burst on the scene last year with a first place finish in the fresh sheep's milk cheese category at the American Cheese Society annual competition. Crafting small batches of hand-made sheep's milk cheeses, Jensen is beating a new path in a state with an entrenched dairy industry that is decidedly non-artisanal and heavily cow-focused.
I (and probably most cheese lovers) have at least fantasized about leaving their urban existence behind to start a small cheesemaking operation. There's something about the connection to the land and to history that makes cheesemaking particularly appealing to those disillusioned with the ennui of corporate living. The New York Times, in fact, ran a story not too long ago about urban hipsters leaving behind their "trucker hats" for the simplicity of rural life.
But the reality of an agricultural life has stopped me (and I assume many others) from pursuing my fantasy any further. There's not much that appeals to me about being "up at 3 o'clock in the morning to tend to" the animals, as the Journal article relates. I have a two year old daughter, and I know what that's like. As I've discussed here before, cheesemaking is difficult, backbreaking labor; "glorified dishwashing," as Jasper Hill Farm's Mateo Kehler likes to describe it.
There's also the reality of the economics. I even went so far in my fantasy as to run the numbers at one point. It takes a pretty large farm, and a lot of batches of cheese, to turn a profit. Again, the Journal article says that Jensen is "$20,000 away from being profitable." That's pretty rough considering that one penny over break-even is considered a profit.
What about you, readers? Have you been tempted by the rural bug? What would it take to leave your current life behind and open a small farm?
About the author: Jamie Forrest publishes Curdnerds.com from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, and his cheese.