By William S. “Sandy” Kaplan

The Deep South is famous for many things but most people wouldn’t list homemade cheese as one of them. Baldwin County, Alabama located a hop, skip and a jump from the Alabama Gulf Coast is the home of Sweet Home Farm, makers of all natural cheeses.

More accurately, the farm is located 2 miles east of Elberta, about 8 miles from Foley, Alabama. Suffice it to say you have to look for it to find it!

Alyce Birchenough and her husband Doug Wolbert began producing their cheeses in Alabama in 1987. They moved to the South from Michigan to pursue what Alyce says was “a hobby that got out of hand”.

Says Alyce “After receiving my degree in Nutrition we decided to do something involving agriculture that would be a home-based business. Starting with one cow and friends and neighbors asking to buy the cheeses we were making, we decided to start a farmstead home-based cheese business. We moved down to Alabama so we wouldn’t have to fight the northern climate. Cows do best when they’re outside eating grass and they had to spend half the year in the barn in Michigan.”

While most people believe cheese making is more favorable in cooler climates, refrigeration allows cheese makers to create their own climate for aging cheese. Sweet Home Farm cheeses are made with Guernsey cow milk and are aged for a minimum of 60 days per Federal guidelines. However, the longer cheeses are aged, the sharper the cheese. Alyce and Doug milk their herd of 12 cows twice a day, accumulate the milk in a refrigerated tank, and make a batch of cheese every three days. Yearly production is about 10 to 12 thousand pounds a year, with everything sold right at the farm.

While Doug was slicing samples for tasting, Alyce continued, “We make about 16 different kinds of cheeses. I keep pretty good records of which cheeses are selling during the year so I have a pretty good record of when it’s time to replenish our stock. The cheeses taste different during the year, because the milk composition changes during the seasons. Summer milk will be more yellow because of the beta-carotene in the grass. Unlike large processed cheese manufacturers that use additives to maintain consistency of color and taste, we want to accentuate the differences in our cheese. Customers tell us all the time how much more flavor our cheese has and that’s the reason.”

Alyce and Doug grow all of the peppers, garlic and many of the herbs they use in their specialty cheeses. She experiments with different cultures, cooking and aging times and like, small European producers, uses raw cow milk as the basis for more intense flavors.

“Most cheeses get their names from the town where they are produced”, said Alyce. “Elberta cheese is our own recipe, a creamy, buttery, semi-soft cheese that has a tangy milk flavor. People like it very much and it happens to be our best seller. The rule of thumb is that the softer the cheese, the less well it will keep. Generally we tell people not to buy more than they can consume in three weeks. Harder cheeses with tough rinds or wax will last longer however. Darker rinds or black wax will usually signify an aged sharp cheese.”

I must mention a few of the particularly special cheeses I tasted while visiting. The Garlic Blue is a fine Blue Cheese liberally seasoned with fresh garlic—absolutely wonderful! Pepato Asiago is another. It’s a pungent (aged 6 months) Italian variety seasoned with whole and cracked peppercorns and great on fresh pasta. Dagano combines the flavors and textures of Swiss and Gouda, a great snack with wine and fresh fruit. Sorry, you won’t find these cheeses in stores and they’re not shipping out of state. You’ll just have to take a trip to Elberta, Alabama, 2 miles from Foley, south of Interstate 10, right across Mobile Bay and not too far from Gulf Shores. Follow the hand painted signs on the side of the road right to the farm. The cheese factory is in front of the barn, between the pasture and the main house. Good luck.

Sweet Home Farm
27107 Schoen Road
Elberta, Alabama 36530
Tel. 334.986.5663

They’re open from 10AM to 5PM on Wednesday through Saturday only.

Filed Under: Food Talk