A Goat's Milk Cheesemaking Business

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HOW IT WORKS

The future cheese magnate of Orange, Virginia (with the assistance of his wife, and daughters Amy and Jessica) handmilks 20 does a day, a chore that requires 1-1/2 hours each morning and evening. The dairy product—collected in stainless steel pails—is poured into the refrigerated storage tank. When the tank is full (at least once a week), Jerry pumps all the milk through the tubing into the cheesemake room's vat. He heats it to the desired temperature, adds the rennet and cultures, cuts the curd with special stainless steel knives, and drains off the whey. Then all the Aiellos pitch in and pack the feta into pint-size glass jars . .. affix attractive blue-and-red "Belle Terre Farmhouse Cheese" labels (which they designed themselves) . . . and store the containers in the cooler for the 60-day aging required by law. The entire process yields about 200 jars per cheese run of crumbly, tangy white feta.

The decision to make feta—rather than another type of cheese—was not lightly arrived at. From the beginning, the Aiellos were determined to use raw goat's milk. "We'd originally hoped to produce Gouda," Jerry said, "but then Suzanne came up with the idea of feta, which is traditionally made in Greece from sheep or goat's milk." Feta turned out to be a good choice because it doesn't require the expensive cheese press and additional labor (brining, turning, paraffining, and so forth) that Gouda needs. "The feta is a one-day cheese," Jerry points out. "When we finish packaging it and put it in the cooler, we don't have to look at it again until we deliver it two months later."

THE BOTTOM LINE

Since they were unwilling to invest the time required to staff a farm-based retail store, Jerry and Suzanne decided to sell their feta through a wholesaler. For each pint jar, they receive $2.50 . . . or roughly 50¢ for the jar and label and $2.00 for the labor, utilities, and other expenses related to producing the milk. Jerry figures that Belle Terre's feta wholesales for about $2.66 a pound. Therefore, since approximately five pounds of milk will yield one pound of feta, the Aiellos receive about 53¢ per pound for the milk produced by their Nubians (or roughly double the amount the raw liquid might sell for).

After their 60 days of aging, the cheese-filled jars are packed 12 to a case and delivered to a wholesale food broker in Richmond, Virginia. The feta is then shipped to grocery chains for retail sale.

By manufacturing a relatively labor -unintensive cheese, Jerry and Suzanne have been able to minimize production costs. This fact makes it possible for them to wholesale the product at a figure that allows the stores to add their usual markup and still put the feta on supermarket shelves at a price competitive with that of most commercial cow's milk cheese.

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