From the President -
Holy Sheep Cheese! Yes, it was a great day and I'd like to share a few highlights.
The first one is all of the sheep milk cheese that was there. No, I'm not sure of these numbers, so I am guessing a little bit. Landmark Creamery had half a dozen cheese, Shepherd's Way had eight or so cheeses, Brenda has eight, Cedar Grove had four or five, Carr Valley had at least six that were all sheep milk or mixed milk, the SDAW had eight cheese along with ice cream, bottled milk, soap and lotion! I am thinking that 1/4 of the cheese that was there were all or at least half sheep milk. That is huge and we all should be very proud!
The few comments I heard that day were all very positive. I had one man say, "It's great to see all of the great sheep milk cheeses coming from Wisconsin - It's about time they do something other than cows." A woman on Facebook had a list of her favorite tables at the event, and the SDAW table was on it! And the best comment I heard came from Benda Jensen - Not once the whole day did someone say to her, "Oh, you can milk sheep?!" WOW. That is huge. Sheep milk is finally starting to be recognized by the consumer.
What a great day, and as Laurel has stated, "Let's keep the momentum going!" I encourage all producers and processors to get involved with their county's dairy breakfasts coming up in June.
Thank you,
Brian Michielson