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EDIBLE STATESTORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY PATTIE BAKER

THE ACCIDENTALCHEESE AAAKERS

Tlirst, meet rhe boy:Jeremy Litde, who grew up in Toledo,.F Onto. An only .niti, *irl parents *ho-diuo...d when hewas 10, Jeremy lived in various places and never really had a placeto call home. He majored in psychology at Florida State becausehe didn't know what else to do, and somehow discovered alongthe way that he loved to cook, to nourish, and to create an envi-ronmnt for comfort.

Then, meet the girl: Jessica \7einer, who was from a fam-ily farm just outside a small South Georgia town with gabledVictorian homes, an old-fashioned Main Street, and a sprawlinglive oak still standing from before the Civil W'ar. Jessica went toa college in Florida on a basketball scholarship and majored inbusiness and marketing. She always wanted adventure-to livein the city, to see the world, and to ffy something very differentfrom the farm life she knew.

The city boy with no roots and the country girl who wantedadventure met while they were both in Florida. They fell in lovealmost instantly, as people from completely different lives tend todo. And that's where such stories, including this one, often takea dramatic turn,THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOMEYou can't tell the story of Jeremy and Jessica without knowingabout Al and Desiree \7einer, Jessicat Parents. A1 and Desireeown Green Hill Dairy, a33}-acreNew Zealand-style rotational-grazingcow dairy farm, in Qitman, Georgia, 15 miles from theFlorida state line. After Desiree experimented with cheese-mak-ing and found that she loved it, the \Teiners started a goat farmcalled Sweet Grass Dairy. The 14O-acre farm, located in Thomas-ville, sits amid live oak trees and tall Georgia pines' Desiree soldthe cheeses she made from the cow and goatt milk in a little shopon the farm.After he and Jessica met, Jeremy began coming up fromFlorida a couple of days a week to help Al with odd lobs at SweetGrass Dairy-finishing the house, building the dairy operation,and mending fences. Desiree remembers those times, howJeremyand Big Al, as they call him, used to sit under an old shade treeafter a day of work and just talk. Little did they know thatJeremywas starting his journey home.But the journey would take some time. Both Jeremy andJessica wanted to work in the food industry, and the sirent call

Jeremy andJrsiu Littlelured them to the city. They moved to Atlanta, where Jessica ga job at Star Provisions and then on the opening team at Jodl rtaurant. Jeremy got the job he describes as "the beginning of tend" of his mainstream corporate restaurant career."I was an assistant kitchen manager at \Tinston GroManagement Company," Jeremy explains, no hint of self-prclaimed shyness in his voice. "I had a staff of twenty to thirkitchen employees. I was commuting an hour each way aworking a fifty-five-hour work week. And I was miserable. Whamore, Jessica got home from work right about when I was reato leave so we were hardly seeing each other."

A dinner at Seeger's restaurant was a turning point, as dinneat fancy restaurants can be. Jeremy and Jessica knew that nigfor sure, that they wanted to build a life together, but they didknow just how to go about it. One day shortly after becomiengaged to be married, Jeremy calledJessica from work and toher he couldn't take his job anymore. Thatt when Desiree steppin and askedJeremy, a man who knew nothing about farmingman whom she hadn't known for very long but who was soonbecome her son-in-law, if he wanted to become a cheese-make

And he did.MnKs LEAP TowARD IMMoRTALITYIn the 6ve years since Desiree invited Jeremy to try his handcheese-making, he has fallen in love with a tradition as oldthe hills. Cheese, they say, is milkt leap toward immortalityway to preserve the goodness of milk. Jeremy has learned thand more. He speaks knowledgeably about how one achievecompletely different result through subtle techniques suchvarying temperatures, timing the addition of ingredients, or ajusting the length of aging.

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The goats, pure white Nubians and toggled Alpines, earless La Manchas and fringed-spineSaanens, frolic on 6eids of summer oats and sunflorvers and run to visitors like fans fockingaround the Beatles. They are friendly, gentle, and curious as they nibble tenderly on shirtsand sleeves and shoelace s, nuzzle against warm bodies, and look trustingly in vour eyes. Theyhave no reason to fear, having lived their whole lives in woods and 6e1ds and pastures rvheretheir every need is mer. Rorating every few days around lush green fields, these goats subsisralmosr entirely on the sweet grasses that make the name Sr.veet Grass Dairy a no-brainer.

They line up at milking time like children queuing for a ride at Disney \forld, waitingtheir turn semi-patiently, knowing the routine, nudging their way forward when the next setof eight goats gets ics turn at a small portion of grain.

Their milk (as well as rhar from Green Hill Dairyt cor.vs) is piped from holding tanksto large vats in the cheese-making room, where it is heated to specific temperatures andcombined ar precise times with salt, rennet, and a select culture. Next, it is hand-ladled intoIarge wheels, or molds in various shapes such as pyramids or hearts, and moved to specificremperarure- and humidity-controlled rooms, depending on the desired outcome for thefinal cheese.

