This week on ‘Meet Your Farmers Market Vendors’, we begin our long awaited cheese series! Ok, so maybe none of you dear readers were awaiting the series, but I was. I can count cheese among my favorite foods, right along side cupcakes, salmon, Theo chocolate, bacon, grass fed beef, and wine. (What?!? Wine is a food.)

I’ll start off this cheese series with a newly discovered vendor at the Bellevue Farmer’s Market: Black Sheep Creamery. I spoke to Meg Gregory, co-owner of Black Sheep Creamery with her husband, Brad.

Black Sheep Creamery

What do you sell? Black Sheep Creamery sells sheep’s milk cheeses. They have a variety of cheeses including the following:

• Tomato Basil and Garlic
• Rosemary and Garlic
• Dill and Garlic
• Muenster
• Pecorino Romano
• Feta

How Long Have You Been At The Market? This is their 3rd year at the market.

Where Do You Sell? They sell at the Bellevue and Redmond farmer’s markets as well as the Moreland Farmer’s Market in Portland and the Community Farmer’s Market in Chehalis.

How Did You Get Started? Black Sheep Creamery sells all sheep’s milk cheeses. One of Meg and Brad’s children was sensitive to cow’s milk. Many people who are lactose intolerant can tolerate sheep’s milk. Their son tolerated the sheep’s milk rather well so they bought their first three sheep from Idaho in the year 2000. The sheep ere named Flopsy, Mopsy, and Rattail. In order to produce milk, the sheep must have lambs. Their first year, the sheep had a total of seven lambs. The next year they had 15 lambs (from 5 additional ewes). Soon they had enough sheep’s milk in the freezer to start making cheese. In August 2004, they received their Grade A Dairy license and in March 2005, they started making cheese.

Tell Us About Sheep’s Milk: Sheep’s milk is very nutritious. It causes fewer allergic reactions than cow or goat milk. The flavor is sharper than cow’s milk, but not quite as sharp as goat milk. There are higher concentrations of calcium, phosphorous and zinc in sheep’s milk, as well as more Vitamin A, Vitamin D, and Vitamin C. Sheep’s milk fat contains up to 25% Medium Chain Triglycerides. This type of fatty acid is not stored in the body as fat and is more easily burned as fuel.

Tell Us About Your Products: All of the cheeses are made in much the same way. They start with milk (obviously) and add a vegetable rennet and a bacteria. Their fresh cheese is very fresh and their harder cheeses are aged in a cave for 3-9 months. Meg’s favorite product is Mopsy’s Best. Look for it at the market in July. Their spreadable cheeses are excellent on crackers and bread. I tried the Garlic and Dill spreadable cheese and liked it so much I bought a small tub.

Favorite Part of the Market: Meg’s favorite part of the market is talking to customers and watching customers try her cheeses. She has watched the artisan cheese market grow over the past few years and she finds that very exciting.

Black Sheep Creamery
Adna, WA
360-520-3397

Remember… if you try one of the vendors we cover in this series, be sure to tell them you read about them on MetBlogs!