The creamery

Four cheeses from one flock, aged in a cave cut into the hill.

We milk 120 East Friesian and Lacaune ewes from late March to October, make cheese three mornings a week, and age it in a brick-vaulted cave at 52°F where the only sound is the drip of the humidity line.

The aging cave: arched stone walls, timber shelving stacked with wheels of cheese, a single lamp

The cave, 52°F year-round · 90% humidity · roughly 1,100 wheels in winter

The cheeses

All four are farmstead: made only with milk from animals we own, on the farm where they live. Prices are at the tasting-room counter. Club members receive a cheese allotment each quarter; see the club page.

Leelanau Tomme

Natural-rind alpine style · the cornerstone

The first cheese we made and still the one we make the most of. Pressed, brined for 36 hours and brushed in the cave until the rind goes grey-brown and mottled. Young, it is milky and grassy with a faint sweetness. At eight months it turns nutty, brothy and crystalline at the edges, with a dusty, mushroomy rind that you should absolutely eat. Spring-milk wheels (April–June) are richer; autumn wheels are sharper and more savoury.

Age: 5–9 months
Milk: Raw sheep's milk, whole, from our own flock
Format: 9 lb wheels · sold by the wedge, $32/lb
Pair with: 2024 Dry Riesling or Old Orchard Cider
Awards: Best in Class, American Cheese Society 2024 (Sheep's milk, aged)

Bay Blue

Cave-aged blue · bold but not brutal

A foil-wrapped blue in the Roquefort tradition, pierced at three weeks and ripened on spruce boards in the coolest corner of the cave. The paste is ivory, dense and fudgy with blue-green veining that runs steel-grey toward the rind. Salty, peppery, with the sweet richness that only sheep's milk gives a blue. People who think they don't like blue cheese tend to like this one. Dolloped onto a hot steak or crumbled over pears, it is hard to beat.

Age: 4–6 months
Milk: Raw sheep's milk, whole
Format: 6 lb cylinders · $38/lb
Pair with: 2024 Pinot Blanc, or the Blaufränkisch with honey
Awards: Silver, World Cheese Awards 2025

Juniper Ash

Ash-ripened soft cheese · Tess's favourite

A lactic, slow-set cheese dusted with vegetable ash and a pinch of ground juniper berry from the trees that named the farm. Over four weeks a wrinkled, pale grey Geotrichum rind develops and the paste softens from chalky to runny under the surface. It tastes of lemon, cream and crushed juniper with a mineral edge. The ash line through the middle is for looks and we are not ashamed of it.

Age: 3–5 weeks
Milk: Raw sheep's milk, whole
Format: 8 oz rounds · $16 each
Pair with: 2022 Blaufränkisch, or the Pét-Nat on a hot day

Suttons Bay Fresh

Basket-moulded fresh cheese · eat it this week

Sweet, bright, snow-white and barely salted, drained overnight in the old willow baskets so the ridges print on the outside. It is the taste of the milk with nothing in the way. Spread it on toast, bake it with tomatoes, or spoon it over fruit. Made Tuesday and Friday from April to October only; whatever is left on Sunday goes into the staff's lasagne.

Age: 2–5 days
Milk: Pasteurized sheep's milk, whole
Format: 12 oz baskets · $14 each · plain, or herbs & honey
Pair with: 2024 Pinot Blanc, with sliced peaches in August

Where to buy

At the farm, or close to it.

The tasting-room counter carries every cheese, cut to order, every day we're open. Wedges are vacuum-sealed and travel fine in a cooler for a day. We also sell at the Suttons Bay Farmers Market on Saturday mornings from June to October, and the Tomme and Bay Blue are stocked at Omena General in Omena and Peninsula Co-op in Traverse City.

Shipping

Cheese ships Mondays, October to April.

Aged cheeses travel well cold; the Fresh and the Ash do not, so they're tasting-room only. Boxes go out Monday by two-day ground with ice packs, anywhere in the lower 48. A three-cheese box (Tomme, Bay Blue, and a seasonal piece) is $68 plus $18 shipping. Order by email or phone; online ordering opens for the club first.

Raw milk, and why

Aged over 60 days, as the rules require.

Three of our cheeses are raw-milk and aged well past the 60-day federal minimum. We test the milk every make day, the cave weekly, and send samples out monthly. Pregnant visitors and anyone who prefers it can ask for the Fresh, which is made from pasteurized milk.

Tour the creamery & cave Meet the sheep