Rooms for aging surround the central cheese-making room. Numbered one to five, theyare scrikingly like the secrer doors on a game shour Behind each door, you'll find similarfloor-ro-ceiling racks of enormous round cheeses, their ever-growing bloomy rinds in variousstages of completion. Other rooms house fresh cheeses, the last of their whey dripping ofiand curds destined to become semi-

ripened cheeses. tWhen each cheese isready (fresh, serni-ripened, or aged), itgoes to the packaging room for properwrapping and Srveet Grass Dairytelegant green label.

Sweet Grass Dairy's cheese selectiongrew to include at least 15 varieties.Specialty retailers and restaurants inThomasville, Tallahassee, and Atlantastarted carrying the cheeses, buildinga loyal customer base. And the au.ardspiled up at the American CheeseSociety's annual competitions' goldmedals for the Thomasville Tomme,the Georgia Gouda, the Clayburne,and the Lumiere, with many second-and third-place winners as u'ell. Theseawards introduced Sweet Grass Dairyto more chefs and consumers andhelped secure deals with major dis-tributors."I would have kept it smalli'explained Desiree, "but Jeremy andJessica had different backgrounds thanI, different strengths, different plans."She condnued, "I didnt start SweetGrass with the intencion of selling it tothe kids. But it just seemed so right."

Jeremy, once reluctant to try things,now embraced the challenge of growth.

The. cheeses can be purchased ,on farm at:Sweet:Grass Dairy19635 US Hwy. l9NThomasville, GA31792(229) 227-0752www.sweetgrassd airy.comOcher,placestopurchasei , , :, , :: , :,:: ,Whsle Foods/Flarry's MarketsFor exact locarions of Adanta areWhol. Foods Markets visit:wwwwholefoodsmarket.com/stolist-GA.hml

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Stai Provisions1198 Howell Mill Road, Suire 1Atlanta, GA 30318(404) 365-0410 #r34wwwstarprovisions.comAlons Bakery ,' , i1394 N. Highland Ave.Atlinta, GA 30306(404)872-6000 Ext. 1lwww.alons.comN"t.rr"llyG"orgia ' -6579tlighway 12East ,'. i,Murralrrille, GA 3O56;4', "'''(866) 907-9320www.naturallyge orgia.com

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"I realized my job was just nor ro screw things up," he explained."I wanted to create not just a grear, high-quality product frombeginning to end but a great place ro work as well, where we allfeel a responsibility as parr of the process."

Jessica, the marketing and sales part of the te am, srrengrhenedrelationships with chefs, not just in Atlanta but in San Francisco,\Tashington, D.C., and other major cides. She helped expandSweet Grass Dairyt cheese disrribution to 15 states from coastto coast. She connected with cheese-makers throughour thecountry, and advocated for Georgia's growth as a fertile haven forfarmsread cheese-making.Over time, Jeremy shifted rhe cheese-making focus fromexperimentation to consistency, reducing the number ofavailable cheeses to eight. The four goat's milk cheeses are rhetangy Fresh Chevre; the ash-dusred heart-shaped Lumiere ; thenutty, sweet Holly Springs; and the Georgia Pecan Chevre, asemi-ripened cheese with an organic pecan crusr rhar screams, asthey say in the wine world, terroir.

Sweet Grass also produces four creamy yellow cheeses usingmilk from Green Hill Dairy's grass-fed cow's: the brielike GreenHill, a semi-ripened, double cream cheese; the cheddar-styleThomasville Tomme; the rart-and-tangy Georgia Gouda, whichfades to a sweet, smooth finish; and the inrensely-flavored Myr-

tlewood, an aged cheese wrapped in the glossy green leaves of tnative wax myrde shrub, a plant the corvs ear like candy.

Several of the dairy's cheeses are available only "in seasosince the goats take abour a rwo-monrh milking break each yeOther cheeses are somerimes available, like rhe smaller-batClayburne (grear for nachosl); the special-edition Mediteranean feta, studded wirh olives and sun-dried romatoes; aothers that appear simply because sometimes the need to expement grows too great.

These days, rrucks pull up frequently to whisk che e ses offanxiously waiting chefs and retail locations both in the regioand around the country. Xfith all this bustle and rrvo children raise,Jeremy andJessica have rheir hands full. k is easy ro see rhcheese-making is a labor of love for them. As our conversariocomes to a close, Jeremy pauses while hand-turning one of thhundreds of buttery Green Hill cheeses thar Sweer Grass Daiproduces each week."I never considered myself an enrrepreneurj' he sa,vs. "Thlast five years have been a rollercoaster, but now I'm not afraof things I used to fear, To me, my reladonship with Jessica hbeen adventure and roots all in one. And I norv understand whfamily really is."

Rollercoaster ? The goars are already lining up. trr

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