HARLAN RIDGE
A raw, cave-aged, semi-firm, farmstead sheep’s milk cheese Inspired by the sheep’s milk cheeses of the French and Spanish Pyrenees.
this cheese dresses for the occasion.
At Red Fork Farmstead we produce broadly appealing, completely unique, raw sheep’s milk cheese on our historic family ranch in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming.
We are a Farmstead operation, meaning we own every aspect of production from end to end: sheep to cheese, which assures the very best quality of milk and cheese. The milk we use to make our cheese is produced by our sheep on our land. This guarantees the finest milk quality that reflects Wyoming.
We are trained artisan cheesemakers. We attended Academie Opus Caseus at the headquarters of MonS Fromager-Affineur in St. Haon le Chatel, France. We also attended the Fundamentals of Artisan Cheese at the School of the New American Farmstead, as well as Affinage: The Art and Science of Maturing Cheese at Sterling College. We received hands-on training from world-renowned master cheesemaker Ivan Larcher at his creamery in France. We developed our recipe for Harlan Ridge in collaboration with Larcher. We began our initial cheesemaking trials in late 2018 and, by April 2019, we knew we had a winner - the perfect recipe for our terroir (our natural environment including soil, climate, elevation, as well as our water and feed). And soon, we hope you’ll begin to see it in stores near you.
We have state-of-the-art facilities. For the design of our underground cave affinage, we consulted with Eric Meredith, a master Affineur on a truly global level. Meredith had a hand in designing the affinage caves and programs for Neal's Yard Dairy in London, MonS Fromager-Affineur in France, and Jasper Hill in Vermont. Our affinage cave provides the perfect balance of temperature and humidity for the maturation of our cheese.
We have big plans. As we increase our flock size, we will produce a wide variety of sheep’s milk cheeses -- both raw and pasteurized -- that reflect and celebrate our unique terroir.
And why cheese, you ask? Cheese has always been our go-to snack and it's always been a staple at family get-togethers. Cheese is rich in healthy nutrients, probiotics, calcium, and protein. All the health benefits of milk are in our cheese. It’s just that cheese is way more delicious and fun to eat than milk is to drink.