Tasters may have been puzzled by how this cheesemaker emerged from nowhere. Just two years ago, Hidden Springs did not exist and its owner, Brenda Jensen, was working as a manager at a global packaging company.

Today, Ms. Jensen can be found milking sheep and hand-crafting two-pound wheels of cheese. After 25 years in the corporate world, Ms. Jensen, 47 years old, decided to quit her job and start a creamery. Her first-place Ocooch Mountain cheese, a European Bufont-style aged cheese, is gaining prestige in the artisanal cheese world. Her creamy sheep’s milk cheese, Driftless, which comes in flavors ranging from basil to lavender, has garnered a number of local and national awards, including three at the 2007 American Cheese Society competition, which is considered the U.S.’s premiere cheese festival.

“Brenda sends me this almost flawless cheese that is consistent and sharp,” says Lenny Rice, the buyer for Cowgirl Creamery, which carries Ocooch Mountain and Driftless cheese at its stores in California and Washington, D.C. “One of the reasons is she has put a lot of care into the milk.”

Ms. Jensen is among a growing number of dairy farmers who have left corporate jobs for the allure of the cheese world. According to the American Cheese Society, which represents artisanal and craft cheesemakers, the number of cheesemakers who have joined the organization has more than tripled in the past seven years, from 426 in 2001 to 1,346 in 2007. And cheesemaking has attracted producers from non-food backgrounds. Jeff Roberts, author of “The Atlas of American Cheese,” found that almost a third of artisanal cheesemakers in 2006 had come from other careers ranging from doctors to dotcommers.

“It’s a desire to do something outside of the corporate world, to do something with nature, to do something on your own,” says Mike Gingrich of Uplands Cheese Company, in Dodgeville, Wis. Mr. Gingrich spent several years as an executive at Xerox Corp. and on a venture capital team before settling into the dairy business nine years ago. His Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese won two American Cheese Society “Best in Show” awards. “I have never been in a business like this where your customers are helpful, where your competitors are helpful. It’s not as cutthroat.”

Adds Laura Werlin, author of “Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials”: “The lifestyle appeals to people. I think we revere cheese makers in a way that we don’t other agricultural producers. It’s harder to stand out if you are a really good blueberry maker than if you are a really good cheesemaker.”

A demand for artisanal cheese has helped foster these new cheesemakers. The rising cost of transporting cheese from Europe, in addition to the weakened dollar, has driven up the price of imported cheese by as much as 30%, forcing many consumers to look to cheaper domestic products. In addition, Jeanne Carpenter, a spokeswoman at the Wisconsin Diary Business Innovation Center, points to a shift in American taste towards bolder and farmstead cheeses.

“We have gone from the 1970s when everybody wants to eat this commodity Kraft cheese to one where they want a cheese that is funky and has a story behind [it]. The artisanal cheesemaker provides this,” Ms. Carpenter said, noting that the number of farmstead cheesemakers in Wisconsin has increased from 10 to 44 in the past decade. “It’s really been consumer driven.”

To be sure, becoming a cheesemaker is no simple task. Average start-up costs are about $250,000, says Ms. Carpenter, and cheesemakers must take a series of classes to become certified. And once you’re knee-deep in cow manure, the lifestyle may not seem quite as romantic.

“You got to really love it,” says Ms. Rice of Cowgirl Creamery. “They might be wealthy coming into it, but they are not going to get wealthy making cheese. We have a seen a couple of instances of people who worked in the dotcom industry, sold out their stock and opened a dairy farm — and they were quickly humbled by the lifestyle. Those animals become your children. You’re up at 3 o’clock in the morning to tend to them.”

Ms. Jensen was the manufacturing manager at Milprint, a division of packaging giant Bemis Co. in Lancaster, Wis, before she decided to leave her $80,000-a-year job for the cheese world in 2006.

“I always knew that I would live in the country and have a barn,” says Ms. Jensen, who grew up on a “hobby farm” in Benoit, Wis., where she and her brothers helped tend to chickens, rabbits, horses and a milk cow. “But I didn’t know much beyond that. I never thought I would have sheep.”

