Double Raven Farm
I live on a 20 acre mountain farm above West Point, California in the lower Sierras at 3800 ft. elevation, surrounded by forest and river canyons.
I have always loved cheese and cows for as long as I can remember. I was born in Switzerland, so, I believe a love of cheese is in my blood.
My mom moved my brother and I to California when I was six, but I travel back to the homeland regularly to visit family, and through these visits I became intrigued with how cheeses are made specific to the regions and seasons.
I didn’t grow up in a farming or rural setting with my parents – I was born in Zürich and lived there on the outer part of the city. When we moved to California, we lived on the central coast. But both my grandmas had big gardens and fruit trees and my grandpa had horses for as long as I can remember.
My fondest memories of my grandparents include helping in the gardens, picking raspberries from hedges taller than me, making jams, feeding the chickens and helping with the horses. And their neighbors had cows, which I always wanted to visit with. All the photos of my vacation trips with my dad into the mountains feature a version of this picture:
After finishing college in Salinas with my animal health degree and veterinary technician licensing, I moved away from the coast to live with friends in the lower Sierra foothills for a year, training horses on their ranch, and getting hooked on the rural lifestyle. I packed up my truck and my horses and headed up the mountain to West Point, where I lived along the river and started dreaming of a place of my own.
About 8 years ago, 2 friends of mine were managing the community garden in West Point and got me started volunteering there. At the time, the property I lived on was forested with a limited sunny area to grow vegetables, so the garden up in town was a great place to spend time and learn more about growing vegetables. That led to learning about canning and food preserving.
When I moved here to the farm 4 years ago, I started a big garden and planted more fruit trees to go along with the ones already here, which are mostly apples and pears and one peach tree. Every summer and fall, I put up jars of tomatoes, spiced pears, applesauce and pickled peppers, as well as jams from the blueberries and the blackberries that grow wild along the creek, and any other fruit I can get my hands on.
I still spend some of my time at the community garden, mainly in the late winter/spring to organize the seed/plant starting for our annual Mother’s Day plant sale, as well as to help with planting the main garden. The proceeds from the sale help to fund the garden’s expenses and we have a great team of volunteers growing produce for use in the twice weekly free dinners at the youth center which is operated by the local non-profit Blue Mountain Coalition for Youth and Families, of which I am a board member.
I tend an acre of organic blueberries and run the season as a U-Pick from mid June to mid August.
I also keep a flock of chickens and share the farm with 2 horses, a Jersey milk cow and her growing calf and Lobo, an Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees guardian dog who watches the farm.
I’ve been working as a veterinary technician for just over 15 years, with a special interest over the last 5 years in assisting with orthopedic surgeries.
A few years ago, I got interested in the idea of keeping a cow and learning to make cheese. At the time, it was a daydream, but it grew into my reality when I brought a matronly Jersey cow, Ginger, home to the farm this last June, and she gave birth to a sweet heifer calf 2 weeks later. I’m hoping to raise Summer to be another milk cow as she is sweet and friendly.
Before getting the cows, I had been making my own yogurt with store bought milk for years, and now with Ginger’s raw milk I have begun making and experimenting with different cheeses.
I started with yogurt and mozzarella and ricotta, then moved on to Farmhouse Cheddars, Feta, Monterey Jack, Camembert, Tilsiter, and Ricotta Salata.
With Ginger giving me over a gallon of milk per day (her calf nurses during the day, then I separate them overnight and milk in the morning), there’s plenty of room to experiment. I’m feeling confident in my Feta and now the Camembert, and hope to learn to make a semi-hard slicing cheese and an aged grating one also.
A few of my cheeses are still aging and a few I tried recently: the Farmhouse Cheddar (tasty with an unexpectedly crumbly texture but a thick hard rind), the Monterey Jack (flavor was off, I’m guessing because the rind cracked in the drying period), and the Camemberts which are delicious and so I’ve been sharing them with friends and making them weekly!
I’m learning from Home Cheese Making and David Asher’s The Art of Natural Cheesemaking, which uses kefir in place of starter cultures – especially tasty with the feta. I apply the learn-as-I-go attitude with most projects (growing blueberries, gardening, livestock) so it seemed natural to get some cheese making supplies and give it a go. It’s definitely not foolproof and I would love to find some local instruction, but so far I haven’t found any classes within the greater Sacramento area.
