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Upcoming Cheese Classes

New Cheese Class Dates Time: 10am-2pm $40 a person Registration should be paid 1 week prior to the class, otherwise its $50. Classes at the Farm will be limited to 10 people. 2011 Dates Mon. May 2 Wed. May 18 Tue. June 7 Sat. June 25 Thur. July 7 Fri. July 22 Sat. Aug. 6 Wed. Aug 17 Tue. Aug 30 Sat. Sept. 17 Wed. Sept. 28 Fri. Oct. 14 Mon Oct. 24 For more info

Farm update:
We were involved in the Dec. 2007 flood in an indirect way. We were sharing the cheese cave with the Black Sheep Creamery in Adna, right next to the Chehalis River. So the cave got displaced and isn’t up and running yet. We are building a cheese cave at our dairy but it won’t be ready till mid Sept or Oct. And then we will start making aged cheeses, these will not be ready for sale until 2009. Our basement was flooded with about 10 inches of water from a clear cut behind us during that rainstorm. Fema came through and helped us re-carpet and fix our basement. Thank you.
On a goat note, we have reduced our herd to about 120. This is a much better number to manage and it’s also cost effective. We are milking about 56 goats this year and they are producing about 225 gallons of milk or 1935 pounds. We use about 100 gallons to make our cheese weekly and sell the rest of the milk to a local processing plant in Chehalis. We are making cheese two times a week

Our farm tours have been busy:
A grade school class from Longview WA came and had a great time.
A couple of Red Hat Society groups came and ate lunch and tasted cheese.
A 4-H club from Clatskanie OR came and spent the night; they have graced our farm for the last three years. We pick a theme and run with the idea. This year our theme was” Catch a Clue with Blue Rose Dairy”, the club milked the goats, slept at Hope Grange, made clip boards, and played the game of Clue – using our house as the game board. It was a big success.
We have also had drop in people just wanting to do something different – like see how you make cheese or milk a goat.
A senior citizen group also toured the farm and tasted the cheese, from Longview WA.

Farmers Markets for 2011. You can find us at these locations:
*Olympia Farmers Market ~ Thur - Sun. 10-3pm ~ April 7 - Dec 24
*Proctors Famers Market, Tacoma ~ Sat. 9-2pm ~ March 26 - Nov 19
*Pikes Place Market Seattle ~ Friday 9-5pm ~ All year long
*Stilecoom Farmers Market ~ Wed. 3-7pm ~ June 15 - Sept 7

Some of the markets you’ll find us in:
*Chucks Produce, Vancouver WA
*Veggies LLC, Centrailia

Some of the restraunts that we are now serving:
*1022 South, Tacoma
*94th Steward, Seattle
*Amazon.com, Seattle- Headquarters
*Dockside Bistro, Olympia
*Michou, Seattle
*N.W. Food Works, Chehalis
*Renaissance, Port Angeles
*Robin Hood Restaurant, Union, WA
*Taste SAM, Seattle

I have taught two cheese classes this year. Each class was full and both were a success.

Family update:
Two of our daughters got married and we had a new granddaughter born. This makes three son-in-laws, and 7 grandchildren. We only have two daughters left at home and they are a big help with the dairy. I work with the cheese making and they do the milking. David does all the barn work, feeding, and watering of the goats.
We have discussed when the girls are gone that we would turn our dairy into a bed & breakfast. It would have three rooms. You will get to make cheese, milk goats, feed and care for the goats and relax in a hot tub, rose garden and the quietness of the dairy in a country setting. So much for the future. Back to reality – We are still doing foster care for needy children. We had our first baby; he was 24 hours old when we went to the hospital to get him. We were blessed to have him for four months. We won’t be doing that again though… that was too hard to let him go. We will do toddlers to teens.

Viewers! Thanks for stopping by!! Copyright © 2007-2011 Blue Rose Dairy, All Rights Reserved David & Rhonda Rider ~ Winlock, WA