For fun, she and her husband, Dean, a mental health physician, decided to buy about 50 milking sheep for their 76-acre farm four years ago. In November 2005 she attended a three-day cheese-making and started experimenting with cheese.

Today, Ms. Jensen’s retails Hidden Valley Creamery cheese for $20 to $40 a pound at specialty stores across the country. She made about 6,000 pounds of cheese in 2007 and expects to make a total of 12,000 pounds by year end. Ms. Jensen says she is $20,000 away from being profitable.

“It was the whole romance of it,” she says. “The smell of the milk, the feel of the cheese — I didn’t realize how intimate you could become with the cheese making process.”

At present, only cheese made with pasteurised milk can be sold. The importation of a few raw milk cheeses, such as parmesan and Roquefort, is permitted.

Debate over raw milk cheese has raged for some years. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has put out a discussion paper and is seeking comments (see www.foodstandards.gov.au).

The organisation is considering amendments to the Food Standards Code, which could increase the number and type of raw milk, or unpasteurised, products imported or made here.

A spokeswoman for FSANZ, Lydia Buchtmann, says the intent “is to make sure that these products are safe, while at the same time making the standards national and uniform … and getting rid of that inconsistency where you’re permitted to import raw milk cheeses but can’t necessarily make them locally”.

One of Australia’s strongest advocates for raw milk cheese, importer and host of pay TV’s Cheese Slices, Will Studd, has asked FSANZ to allow more of the products into the country and “bring Australian food standards into line with European food standards”.

“I want to be proud of Australian cheese internationally,” he says. “They [FSANZ] have been dragging their feet about this issue.

“There are anomalies in the current system – you’ve got exceptions for international cheese but the local producers are not allowed a choice.”

Lynne Tietzel, co-owner of cheese specialist Australia On A Plate, would also like the standards changed in favour of raw milk cheese. She says the response to the release of Roquefort in Australia was “incredible” and is aware of frustration experienced by locals of European background, who cannot buy cheeses here that they or their parents grew up with.

However, not everyone in the industry wants a change. David Brown, president of Australian Specialist Cheesemakers Association, says when Victorian members were surveyed about raw milk cheese in 2002, “only 6 per cent showed any enthusiasm … which means there was 94 per cent that either didn’t care or didn’t want it”.

The volume of Cheshire Cheese sold has risen by 7 per cent and producers have also seen a 25 per cent increase in the value of sales from April 25 – July 18), which the producers are attributing to consumers increasingly opting to make packed lunches at home, rather than spend up to £5 a day on a shop bought sandwich or lunch.

British Cheese Board Secretary Nigel White comments: “As we analyse consumer behaviour it becomes clear that many people are opting to prepare their lunches at home as part of their credit crunch cost cutting. Historically Cheshire Cheese has been known as ‘the poor man’s meat’ and sales have traditionally spiked at times of economic hardship.

This is old-fashioned, non-homogenised stuff – with thick cream on the top – and is used to make Brisbane’s best cappuccinos and cafe lattes.

After branching out into butter and yoghurt production, Ian and Jane Campbell started making cheeses in 2005 and these are starting to pick up awards.

Judges at the recent Dairy Industry Association awards in Queensland selected Barambah Crow’s Ash Brie as the overall champion product.

What you get is a rich, creamy brie with a white mould exterior and a coating of vineyard ash.

As it ages the skin gets crunchy and the middle becomes oozy, golden and mushroomy.

The name comes from the crow’s ash trees that Ian Campbell planted on the family’s Spring Creek farm near Murgon.

His Fig Tree Paddock double brie is named after a Spring Creek pasture dominated by a big old Moreton Bay fig.

Nowadays, the Campbells’ main dairy herd grazes under river redgums at their Glenarbon property on the Dumaresq River between Texas and Yelarbon.

