Smile when you say that . . .
By
Fran Alt
Stop at an Alabama welcome center and you are likely to come across a brochure for Sweet Home Farm - all natural cheese. The brochure reads: "We personally perform all steps of dairying from the growing of the feed to the custom cutting of the cheese for our patrons." This leaflet leads many visitors to Doug Wolbert and Alyce Birchenough farmstead off Highway 98 in Elberta, Alabama.
The cheese farm, a dream that the coupe shared even before they married, plays host to visitors from throughout the world. No mean trick since the farm is set way back from the highway and necessitates visitors navigate a series of dirt roads before gaining entrance to Sweet Home Farm.
Married 21 years, the couple began dairy farming in Michigan. Neither Doug nor Alyce was raised on a farm - it was just something they wanted to do. Alyce's grandfather had been a dairyman, and Doug's grandfather - a cheesemaker. The dream just fell into place.
In the beginning Doug worked at another farm and was paid in hay. The hay helped the couple maintain their own small dairy. Gradually things improved but Doug and Alyce wanted more - a warmer climate. Decisions were made to move south - lock, STOCK and Cheese barrel
It took almost a year of traveling back and forth to get everything situated. Every few weeks Doug loaded a flatbed truck with farm equipment, supplies and animals and headed South. "I moved everything in bits and pieces. I'd drive down here; stay about three weeks, getting things right. Then, I'd go back home for a few weeks and do it again. We lived like that for a whole year!" Doug said. Then he smiled and added, "Alyce worked the dairy; someone had to stay back and milk the cows."
That was 15 years ago.
Today, Alyce says they make a living milking 12 Guernseys for their cheese business. "This is an unusual situation but it works for us. We always wanted to make cheese. That was one of our intentions when we started the dairy. We shipped milk for a couple of years, until we got a cash flow, then got our license in 1987 and have been going strong ever since."
Everything for the cheese business is contained in a 22' x 54' building. In the back is the milking parlor, followed by the milk room. Next is the "make" room (where the cheese is made), which is followed by a lab. There is a walk-in cooler for the cheese (a cheese aging room), and finally the front area of the building is the store where they sell their finished product. This room takes on the flavor of a Swiss chalet; a look that Alyce and Doug call "recycled architecture."
The 12 Guernseys supply enough milk for the cheese business. Doug says Guernseys have the proper mixture of milk solids to fat for their cheesemaking. "Holsteins are low in solids and Jerseys too rich on the cream. We do have Jersey in our herd and we use her to make yogurt for our personal use."
The sixty acre farm, a pasture based operation, is home to a total of 29 dairy animals. Seventeen beef cattle graze on 20 acres. There is a wooded area and the rest of land is used for the dairy animals and growing feed. The animals graze year round.
Hay varieties include clovers and puna-chicory. Doug uses a variety of clovers and also uses rye in winter. "I like arrow leaf clover because it's a very tall grower and good for grazing. I've had it up to two feet tall. Clovers are also used as part of my fertilizer base. I fertilize with poultry litter. Clovers like phosphorous, so by growing clover I'm utilizing the excess phosphorus."
Doug supplements the summer grazing with peanut hay. He said that after the peanut plants are pulled, the plants left behind are dried and rolled for hay. This mature peanut hay has peanuts in it. It's coarse and dirty but has excellent protein content.
"In fact, I feed it during the summer, because summer grasses are coarser and the cows don't eat as much. I boost up their grazing with peanut hay. The only problem with peanut hay is that it has to be kept under cover, or it gets moldy."
Originally Doug and Alyce planned on a mail-order cheese business, but as fate would have it they put a sign out on the highway and the business "just took off". Soon folks who shopped along the highway began talking about the farm cheese and the couple had all the business they could handle.
"There are lots of produce farm-stands in this area. People come shopping for produce and get the cheese last," Alyce said.
They make many varieties, up to 28, including familiar names like romano, feta, and gouda and exotic cheeses like fudge, garlic-blue or pepato asiago.
Alyce provided a quick run down on cheese making process: First the milk is heated, and culture (buttermilk or yogurt) is added. Next they add a coagulant - rennet. This makes it firm enough to cut. The mixture is heated and stirred to separate the whey, then it is salted and the curds are packed into molds. (Seven to 24 hours depending on the type of cheese.) The cheese is aged for a minimum of 60 days.
"It was hard to find equipment for the scale that we do. Out vat is only 200 gallons, and we have a 39- gallon pasteurizer for fresh products," Alyce said. "It's our living - making cheese. Our big plus is that we were able to direct market. We sell everything that we make at the farm.
"We don't' want to get any bigger not with beef or cheese. Our customers are very special. We are not on a main highway here; we are down a dirt road, yet our customer base is from all over."
Alyce and Doug say they'd have to increase their volume to do a wholesale business, and they are happy the way things are.
The couple's hobby is a small garden that is also their food base - vegetables herbs and fruit trees.
Doug also loves antique trucks and has a 1930 Ford Model A roadster (an open truck), and a Model A 1929 Ford, hand cranked dump truck that he still uses regularly. The 1929 truck is NOT restored, but a working farm vehicle with nine gears (a factory option). In first gear the truck goes so slow a farmer can walk in the fields while the truck moves alongside him. On the highway it can move fifty miles an hour!
He also has a 1964 International tractor that he uses for haying.