Right now, I’m trying to think up a way to keep the humidity at an even point in my cheese cave fridge. The Camemberts are easy to keep under a plastic cover for humidity control, but so far my aged cheeses are drying out and either cracking or getting a really hard thick rind on them.
I’m excited to start tasting some of my aged cheeses and to continue this journey! Thanks for this opportunity to get my story out there!
Betsy Smith-Lipska says
Hello Sarah……….. my father found your name and as you are close to where I live, asked me to contact you. My name is Betsy (Berweger) Smith Lipska and live in Pioneer….previously lived in West Point for over years. My father and grandfather were cheese makers from Minnesota. My parents moved to California in the mid s to open a cheese mart. My father is Jerry (Jerome) Berweger. His family came from Switzerland. You sound about the ages of my children. If you would like to get together and compare notes, you can find me on Facebook or email at betsybann@aolcom. Most Berwegers we have found in US have been somehow related. Hope to hear from you soon. My daughter is even closer to you for now….but moving soon. Betsy
Debby says
Hi, I’m interested in your comment about crumbly cheese (chedder) I’ve had the same problem. Could anyone comment about the cause and fix for this. I want to be able to make a moist sliceable cheese but have failed .
Jeri Case says
You can always ask our technical advisor, Jim Wallace about any difficulties you are having. He’s always available at jim@cheesemaking.com
Lynn Keay says
Debby, I think crumbly cheddar is caused by over acidification (too low pH) which dries the curds too much. Timing and temperature parameters in the recipe need to be closely followed if you don’t measure pH. You could try pH strips if you don’t use a meter.
thank you I didn’t realize that the ph would do that. maybe a meter is the next purchase
Cheddar isn’t advanced but I only get it right half the time because my timing gets off. Don’t feel bad! 😊 I don’t have a meter as it’s a bit pricey and can be finicky to use. I just started using pH strips I picked up at the local beer making supply store. Will see how that goes. Good luck to you!
Is that a compressor or thermoelectric fridge? My wine fridge (thermoelectric) has the opposite problem, the humidity in it is often around 90% RH and I have to frequently open the door and fan some dryer air into it (my basement is currently around 55 degrees with 35% RH). *Maybe* uncovering more of your cheese will help increase the humidity as they are all letting off moisture as they age.
I also bought some 1/2″ x 6″ x 4′ (poplar) boards and cut them to the width of the fridge. Then I took a dremel tool to narrow the edge down to fit in the slots where the wine racks were. Two boards side by side fit perfectly into each slot.
Hi David, it’s a thermoelectric wine fridge. Interesting that yours has the opposite issue with the high humidity…sounds like your basement is at a perfect temp! I’m not sure about uncovering the other cheeses because they are all ones that need 90-95% humidity and I’m not sure if it might dry them out..? So many parts to the mysteries of cave aging! When you put in the boards as shelves – do they have slots to allow for airflow or are they solid? And do you place the cheeses directly on the boards or use mats underneath them? I had planned to put in wooden shelves when I got the fridge but I got distracted and that fell off the priority list 🙂
I have the boards touching each other with no airflow in between the two boards that make up one shelf. I started off using bamboo reed mats under the cheese, but then needed those when I started my next batch of cheese as they were drying out; the aging cheese has been sitting directly on the boards since then.
In my opinion (I’m new to cheese making, so take this with a grain of salt) is that the plastic mats don’t allow for any better airflow than sitting directly on a board. There are little pockets of air in each of the squares of the mat, but it’s just a pocket and doesn’t allow air flow any better than sitting on the board. A mat would help though if the cheese is particularly moist (or leaking), any drips could get down to the shelf and the cheese wouldn’t be sitting in a pool of whey. Then again, when using wood shelves, hopefully the wood will absorb any extra moisture (and release it later if the aging space lowers in RH).
When I first got the wine fridge and only had one cheese in there, I put in a short glass of salt water with a sponge sitting in the water to add humidity. The next cheese needed more humidity so I got a glass cake cover that I was going to put over top the second cheese, but by the time I finally got around to getting it, the humidity was already up to 80%. The cover has been sitting next to the fridge since. I also periodically wipe down the boards with salt water to help remove the mold that sticks to the boards.
My basement is only that temp because it’s winter right now. Come summer it’ll be around 65 down there, and the humidity will go to about 50-55%.