This isn’t traditional dairy country and a few of the old-school locals were a bit sceptical about how friesians would go in their neck of the woods.

The herd is now thriving on perennial lucerne, and certified organic grains and molasses. There is plenty of water from the river and bores and no cattle ticks. The river soils are responding well to organic farming and the earthworms are thriving.

Cheesemaker Timothy Gadischke – who trained at Kingaroy and Witches Chase at Mount Tamborine – also produces quark and fetta and a new labna, which is a yoghurt cheese popular in Lebanon and Israel.

Traditionally it is made in the home by wrapping the yoghurt in muslin and draining it over a pot.

Once the mixture solidifies it is rolled into walnut-sized balls. Gadischke adds sea salt and fennel seeds to his version. Jane Campbell uses the balls to stuff boned-out lamb roasts. Otherwise use them as a spread on crusty bread or instead of bocconcini in garden salads.

These products are made at Barambah’s Oxley plant and are widely available. For more information, go to www.barambahorganics.com.au.

How long have you been CEO?

Since 2004, but I’ve been in the business since I was 13 years old. I started on the plant floor, washing the floors, sweeping and mopping, and then I graduated to cheese making. I grew up in our manufacturing division.

Absolutely, and the best-quality cheese too. My first boss, a plant manager, showed me the ins and outs of the dairy industry. He said ‘Lino, the easiest thing in the world is to make cheese. Now, to make good-quality cheese, that’s more difficult.’ There are a lot of good cheese makers out there, but specialized cheese makers are fewer and fewer.

Do you have a favourites cheese, a Camembert or Epoisse?

My taste profiles are not that fancy. I grew up on the Italian specialty cheeses, so I love ricotta and you eat that typically in the morning. One of my cheese plant stints was in the ricotta department and I remember at lunch there was a bakery right across the street. I used to buy a little loaf of bread for about 10 cents. I would open it up and take the hot ricotta and spread it on the bread and that would be my lunch.

Did you always know you would work in the business?

I knew I would be in the business, because I had a passion for the dairy industry. I have milk in my blood. I never expected to be CEO. It just evolved that way. But I knew in some capacity, as a labourer, supervisor or plant manager, I would be in the company.

Do you have siblings?

An older brother and a younger sister, and they are not in the business. My brother is actually the president of the Montreal Impact soccer team, which he founded back in 2003. He has other investments. My sister is a mother of three and she has a fashion boutique for women’s clothes and a party planning business.

Except for your brief stint in a family-owned forestry firm, why didn’t you get experience outside the firm?

Even if my father had sent me somewhere else, I wouldn’t have gone. I follow the same model with my kids – you need to understand the business from the grassroots. You need to rub shoulders with the folks who are busting their behinds to make an honest day’s pay.

A lot of people will say you are CEO only because your father owns the business.

It is common reaction, but I would say that over the time I’ve been in the company I think I’ve proven what I have to prove to the people I need to prove it to. So I don’t lose sleep at night over that.

What does your father do now?

He’s still chairman. He no longer gets involved in day-to-day responsibilities and, of course, we do discuss all strategic decisions. He came to the realization in 2004 that he was ready to step back. When you’re a private entity, you really don’t have to answer to anybody at any time. It’s a different grind when you are a public company, as we have been after 1997. In the past, you had employees whom you wanted to keep happy, but now you have shareholders, analysts and journalists too. He was ready to let go.

Do you have a business education?

I have a political science degree, but the reality is we don’t give a whole lot of importance to academic education. What we look for is people who are passionate, have good common sense and believe in the culture of the company. It is not uncommon to find people who don’t have a high-school education and are vice-presidents of operations with three or four plants reporting to them.

Don’t you want professional managers out of business schools?

There is a place for that. There are certain cultures where professionals will fit better than, say, entrepreneurs or people who just work on passion and dedication. But within our culture, this is the only way we can continue to build on what we are.

Would you hire an MBA?

