The Collective Creamery Cheese Podcast

We're closing out the season with one of our favorite interviews so far, with Molly Semler of Von Trapp Farmstead. Molly is a cheesemaking dynamo—she and her husband Sebastian have brought their historic dairy farm outside Waitsfield, Vermont into its third generation with incredible, award-winning organic cheeses like Oma and Mad River Blue. Sue and Stef got into some pretty deep topics with Molly—how cheesemaking went from a dream to a vocation, the many pivots this farmstead creamery has had to make to survive in the market, the reason they went for Real Organic Project certification, and finding the balance between motherhood and cheesemaking. 

We hope you enjoy the interview, and stay tuned for updates on our next season!

LINKS: 

More on Von Trapp Farmstead / Instagram

More on Birchrun Hills Farm / Instagram

More on Valley Milkhouse / Instagram

More on Alex / Instagram
 

Where do cheesemakers get their inspiration? For Nico Brossar, cheesemaker at North Country Creamery in the Adirondacks, you look to the people, land, animals, and microbes around you. That's the inspiration behind Wild Muse, a cherry brett-washed tomme she helped create, which represented a step into a new era for this farmstead creamery. 

Sue and Stef first met Nico when they spoke on a tasting panel together at the American Cheese Society conference in 2024, where Wild Muse was one of the selections. We get into the story behind this unique cheese, plus the tale of how Nico changed careers from big city videographer to rural cheesemaker, her dream of starting a community radio station, and what a worker-owned farmstead creamery might look like.  

LINKS: 

More on North Country Creamery / Instagram

More on Birchrun Hills Farm / Instagram

More on Valley Milkhouse / Instagram

More on Alex / Instagram

Every cheesemaker needs a market for their product: a city where you can offer your wheels at farmers' markets, shops and restaurants that sell your products, distributors who truck them across the country. For Allison Lakin, cheesemaker and co-owner of Lakin's Gorges Cheese and East Forty Farm, running a small-scale creamery on the Maine coast means getting creative with how she reaches customers and markets her cheese. Stef and Sue talked with Allison about the challenges of selling and distributing cheese from the far northeast corner of the country, the ups and downs of running a scrappy little cheese business, her open and honest approach to social media, and how 2020 changed everything from her cheese offerings to her Cowside Supper events. 

LINKS: 

More on Allison: Lakin's Gorges Cheese / Instagram

More on Sue: Birchrun Hills Farm / Instagram

More on Stef: Valley Milkhouse / Instagram

More on Alex / Instagram

Do you daydream about running your own little cheesemaking operation? Megan Bogle of True North Farmstead in Downingtown, Pennsylvania is living that dream—but she and her husband didn't start out hoping to become dairy farmers. Today, Megan raises a small flock of sheep for milk, meat, and fiber on just two acres in the Philly suburbs, making fresh cheeses during the growing season and experimenting with cow's milk sourced from a nearby dairy in the winter. Stef and Sue talk with Megan about the trials and tribulations of the startup creamery, why sheep's milk is so great for cheesemaking, and the power of mentorship and community in Southeast Pennsylvania's cheese culture. If you're a startup cheesemaker or have your own micro-dairy dreams, this episode is for you!

LINKS: 

More on Megan: True North Farmstead / Instagram

More on Sue & Birchrun Hills Farm: https://birchrunhillsfarm.com/

More on Stef & Valley Milkhouse: https://www.valleymilkhouse.com/

More on Alex: https://www.alexandrajones.net/

The US has a huge appetite for sheep's milk cheese—it's the number one importer globally—but only around 1 percent of the sheep cheese we consume here comes from American creameries. There are a variety of reasons sheep's milk hasn't taken off in the US the way goat's milk products have in recent decades, but a ban against importing high-quality dairy sheep genetics from Europe is a big one. Now that the ban has been lifted, sheep dairies are working to catch up. Stef and Sue interview Portuguese-born animal scientist, breeding advisor, and cheese specialist Mariana Marques de Almeida, who's leading the way on this exciting effort. 

Mariana is working to seriously level up sheep dairying in the US with Ms. J and Co., a large Wisconsin sheep dairy and breeding project she opened in 2015. She and her business partners hope that by making high-quality genetics from her Spanish Assaf sheep available to farmers and selling great milk to existing sheep dairies, making sheep's milk cheese will become much more common here in the US than it has been. 

