Creamy and rich hand-made cheese made from the milk of European-bred cows grazing Agassiz’s fields
There’s something special about seeing a product come to life from start to finish, and in the case of The Farm House Natural Cheeses you can do just that.
On a self-guided tour through the Agassiz property, you’ll find cows and goats grazing the fields and a farmer milking the animals daily in the barn. After that, the milk gets transferred to the farm’s processing plant. Viewers are invited to peer through the windows and see how the cheese-making process works. Inside is what looks like a bathtub – a large metal vat that heats the milk, pasteurizing it.
“Customers appreciate they can view the whole story,” said Dana Dinn, the wholesale manager who has been with the company for over 10 years. “Everyone wants to know and see where their food is coming from and what goes into it.”
The Farm House Natural Cheeses was established in 2003 by Debra Amrein-Boyes and her husband, George, who learned about cheese making in Switzerland before bringing the craft to B.C. The couple has since retired, relocating to Quebec. The new owner, Brian Bilkes, took over, and the company still maintains that family feel, with a tight-knit team of around a dozen.
In the summer, they pack their products into a truck and drive them to different farmers’ markets, mainly in Vancouver, where they sell cheese, milk, butter and yogurt. Their cows have a higher fat content, which in the case of cheese, is part of what makes it so delicious.
Their European heritage breed cows — Jerseys, Guernseys and Brown Swiss cattle — contain the A2 protein, which produces a higher butter-fat content, creating those creamy and rich cheeses.
Dinn said that people who think they are lactose intolerant come to their farm and realize they can consume their products, which may be partly due to the A2 protein and also because their milk isn’t homogenized.
“[Homogenized milk] can be difficult for our bodies to digest. When the milk is homogenized, it changes the…
..