I wouldn’t be opposed to it, but I wouldn’t reject someone because they don’t have an MBA. We do have MBAs in our organization but of the top management – including executive VPs, presidents of divisions – I don’t think any one of us has an MBA. It is a culture that we have. We are a $5-billion company that still operates as a family enterprise and that’s the way we want to keep it.

What are you doing in the bakery business, which is reeling from the high cost of raw materials?

We got into the snack-cake business in 1999 because it was a great opportunity at the time. It was really opportunistic but our primary focus is dairy. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I think about is dairy.

So you shouldn’t have been in the bakery business?

I’m not sure I’d say that. But will we be in bakery long-term? I’m not sure. If I had to choose from two potential acquisitions, one in bakery and the other in dairy, our reflex would be to go dairy first. That’s our heritage.

How did your family get in the cheese and dairy business?

My grandfather was a trained cheese maker. He had his own cheese business in Sicily and when he immigrated into Canada, he got any work he could get into. Like most immigrants, it was sort of pick-and-shovel work. It was really my father’s dream to have his father own his own dairy business – to get back to his roots. So my father initiated this push towards dairy. My grandfather was a trained cheese maker, while my dad was the salesman trying to sell his father’s cheese.

Is your company looking to making acquisitions?

Yes, and the reason is that there is a global consolidation push in the dairy industry – that is, if you exclude Canada, which is pretty concentrated right now. We are the dominant player here in cheese and fluid milk although there are small strategic opportunities to acquire things here. But in the U.S., the industry is still very fragmented and there are still opportunities to grow our business there.

We’ve already got 32 to 35 per cent of the cheese market in Canada, and we cover the country. We have about 20 per cent of the fluid milk market. We are a dominant player out West and in the Maritimes, but not in Quebec and Ontario.

You said you’ve been an ‘introverted’ business. Why?

Our primary focus, back to the days of my father and grandfather, has been to keep our house in order, and produce the best cheese at the most competitive price. That focus has allowed us to keep our nose on the grindstone. That platform has allowed us to make acquisitions. We say, as long as we take care of our own home, the opportunities will come.

Is that going to change now?

Not entirely, no. But we understand as a public company we need to have certain disclosure. Shareholders would like to know more about our business, and we have to be aware of that.

***

CORONA, Calif. Three people were arrested and 31 pounds of illegally processed cheese and 13 head of undocumented cattle were seized on Sunday  in the Eastvale area north of Corona, a sheriff’s sergeant said.

Sheriff’s deputies raided a property in the 14800 block of Chandler Street from 7 a.m. to noon, said sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Brown.

The investigation led to another address in Home Gardens, between Corona and Riverside, where deputies seized an additional 124 pounds of cheese, Brown said.

Efigenia Desalez, 44, of Home Gardens; Antonio Desalez Guzman, 59, of
Home Gardens; and Reyes Hernandez Herrera, 39, of Eastvale, were arrested on suspicion of illegally manufacturing dairy products, unlicensed sales of dairy products, unsanitary and impure dairy products, and conspiracy.

Arturo Cisneros, 35, of Eastvale, was arrested on suspicion of methamphetamine possession and being under the influence of narcotics, Brown said.

The raid was part of ongoing effort to crack down on illegal food producers and vendors in Riverside County, Brown said. Some cheese samples seized recently in Riverside County have tested positive for salmonella, he
said.

The ‘Chant – Music of Paradise’ album – which reached the top 10 in Britain – is played over and over again to two and a half tonnes cheese as it matures in cellars at the school in Graz-Altgrottenhof, Austria.

“Cheese matures with the help of micro-organisms which I am sure also feel vibes. The music is very simple and I think that is what helps,” said head teacher Erich Kerngast.

Since serenading their product with the monks’ chants, the school has won a string of prizes for its Grottenhofer Auslese cheese.

“We put in a Dolby Surround hi-fi system worth £1,600 and have been playing the Gregorian chant in there over and over again,” said Mr Kerngast.

Please come back soon as I will be developing a great site, full of great info and entertaining tid-bits. See you soon!