Rimrocker, a new creation from Oregon's Tumalo Farms, surprised me when I spotted it for the first time this summer.
This 5-year-old enterprise made its name with aged farmstead goat cheeses, "farmstead" indicating that the milk came from the farm's own herd. But this wasn't a goat cheese and it wasn't farmstead.
Made with organic Jersey cow's milk that Tumalo Farms purchases, Rimrocker is one barometer of this company's strong premiere. Demand for its goat cheeses has been robust, but it takes time and a lot of capital to build a herd.
When I wrote about the creamery two years ago, the farm had 400 goats. Now it has 700, but it's still not enough. It takes 18 months between the birth of a female goat and its first usable milk, and Flavio DeCastilhos, the dairy's founder, says he can't grow his herd fast enough to meet demand and can't find local goat's milk to purchase.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The San Francisco Chronicle.