Kootenay Alpine Cheese Made in the Old Fashioned Tradition May Have You Yodeling in the Kootenays

By Pamela Irving

 

 

 

 

 

 

These Alpine raw organic cheeses are so good you can taste the crisp mountain air in every bite and may even find yourself yodeling out loud! Made on-farm at the Kootenay Alpine Cheese Company nestled in the shadow of the Skimmerhorn Mountains, the cheeses are handcrafted using traditional methods.

The cheeses fetch a broad range of clients, as far west as fine cheese stores like Les Amis du Fromage and farmers markets in Vancouver, to local farmers markets, restaurants, retail and the on-farm shop, to their newest markets east like Planet Organic in Calgary.

Denise and Wayne Harris bought the dairy farm near Creston 15 years ago when Wayne decided to leave the lumber company he was working for in Regina. "Passion for farming drove me back home," says Wayne from his farm office. The couple studied agriculture at Olds College in the 1980s, and Wayne's grandparents were dairy farmers in Creston where he spent summers working on his uncle’s hay farm.

The dairy shows commitment and dedication to quality, sustainability and viability and is a stellar example of the future of small dairies. It has been a premeditated long journey to processing their cheese. "It wasn’t until 2008 that we were financially stable enough to build the cheesemaking facility (fromagerie), but planning and taking courses started in 2004," says Wayne.

The Harrises’ entire operation is certified organic - the herd, feed, fromagerie, and crops, meaning that the operation must use inputs approved by their certifying body, Pacific Agriculture Certification Society.

The 80-cow closed milking herd is made up of Holsteins, with a few Guernseys and crosses with Normandy, Guernsey, and Swedish Reds. The heifers calve year round and are 25-26 months old when they calve. The farm uses artificial insemination and a clean up Angus bull. The young bull calves are sold to Alberta for meat.

Feed and grazing

All cows, young stock and milking cows, are intensively grazed during summer on pasture located on the farm, and fed in the barn in winter. Most of the feed is produced on-farm, where they grow hay for forage and some grain, with off-farm sourcing when needed, such as flax.

Flax balances the cows’ reproductive efficiency, resulting in fewer embryo losses, according to anectdotal and controlled research studies cited in Ameriflax for the Dairy Industry magazine.

"Overall, ruminants are not designed to digest most grains," explains Wayne, "We have found that our cattle develop subclinical acidosis caused by too much grain consumption leading to a lowered immune system. When we feed them less grain, many disease issues fade away. Conventional dairy farmers always ask 'What do you do for mastitis?' I tell them, we feed less grain." Wayne reckons that even mainstream dairies will move to forage feeds versus grain because grain prices are so high.

Utilizing nutrition for herd health is key. They work closely with a nutritionist, Annette Suomin of Unifeed in Ponoka, Alberta who understands the dairy's goals. According to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture (August 2009), studies reveal that there may also be human health benefits to consuming dairy products from grass fed herds. There are more beneficial fatty acids like conjugated linoleic acid in grass fed dairy products, but flavour is the lead reason consumers choose grass fed dairy products, and their texture and other characteristics.

At Kootenay Alpine, cows get fed eight pounds of grain per day in summer and 12 pounds per day in winter. The feed is composed of mixed grains of barley, oats, peas and flax, plus a mineral mix. They start with a small premix of microingredients, but 70 percent of the minerals are their own blend, combining products such as kelp, a natural form of chelated minerals with about 60 different trace minerals, and garlic, an immune system booster. Cows also get probiotics and yeast which helps maintain a healthy rumen and microflora in the rumen.

They intercrop grain with peas and swath at the correct stage of maturity. Wayne says that cows get enough protein from forages of alfalfa and grass if the crops are harvested correctly. The non-structural carbohydrates (sugars) are higher in the afternoon, so they try to swath in the afternoon when the sugars are photosynthetically peaked, about 3 p.m.

The heifers are rotated onto fresh paddocks every 24 hours and cows every 12 hours. “We always give them a fresh paddock in afternoon, because they graze more in the evenings,” explains Wayne. They are pastured on perennial rye grass and clover.

A patchwork of leased land
The Harrises own 100 acres and lease another 400 acres through six-year leases in the area from 20 different parcels and 19 different landlords. The home 100 acres at the dairy is in pasture, with the hay of alfalfa and grass grown on the leased land. "It's a patchwork, but it is the only way to get the land base we need," says Wayne about an area where good farmland is in small parcels of about 20 acres, and prices average over $10,000 per acre, with speculative real estate markets squeezing the prices of farm land.

