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Eden • After working several decades in the corporate world, Stig and Susan Hansen gave up their high-powered jobs and settled in this quiet northern Utah ski town to raise sheep and make handcrafted artisan-style cheeses.
Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery is one of the few commercial dairy sheep operations in the entire country and the only one in Utah.
It's truly a team operation. Susan cares for the herd, a mix of three well-known dairy sheep breeds: French Lacaune, East Freesian and Icelandic. Stig, a Danish chef and cookbook author, makes the cheese.
Since launching the business last year, the herd has been prolific, growing to more than 100 animals and producing enough milk for Stig Hansen to make 100 to 150 wheels of his soft-style cheeses each week. The cheese is sold in several specialty food shops, as well as Harmon's Grocery Stores and Whole Foods.
The soft, European-style offerings have impressed cheese lovers, chefs and national experts.
In March, Snow Mountain's mild or "timid" tasting Timpanogos Peak Blue Cheese won a "Best of Show" in the U.S. Cheese Championships, the largest dairy product competition in the country. It scored a 97.35 out of a possible 100 in the "ripened sheep's milk cheese" category.
Snowy Mountain makes three other cheeses, all named after Utah mountain peaks: Delano Peak, a traditional blue cheese; Strawberry Peak, a creamy, nutty washed-rind cheese made with 50 percent sheep's milk and 50 percent Jersey cow milk; and King's Peak, another 50-50 blend that's good for slicing and melting.
From the farm • While the cow's milk comes from a nearby dairy farm, the Hansens are still considered "farmstead" cheese makers, the definition for cheese produced from milk that comes from a farmer's own animals.
"Farmstead cheese is where the true artisanship comes in," explains Emiliano Lee, the cheese monger at Salt Lake City's Liberty Heights Fresh Market. "Raising animals and creating cheese from the ground up is really a tremendous thing."
When asked to describe Snowy Mountain farmstead cheeses, Lee's first word was "clean." "It has a clean taste because of the care taken with the animals," said Lee, who has judged several national cheese competitions.
Lee is further impressed because sheep's milk cheeses are more difficult to produce because of the high fat and protein content of the milk. When successfully done, as in the case of Snowy Mountain, "it gives you a really wonderful end product."
Chefs at several high-end Utah restaurants in are using the cheese.
"I've always been a fan of soft ripened cheeses and I feel that Snowy Mountain's flavor, craftsmanship and attention to detail rivals many of my European favorites," said John Murcko, the chef at The Farm.
The restaurant at Park City's The Canyons resort offers customers a cheese plate featuring all four of Snow Mountain's cheeses.
"I let their wonderful flavors speak for themselves," Murcko said. "Adding them to a dish would wash out their unique and intrinsic qualities."
Despite the high praise, Stig Hansen is modest about his endeavor, saying he is still learning the craft. Indeed, when The Tribune visited in mid-July, Hansen was making only his 51st batch. He said making cheese is far different than working as a chef in a restaurant and or corporate kitchen.
"When a chef is making a soup, he can taste it and adjust its flavor," he said with a Danish accent. "With cheese, there's no adjusting."
Still, the 56-year-old knows his craft. On this particular day, a batch of Strawberry Peak cheese doesn't seem to be setting up as fast as normal. He sets the timer again and again, waiting patiently for nearly 30 minutes until it's the perfect texture. Then he cuts it into curds and stirs it with his bare hands.
"This the best part of making cheese," he laughed, "stirring the curds and whey."
In the beginning • Neither Stig or Susan Hansen expected to be making cheese when they first met. Susan, who had grown up on a farm in Pennsylvania, was working in a high-paying management position at Flying J, where Stig was the corporate chef. Both their jobs had rigorous schedules and travel demands. That made it difficult to spend time together and created a sort of tag-team approach when it came to raising their four children.
Several years ago, they were ready for a slower pace and decided to buy a home in Eden where they could ski, fish, hike and ride horses. Susan started selling real estate, while Stig commuted to Cleveland several times a month as a culinary consultant. He even wrote a cookbook of family recipes: Cooking Danish: A Taste of Denmark.
In-between, they attended classes. Susan became a shepherdess, learning how to feed and care for sheep; Stig attended cheesemaking courses at Utah State University to improve his skills.
In 2009, as part of their self-directed education they toured small artisan sheep farms in New York, Vermont, Ohio and Pennsylvania
A few months after the trip, they received a call from one of the farms they had visited. The owner had become gravely ill and she could no longer care for her flock. "She didn't want to parcel them out, she wanted to sell the entire flock to the us," said Susan Hansen.
Good disease-free sheep are hard to come by, so the Hansens agreed, transporting the herd cross-country on Thanksgiving day. A friend had a farm in Eden that they were able to lease in order to raise the sheep and start making cheese.
It's a different life than the one they had a few years ago, but the couple enjoys a differently paced lifestyle.
"Back then I wore a three piece suit and heels," she says, pointing to today's work wardrobe, a red-plaid shirt and jeans. "Now I like wearing cowboy boots."
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Snow Mountain Cheeses
Eden's Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery is Utah's only producer of sheep's milk cheese. It produces four soft-style varieties including:
Delano Peak • A rustic blue cheese made with 100 percent sheep's milk; $15 for an 11-12-ounce wheel.
Timpanogos Peak • This award-winning blue cheese, made with 100 percent sheep's milk, is mild and creamy; $15 for an 11-12 ounce wheel.
Strawberry Peak • A nutty Alpine cheese made from 50 percent sheep milk and 50 percent Jersey cow milk; $25 for 16-ounce wheel.
Kings Peak • This cheese, a blend of 50 percent sheep milk and 50 percent Jersey cow milk, is aged for about three months. Good for slicing and melting; $16.50 for a ¾-pound wedge.
Cheese curds • This light, snacking cheese is a blend of sheep and cows milk cheese; $6.99 for a 10 ounce bag.
To purchase • Liberty Heights Fresh Market, Salt Lake City; Tony Caputo's Market and Deli, Salt Lake City; Valley Market, Eden; Beehive Cheese Co., Uintah; Harmons Grocery stores and Whole Foods Markets.
Details • Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery, 2111 N. 5500 East, Eden; 801-745-0388; snowymountainsheepcreamery.com. —
Other farmstead cheese in Utah
Farmstead cheeses are produced from milk that comes from the farmer's own animals.
Drake Family Farms • This historic Utah farm — operating since 1880 — uses the milk from its herd of registered goats to make fresh cheeses, yogurt and goat milk soap. 1856 Drake Lane, West Jordan; 801-255-6455 or http://www.drakefamilyfarms.com
Gold Creek Farms • Cheesemaker Fernando Chavez makes three types of cheddar — white, smoked and cumin flavored — as well as Parmesan, feta and mozzarella using milk from a herd of Brown Swiss cows. 6297 E. Bench Creek Rd., Woodland; 435-783-5815 or http://www.goldcreekfarms.com.
Rockhill Creamery • Owners Pete Schropp and Jennifer Hines turn the milk from their six Brown Swiss cows into several raw milk cheeses including an Edam, gruyère, baby swiss and feta. 563 S. State Street, Richmond; 435-258-1278 or http://www.rockhillcheese.com
Shepherd's Dairy • For more than a decade, owners have been making fresh goat's milk feta and chèvre in small batches. 43 Church Road, Erda; 435-882-5000 or http://www.shepherdscheese.com