Hi Sarah, I’m very impressed with your homesteading success and extremely jealous of your hardworking but rewarding lifestyle. I live in the SF Bay Area and I’ve taken classes at several local schools.
Do you know Sacha Laurin? She’s the cheesemaker at Winters Cheese Co and she lives in Davis. I’ve taken a couple of classes from her through the SF Cheese School. Below is her bio. You could contact her through her website, Kombucha Culture. One of her side businesses is designing and making couture clothing and jewelry from SCOBY (!) and her pieces have been featured in some very high profile fashion shows. Originally from Australia and further trained in cheesemaking in the Brie region of France, Sacha is a very experienced cheesemaker, a popular cheesemaking instructor and happens to be extremely nice and approachable. Here is a link about her: https://sac.coop/instructor-bios/
Susan, thank you for the info, I will look into finding out about her classes. The Scoby clothing sounds intriguing! – Sarah
I got great inspiration from your learn-as-you-go attitude. I would love to have a couple cows, too, but have always been intimidated about “going for it.” Thanks for sharing your story. (Also, the addition of the map of California was really helpful so we could where you are based — great idea.).
Lynn, I have been inspired by so many people along my journey and I’m glad to hear that I may inspire others with my story! I say if you’d love to have a cow then find a way to go for it! There are a few major things to consider beforehand, like housing and feeding and time for milking and care, but there are plenty of books and online resources to help you figure your way through all that. For me, finding out that I could calf share and milk only once a day was what sealed the deal! Hope this may be the push you need. If you can figure it out, it’s incredibly rewarding! Hope to hear how it goes… – Sarah
Great story, Sarah! Your “can do” spirit is inspiring. I’ve lived in Sacramento nearly my whole life and never heard about West Point. I’d love to visit and am very interested in “You Pick” blueberries this summer. I am happy to share my cheesemaking knowledge and experience with you if you’d like to contact me (check out my story on the 12/26/19 blog). You are well on your way! Your cows are adorable and your canned up food looks great. Nice work!
Hi Lynn, thank you for the kind words. Yes I responded to your story with the info on the Placerville herdshare! Most people haven’t heard of West Point because it’s a small mountain town that’s not on the way to anywhere else 🙂 I’d love to have you up for a visit and will gladly take you up on some cheese collaboration!
Great story and I love pictures of your farm , especially your sweet cows. I am looking out the window at 3 feet of snow and spring is still a couple of months away.
I have been making aged cheeses for about 2 years now and given my tiny home spaces my cave is a wine cooler like yours. I had trouble balancing the differing needs of my cheeses too ( RH wise ) so once they have developed a bit of rind I vacuum seal them for the rest of their aging which controls that nicely.
Thank you, Barb, it is all a work in progress and I’m happy to share it. Usually in Feb we would have plenty of winter weather, but this one has been sunny and all the plant life is waking up already…
I have read some about vacuum sealing but haven’t tried it. Maybe it’s time for that. Thanks for the suggestion.
I grew up in Sacramento, so I’m quite familiar with the general area your in. I’ll tell you if California had the population of Montana I’d live there in a heartbeat. At least you’ve found a piece of California paradise. I wish more people could take the time to create something of thier own. Be it bread making, gardening, canning, cheeses, or one of my favorites…beer making. I think the world would be a better place, at least more enjoyable! You and people like you are what makes America shuch a wonderful place.
Hi Donald, thank you for the kind response to my story. I’m truly blessed to live in this quiet corner of the mountains and try to live each day to the fullest. The act of creating – anything really, but especially food – is to live a life of meaning and joy. I tried my hand at homebrew a few years ago, but realized it wasn’t my thing and a friend of mine is far better at it! The great thing about cheesemaking is that you don’t have to have your own cow, but I’d think you could find someone in your neck of the woods who does and offer to help out in return for milk? The Tilsiter seems intimidating at first with the different washes, but it’s so worth it, just give it a go! Wishing you all the best as we both continue on this journey, Sarah
Such beautiful cows! I love this young woman’s can-do attitude. Great story!
Thank you, Dalyn, these kind words from you and others have touched me deeply.
– Sarah
What a wonderful story. I’ve just recently started making cheese, unfortunately I don’t have my own cow. Your cheeses look fantastic I wanted to slice off a piece of your tilsiter. Enjoy your journey it’s a wonderful experience.