About the Farm + Creamery
Our goals at Blakesville Dairy Farm and Blakesville Creamery are to humanely raise healthy goats using sustainable farming practices and to produce the highest quality of handmade artisan cheeses. Our farm name was updated in 2019 from Lake Breeze (now one of our cheese names) to Blakesville Dairy Farm to honor the original village that was located on the land prior to our time. Learn more about Blakesville Dairy Farm, our herd, and farming practices here.
Our cheesemaking facility began production in the summer of 2020. We are a farmstead creamery, meaning that our cheeses are made by hand on the same farm where our animals are raised and their milk is collected. Because of this, care and attention to the purity, quality, and flavor of the milk are critical to our production process. Our cheeses are ripened naturally, focusing on developing characteristic flavor and texture and eschewing shortcuts or techniques that would affect quality. Respect for the traditions and history of cheesemaking are honored within our 10,000 sq ft state-of-the-art creamery, resulting in a modern-day facility that seamlessly blends a timeless art form with modern science. Learn more about the Creamery and cheesemaking process on our Press + Awards page.
The farm and creamery are not currently open to the public; visitors or business calls by appointment only, please.
A Statement from our Owner
When my neighbor, the owner of a family farm that raised dairy cows in Wisconsin for three generations, approached me with an offer to sell his farm, I agreed to buy. Here was another successful, productive farm that was poised to go out of business. I was actively working on restoration and land preservation in the township of Port Washington and saw an opportunity to expand my activities to include an experiment with sustainable farming in the shrinking agricultural region of Southeast Wisconsin. If successful, the idea would demonstrate a scaled farming model that would be viable for the future.
Converting the existing farm from cows to goats was dependent on the expertise of Blakesville Dairy Manager Brent Foat and Business Manager Juli Kaufmann, my partners in the initial enterprise, as well as others like Herd Manager Whitney Sakal who lent their labor and expertise.
A farmstead creamery was the goal, but stabilizing the dairy business was necessarily the first priority. Our first six years of operation focused on converting the facilities from cows to goats and building the herd, which is comprised largely of Saanens. Once the dairy was established, we initiated plans for the on-site construction of Blakesville Creamery, a farmstead creamery using milk directly from the goats at Blakesville Dairy. Veronica Pedraza, an experienced and accomplished cheesemaker, joined the team and demonstrated her expertise with both creamery design and product development. Blakesville Creamery cheeses are now available in a variety of wholesale and retail outlets across the United States, with select cheeses also available for sale online right here.
Blakesville Dairy Farm and Creamery are complementary to my longstanding commitment to thoughtful land use and environmental protection. The Brico Fund, which I founded in 1990, supports a range of environmental and societal causes. A demonstration of viable dairy farming is, in many ways, a logical extension of those endeavors.
-Lynde Uihlein