Starting this company has been a passion, a labor of love for Reggie Jones. It had been his dream since he began working in the cheese industry in 1991. As a result of his working experience, he believes that Central Coast Creamery has the rare ability to combine the best of science and the art of cheesemaking to bring unique cheeses of exceptional quality to American cheese lovers.
Garden Variety Cheese is a small farmstead cheese business based out of Northern Monterey County on 40-acre Monkeyflower Ranch, who began commercial milking and cheese production in March 2009. Cheesemaker and shepherdess, Rebecca King, brings years of research and work as a chef in an organic bistro in Santa Cruz, California, to achieve her life dream.
Located in Sonoma County California, a herd of 400 Jersey cows provides the milk for Spring Hill Jersey Cheese’s growing line of farmstead cheeses. Smaller than Holsteins (the archetypal black and white cow) which produce a greater quantity yield; the milk of Jersey cows contains a higher butter fat, resulting in an incomparable rich, creamy flavor.
Because of its low quantity yield, the Jersey is no longer common in most commercial dairy operations. Larry Peter began his dairy in 1987, and started producing Spring Hill Jersey Cheese in 1998. The homestead, artisan cheese produced by Spring Hill is made entirely from the milk of pasture-grazed Jersey cows. The difference in taste is staggering.
All Spring Hill cheeses are produced with pasteurized milk. The fresh cheeses are aged from 3-5 weeks, the Jacks 3-6 months, and the Cheddars 1-3 years.
As a child in Vietnam, Minh often took a morning stroll with his grandpa to the neighborhood tofu shack. The freshness and artisan-quality of the soymilk, tofu and yuba of his childhood eluded Minh for many years after he moved to the U.S.. Finally, in 2004, he founded Hodo Soy with the simple mission of crafting the highest quality, best-tasting, freshest soymilk, tofu, and yuba (tofu skins) possible.
From their website: “At Hodo Soy, our mission is to craft the highest quality tofu and create innovative and delicious tofu-based artisan foods that will forever change the way you know tofu. Our hand-crafted tofu is made from organic, non-GMO, US-grown, whole soybeans. Hodo tofu reflects, in both taste and nutrition, the high quality ingredients we use.”
Mountain View Jerseys is the ranch for Valley Ford Cheese. The ranch’s history includes over one hundred years of dairying family tradition in Marin and Sonoma Counties. Paul Bianchi and his two children, Karen Bianchi-Moreda and Steve Bianchi, are the fifth generation of the family who currently own and operate Mountain View Jerseys.
Karen and Steve knows are very proud of their heritage as dairy farmers, and pleased to be creating brand new cheeses based on the traditional methods of cheesemaking that their ancestors used many years ago. The farmstead cheese comes from a “closed” herd (500+ Jersey cows, milked daily) that is dedicated to top quality health and nutrition programs.