As Allison and I venture into cheese making, we keep discovering that we are not following the path most industrialized dairy farmers do. We are keeping our herd small so we can provide the best care for our goats. We spend the extra money to buy organic feed for them. We allow them to browse and roam freely every day, and we use their fresh milk to create our own cultures for cheese. We can see the rationale of the other side: it’s easier to keep animals in fields or tethered in barns than to provide natural habitat, it’s cheaper to provide regular feed and supplements than organic, and freeze-dried cultures are cheaper and less sensitive than fresh. But, the grocery store shows that these practices do not produce the flavor and nutritional quality we think is superior and worth insisting upon. It seems that when cheese is done on a large scale (aka “Big Cheese”) science and engineering takes the lead, things get streamlined and cut out, and what is left is a product that is acceptable to the masses and maximizes the bottom line for the shareholders.
We believe small scale, “Little Cheese” is the only way now to get the flavor and nutrition that our ancestors enjoyed. So, we are revolting against the temptation to go the Big Cheese way and are happy to be Little Cheese in the region we were born and raised. Some things are just better done little!
Coincidently, as Allison and I have shifted our direction in life, we feel now like Little Cheeses and are thrilled to be so. We were Big Cheeses of sorts, with a corner office in mainstream materialism, but we were lacking passions and connections. So we moved to a small-time lifestyle, where we can focus in a way that works for us on relationships, love, and nature. In this Little Cheese Revolution, we celebrate everyone who lets nothing stand in the way of following the path of their heart’s passion, whatever it may be.
Viva Little Cheese!
-Nick