Photo via Facebook / Blakesville Creamery
At the dawn of 2020, veteran cheesemaker Veronica Pedraza had the final pieces of her business plan in place to open Blakesville Creamery—her dreamery, as she calls it—that she began planning in 2018. And then COVID hit.
“We were fortunate enough to begin construction in March 2020,” she says wryly. “While the stay-at-home order was in place, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture suspended inspections and licensing. We had to wait for the order to be lifted to get started.”
Blakesville Creamery, based in Port Washington, has now been up and running for about a year, producing quality goat’s milk cheese such as chèvre, the classic soft, slightly tangy French cheese. It’s versatile and can be used in recipes that call for cream cheese. The Lake Breeze, Lake Effect and Afterglow goat cheese lines have delicate flavors that pair well with many different foods and condiments.
Pedraza, a Beloit College grad, had worked at creameries throughout the United States. She was drawn back to Wisconsin through a chance encounter with Andy Hatch of Wisconsin’s Upland Cheese. Hatch happened to know a goat farmer looking to install a creamery and make cheese.
Blakesville Creamery was constructed at Blakesville Dairy Farm (formerly known as Afterglow Dairy Farm). The farm began in 2012 when the owners acquired a modest dairy cow operation in Port Washington. Under the lead of Juli Kaufman’s Fix Development (of sustainable redevelopment projects such as the Clock Shadow Building, Sherman Phoenix and Cream City Hostel) the property was converted to a sustainable goat farm that includes a goat milk production facility.
According to Blakesville Dairy Farm’s website, “The goat dairy was originally named Afterglow Dairy Farm but the name was updated in 2019 to Blakesville Dairy Farm to honor the original village that was located on the land prior to our time.”
Moove Over, Cows
“Wisconsin is actually the largest producer of goat’s milk in the country,” boasts Pedraza, citing Wisconsin’s LaClare Family Creamery and Montchevre among the largest.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, as of January 2017, the largest number of milk goats are found in Wisconsin (44,000 head) and California (41,000 head), followed by Iowa (30,000 head), Pennsylvania (15,000 head) and New York (13,700 head).
Pedraza explains that the composition of goat’s milk is different from other ruminants. “Cows, goat and sheep all make milk, and they are all used to make cheese, but the types of cheese are not universal among the animals. The composition of goat’s milk is different than cow’s milk and lends itself to different styles of cheese.”
She notes that farmstead cheesemakers such as Blakesville Creamery—farmstead meaning to make cheese on the same property where the animals are living—are more common in the Northeast and the West Coast than they are in Wisconsin. Here, businesses usually operate as dairy farmers, cheesemakers or sometimes as co-packers that take somebody else’s cheese, package it and label it.
“What was appealing for this project was that it is a milk source that I could grow my business into. When you have a farmstead dairy, you start with so many animals, and then you start making cheese,” she says. “Generally, the demand for cheese cannot keep up with milk supply. There’s not enough milk to expand cheese production while expanding your flock or herd while milking. The owner of this farm wanted to make sure the dairy was viable prior to investing in a creamery.”
Goats have personality, says Pedraza. They are very inquisitive and rambunctious, in an amusing way. She describes cheesemaking as having both an instant and a delayed gratification, once the product ages.
Blakesville Creamery cheese is available at all four Outpost Natural Foods locations, The Village Cheese Shop, Glorioso’s and West Allis Cheese & Sausage Shoppe. The cheese is also featured on menus at restaurants throughout the Milwaukee area.
For more information, visit blakesvilledairyfarm.com/creamery.
