Profile

Jacque Smith, Green Dirt Farm Farmer
Sarah Hoffman, Green Dirt Farm Cheesemaker

20363 Mount Bethel Road
Weston, MO 64098
(816) 386-2156
www.greendirtfarm.com

You and your cheesemaker Sarah don’t come from farming backgrounds, so how did you end up as farmers?
Sarah and I grew up with a great understanding and respect for our environment. Sarah grew up on small hobby farms and I grew up spending much of my time on horseback, camping and romping in the woods. Neither of us had much knowledge of farming until we began this venture. We both became farmers with similar desires: to create a farming lifestyle for our families, protect our environment, enhance our local food culture and to create enjoyable work for ourselves….and of course we love sheep!

Tell us about these sheep that you love so much. What does a typical day for one of your sheep look like?
Our dairy flock, consisting of 90 ewes, begins the day coming into the milking parlor at 7:00 a.m. The milking process takes about two hours. After milking, the flock goes back onto the pasture where they lazily spend the afternoon eating grass and soaking up the sun. We bring the flock back into the parlor for the evening milking at 7:00 p.m. Again, after milking they go back onto pasture to spend the night. Our flock is rotated to a new pasture every 24 hours. This keeps the ladies happy by allowing them to eat the best and most nutritious grasses and it also protects the soil from erosion.

Our farm has undergone a strict audit and received approval from the Animal Welfare Approved organization. We believe that a nurturing cycle of good land stewardship, animal care and gentle milking creates a sustainable source for the finest possible dairy products.

How do you describe your cheese to someone who hasn’t had it yet?
We pay very close attention so that every decision enriches the soil, allowing us to create unique flavors in our cheeses. All of our cheeses are handcrafted using ewe’s milk that we harvest from our sheep. We never buy milk from other farmers. This helps us ensure that our milk is delicately handled to enrich the milk flavors produced by our sheep. The grasses we plant in our pastures flavor our ewe’s milk with hints of clover, legumes and flowers. The flavors in our milk change as the pastures grow, creating cheeses that uniquely reflect our farm and celebrate the seasons.

Sheep’s milk has a wonderful butterfat content that makes an extremely rich and creamy cheese. That is one reason why sheep’s milk makes such great cheese. Our bloomy rind cheeses are similar to triple cow’s milk bloomy rind cheese; however, without the added cream. We make 5 different styles of surface ripened cheeses that all are very different in flavors. For example, our Dirt Lover cheese is a bloomy rind sheep’s milk cheese that has hints of mushrooms and earthly flavors with a slight sweetness at the finish that is unique to sheep’s milk. Our Bossa is a washed rind cheese that has more milking flavors and the finish taste of toasted pecans and honey. The earthiness is more prevalent in the Bossa and it tends to have more of a pronounced barnyard flavor. Sheep’s milk has more of a natural sweetness to it than cow’s or goat’s milk. It is mild and sweet and since our sheep eat grass, the flavor profiles change as the season changes. In the spring and early summer, our cheeses are mild, however, as the season change and as the grasses mature in the pastures, the milk takes on more robust flavors.

We also make a lactic curd cheese called Fresh. It is creamy and mild with a slight tang. It goes well with a dollop of honey and fruit or some olive oil drizzled on top with crusty bread.

You run the farm with a relatively small staff. How do you divvy up the work?
Sarah and I work together on all aspects of the farm and business. Together, along with our three full time staff, we do all of our own soil and pasture management, animal husbandry, farming, milking, marketing, distribution, farmers’ markets, and cheese making. At the end of the day, Sarah’s primary role on the farm is as our cheese maker, and my work is primarily as the farmer.

This has been a long winter – what’s up on the farm as spring finally arrives?
We are so excited about spring! So far we have 40 lambs bouncing around the farm. In late March and April, we will have about 200 more lambs being born. Spring is such a great time for us. Our ewes are happily eating the tender new grasses of the year and our baby lambs spend the warm afternoon running up and down the pasture taking turns launching off of any object they find. It is also the start of the Farmers’ Market season! During the long winter months, we really look forward to being at the Farmers’ Markets again. It is such a great time to catch up with all of our customers and their families and to share stories of staying warm over the winter.