Milk Trekker : 2013

Who I am and what my mission is.

I spent ten years making cheese in the US before beginning to travel globally volunteering with cheesemakers and herders in 2019. I wish to document the intersection of traditional and modern techniques, and portray the global diversity of dairying, cheesemaking, and grazing practices. In doing this I want to show how the final cheese is the end product of a complex series of relationships and decisions made by humans, that are embedded in a a cultural, geographic, and climatic setting. I advocate for raw milk, a natural starter cultures, heritage breeds, regenerative or ecologically responsible grazing, and the right of all humans to ferment milk in their own homes, selling in local markets. In order to further my mission I am writing a book, and hope to build an online archive, a global database of cheese, dairy, and grazing knowledge. I would love to talk with anyone interested in hosting me anywhere in the world and hearing about how you do things.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Ranch sitting near Leavenworth WA

While I was spending the summer working and hanging out in western Washington I got a chance to spend a week over in Eastern Washington taking care of a friends sheep ranch. I did the daily milkings, moved the herd around various orchards which also serve as pastures, and made some cheese. The climate is warm and dry, I was out here for the hot days of early September and would drive up the icicle to climb and hang out on the river.