Farmstead cheese movement shows dynamic growth in California, while Wisconsin remains the leading cheese manufacturing state.
In 1997, California had just three farmstead cows milk cheesemakers. Today, it is home to eight. A farmstead cheese is similar in concept to an estate wine, which designates a wine made from the winery's own grapes. A farmstead cheese is an artisan cheese produced on the farm using only milk from the herd located on that farm. This enables the farmstead producer to direct the entire cheesemaking process-from determining the cow's feed, which affects milk flavor, through aging of the cheese.