Links: 

More on Mariana and Ms. J and Co.: https://www.msjandco.com/

More on Sue & Birchrun Hills Farm: https://birchrunhillsfarm.com/

More on Stef & Valley Milkhouse: https://www.valleymilkhouse.com/

More on Alex: https://www.alexandrajones.net/

What kind of cheese did you eat when you were young? For Benita Kasbo, Syrian-American cheesemaker and owner of Kasbo's Market, the answer is jibneh, a savory, meltable brined cheese her family made at home when she was growing up in New Jersey. These days, Benita makes it for her own family, infusing each block of curd with fruity and floral mahlab, a fragrant spice made from ground cherry stones—and, since launching her business in 2020, she's been selling it through select outlets in New York City and North Jersey. In this interview, Benita shares her story and her mission to expand the definition of what cheese can be for the American palate with Stef and Sue. 

Links: 

More on Benita and Kasbo's Market: https://kasbosmarket.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/kasbosmarket

More on Sue & Birchrun Hills Farm: https://birchrunhillsfarm.com/

More on Stef & Valley Milkhouse: https://www.valleymilkhouse.com/

More on Alex: https://www.alexandrajones.net/

When Charuth van Beuzekom founded Dutch Girl Creamery outside Lincoln, Nebraska in the mid-2000s, there wasn't much in the way of educational resources for a beginning cheesemaker. Charuth shares the story of the grant-funded educational journey to cheesemaking locales around the world that got her started, her friendship with Sue (who was in a similar stage of her business around the same time), and how much her farm—and Nebraska's artisan cheesemaking scene—has changed in the past 20 years. Sue and Stef also ask Charuth about her cheeses, like the award-winning Rosa Maria and Dolle Mina (named for her activist mother), learn about how she and her husband juggle vegetable farming and milking goats, and get the story on how a tragic fire at the farm and creamery in 2021 became an opportunity to reimagine Dutch Girl's farming, cheesemaking, and business operations to be sustainable in a new era. 

Links: 

The famous photo of Charuth's Dutch activist mother with the Dolle Minas: https://publichistory.humanities.uva.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/origineel-1.jpeg (the words on their stomachs mean "my belly is my own")

More on Charuth & Dutch Girl Creamery: https://www.shadowbrk.com/

More on Sue & Birchrun Hills Farm: https://birchrunhillsfarm.com/

More on Stef & Valley Milkhouse: https://www.valleymilkhouse.com/

More on Alex: https://www.alexandrajones.net/

Sue, Stef, and Alex are back with more of the only podcast by cheesemakers, for cheesemakers! The new season drops Monday, Oct. 20, with new episodes released every 2 weeks. We're excited to share interviews with some of our favorite American artisan cheesemakers, including Molly Semler of Von Trapp Farmstead in Vermont, Charuth von Beuzekom of Dutch Girl Creamery in Nebraska, Allison Lakin of Lakin's Gorges Cheese in Maine, and more. We're talking about everything from homesteading to sheep genetics to immigrant cheese traditions to our favorite styles of feta, and we're so excited to share it all with you!

For more info: 

• Get in touch with us on our website / Facebook / Instagram
• Find Stefanie Angstadt at Valley Milkhouse / Instagram
• Reach Sue Miller at Birchrun Hills Farm / Instagram 
• Connect with Alexandra Jones on her website

Summertime is when cheesemakers and dairy farmers are at their busiest — and that’s saying something. So we’re taking a little break to make hay (literally!) while the sun shines, with brand new episodes with more cheesemakers we admire coming at you this fall. In the meantime, catch up on our back catalog, be sure to subscribe, and please rate and review us — it means so much. Thanks to all of you for your support, and we’ll be back in your ears soon with more cheesy content!

Startup dairy, diversifying the industry, creative milk marketing, racism, income inequality, the urban-rural divide — we dig into all these important topics and more in today’s interview with our good friend Rebecca Seidel, farmer-cheesemaker at the forthcoming One Horn Farm! She’s a third-generation dairy farmer reviving her family’s Berks County dairy who brings a really unique perspective on dairy thanks to her agricultural upbringing, off-farm education, and a decade of experience in dairy and cheesemaking. Such an inspiring chat! Follow Rebecca on Instagram @caseinmicelles and Twitter @casein_micelles for her thoughts on ag and news about One Horn Farm’s upcoming debut.