They do not make or use silage, because silage is an issue with the kind of hard aged Alpine cheese they are making. Silage can contain clostridial bacteria which is detrimental to the cheesemaking process. It can cause late blowing, which is gas bubbles in the cheese wheel which is not obvious until near the end of the aging process. "This is bad for the kind of cheese we make," explains Denise, the lead cheesemaker. "I understand that in some countries in the EU, farmers are paid not to use silage if their milk goes to making these kind of cheeses."

The cows are pastured out until the beginning of November when it becomes too wet and cold. "We usually run out of weather before we run out of grass," says Wayne about the pastures on alluvial heavy clay soil.

The barn is an open barn with straw and shavings for bedding and open individual sleeping stalls - the cattle choose where they want to sleep. The manure, straw, and shavings are cleared with a scraper on a small tractor, and composted as per organic requirements. The compost is spread on fields that need fertilizer based on their soil test results.

Milking and breeding

They use a double six milking parlour, where cows are milked twice per day - producing up to 30 litres per day.

The Harrises are breeding cattle to manipulate the protein components for the cheese. The Swedish Red produce higher components than Holstein as do Normandy. Ultimately, they are trying to create cattle that are disposed to produce milk from less grain, do better on forage and are heat tolerant.

They need a cow that is better than Holstein to deal with heat stress, in pastures with no shade in an area where the summer temperatures can reach over 35 degrees Celsius. Holsteins have low heat tolerance, however, Wayne finds that when they get less grain, they are less heat stressed. Through natural selection, the herd as a whole is less heat stressed than it was 15 years ago. The herd size remains static, and is a good herd size for organic production, which requires that cows are pastured out.

Challenges
Wayne says that going organic requires a change in mentality and creates new challenges. Switching from commodity milk production, where all the milk is produced and picked up in a milk truck, to producing, processing and marketing value-added products on farm is the biggest part of the curve and they are still in that curve. Supplying and sourcing markets is a constant challenge and time consuming.

Creston is quite remote from large urban markets so wholesale marketing is their mainstay. The whole firm aged wheels pack and ship well. The Kootenays has a high population of Europeans and food conscious consumers who embrace the opportunity to buy local organic artisan cheese.

Family farm relies on good help and children
Wayne and Denise rely on their two full time employees, Trish Woodall and Jeff Van Rootselaar that share the farm's vision.

The Harris children have all played an integral role in improving the farm and developing the fromagerie. Nadine, Foster and Erin are attending university but have a strong bond to the farm. Nadine is the keenest on cheese making and marketing but loves the "farm side" as well. Foster has had a hand in every aspect of the farm and fromagerie construction and helps when needed at markets. Erin's main focus is improving the farm from the soil up. She is studying organic agriculture at Guelph and will be an exchange student at the Royal Agricultural College in Cierencester, England.

Markets and products
Before embarking on making cheese, the Harrises did their market research. They talked to other B.C. cheesemakers to insure that they would not infringe on markets, and discovered that there is a lot of room in the marketplace for Alpine cheeses.

Much of the cheese is made in summer when the cows are on pasture, following the European tradition of making cheese when the flavours are most robust. "Summer cheeses produce the best flavour attributes," explains Wayne. In winter they process two vats of milk per week, and in summer, they process between six and eight vats.

The cheese is handcrafted following the tradition of artisan cheese-makers, and is made using only the raw milk from the certified organic herd. The Harrises prefer raw milk for flavour. "Pasteurisation loses flavour and destroys a lot of natural enzymes," says Wayne.

Each cheese is carefully aged in order to develop rich, complex flavours that are unique to their milk, farm, and region. They do not use plastic for aging. Cheeses are aged naturally in an aging cave. The Alpindon is smeared with a bacterial linen that develops the rind and imparts flavour on the cheese.

The Cheeses
Alpindon, made only during the summer, is similar to a Beaufort, a firm French cave-aged, flavourful alpine cheese. The cheese is delicious with red wine and rye krisp - simple is best for the full flavour to percolate on the palate.

Mountain Grana, made year round, is an aged Italian hard cheese with a sweet, lingering taste.

Nostrala, also made year round, is a mild firm cheese with a subtle creamy flavour similar to a Gruyere. This cheese is good with apples and grapes.

Light chardonnay or a full bodied Bordeaux also work well with their cheeses. The nuttier the cheese the better it pairs with a nutty, hoppy beer. The Harrises make a cheese fondue paired with the local Skimmerhorn winery’s Gertzheimmer.


OACC gratefully acknowledges Pamela Irving of Living Communications for providing the story and photos. She can be contacted at livingcomms@telus.net

Posted January 2010