With the farmers’ markets back in swing, if you’re lucky, there may be a fresh goat cheesemaker selling their wares near you. For those who may not have been properly introduced to this flavorful, distinct type of cheese, consider this a personal welcome from Dreamfarm.
Diana Kalscheur Murphy is a goat cheesemaker from the rolling green hills of southwest Wisconsin, basing her business on her farm, aptly named “Dreamfarm.” “The Dreamfarm name came before the whole cheesemaking business,” explains Murphy. “My family and I always wanted to live on a farm and when we found this place, we realized we were living our dream.”
Starting with a few goats for fun, Murphy ended up with extra milk and started experimenting with making goats cheese. “My friends gave me rave reviews and encouraged me to start producing cheese for sale,” adds Murphy.
Today she makes a range of fresh goat cheeses, selling both to members of a local CSA and at farmers’ markets. “I love having the opportunity at the market to directly meet the people who will ear my cheese,” sums up Murphy. “To connect with the people who support what you’re passionate about, to have folks return week after week and share how much they enjoy your cheese, makes all the hard word rewarding.
Part of Murphy’s role at the market is to help educate folks new to cooking with goat cheese. “Cooking with goat cheese can take you where ever your imagination leads,” she says with a smile. Still, here are some tips she offers that you may not have thought of:
* Add it to scrambled eggs.
* Stir it into cornmeal.
* Saute some onions and combine with goat cheese and dried tomatoes for a bread spread.
* Melted in combination with other cheeses, like her favorite recipe below, Black Bean & Goat Cheese Tortas:
Black Bean & Goat Cheese Tortas
2 cans drained black beans
3 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. fresh ground pepper (or to taste)
15 large tortillas
3 cups white cheddar cheese or Monterey jack cheese, shredded
12 ounces goat cheese
Olive oil
Chili powder
1 cup salsa
Place beans, cumin and pepper into food processor and process until smooth. Add goat cheese and salsa and blend just until mixed in. Arrange 5 tortillas on your work surface. Spread a layer of bean puree and shredded cheese on 4 tortillas. Stack the tortillas, pressing down on each layer gently, then top with the 5th tortilla. Repeat this process for each “torta”. Brush tops with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with chili powder. Bake at 475 degrees for about 5 minutes until tops are browned and crisp. Cut into wedge and serve with additional salsa.
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Lisa Kivirist
Lisa Kivirist embodies the growing “ecopreneuring” movement: innovative entrepreneurs who successfully blend business with making the world a better place. Lisa is co-author, with her husband, John Ivanko, of Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life, capturing the American dream of farm living for contemporary times. Her latest release, ECOpreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits is a compact, dynamic tool kit for a fresh approach to entrepreneurial thinking, blending passion for protecting and preserving the planet with small business pragmatics. As a W.K. Kellogg Food & Society Policy Fellow and Director of the Rural Women's Project, Lisa champions a voice for women farmers and rural ecopreneurs through media, speaking and advocacy work. Lisa runs the award-winning Inn Serendipity Bed and Breakfast in southwest Wisconsin, completely powered by renewable energy and considered amongst the “Top Ten Eco-Destinations in North America.” Her culinary focus on local and seasonal cuisine – with most ingredients traveling less than 100 feet from her organic gardens to B&B plates – earned recognition in publications from Vegetarian Times to Country Woman and inspired her cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity. In addition to feature writing for publications such as Hobby Farm Home, Mother Earth News and Wisconsin Trails, Lisa is the lead writer for Renewing the Countryside, a non-profit organization showcasing rural entrepreneurial and agricultural success stories. Lisa also penned Kiss Off Corporate America: A Young Professional’s Guide to Independence. Lisa shares her farm with her husband, their young son, a 10kw wind turbine and a colony of honeybees.
2 Responses to Tips from the Cheesemaker: Fresh Approaches to Goat Cheese
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What a pleasure it was to read about Dream Farm. I grew up about 2 miles away from there, and I suspect that we are shirttail relations. How nice to see family farms continuing in that beautiful area.
I could eat goat cheese every single day of my life. I love it in omelets with red bell peppers and smoked trout….swoon.
Here is a link to one of my most-requested recipes for chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and rosemary. It’s the simplest thing in the world, and SO good!
From Bon Appétit, 1995 (and that’s how long I’ve been making it):
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Breasts-with-Goat-Cheese-and-Rosemary-967