For some, that means earning a place in distributors'trucks, convincing Bay Area markets to give them a shot or findingprofitable placement in mail-order catalogs. The market beyond Humboldt is often vital to success of localproducers. Today she buys about half her milk fromHumboldt County goat milkers. 'It seemed the obvious solution to working 40 hours aday,' Mary said. Givingup the herd ultimately helped the business and her own survival.

Until six years ago, Keehn not only processed the cheese butran a goat herd to provide the key ingredient - milk. And this summer fourchefs used Cypress Grove Chevre at the prestigious James BeardFoundation competition in New York.

Cypress Grove Chevre is servedas part of New York City's Picholene's acclaimed cheese course,and at both Moose's Restaurant and Campton Place in San Francisco.Ī chance sampling of the Cypress Grove Chevre cheese at Picholene'sled to a feature article in Vogue magazine. Her cheese can be found in all the Whole Food markets nationwide,in the well-known East Coast Dean and Deluca gourmet delis, andin numerous five-star restaurants. Keehn saidshe sells just 1 to 2 percent of her product locally, but in moreurban areas sales are soaring. Local taste buds still lag behind more urban areas. 'In the early 1980s, you could hardly get people to tastegoat cheese,' she recalled. Keehn said business growth was pretty slow in 1984 when goatcheese hadn't reached its current status of gourmet goodness. 'She's the creator,' McCurdy said, looking at hermother. With this volume, Keehn relies heavily onher daughter, Malorie McCurdy, for help. Keehn now employs 14 and hasat least 40 major distributors to get her products to market.That doesn't include the more than 100 stores Cypress Grove Chevredeals with directly. 'As their products became successful and they need morehelp, they become part of the employer community - then we countthem,' she said.Ĭypress Grove Chevre was strictly a family-run operation until1986 when sales began to take off. 'There are many microenterprises that aren't employersbut whose owners and family may work in food making,' saidAnita Alexander, a labor market specialist for the state EmploymentDevelopment Department in Eureka. Humboldt Harvest, a marketing collectivefor local producers, counts 50 food manufacturers in its membership. Manufacturers of salsa, salad dressing and mustards numberin the double digits. But increases in sales and jobs are also coming from medium-and small-volume mom-and-pop food producers as well. Some of the growth is coming from Humboldt County's traditionallarge food producers including Fluhrer's Big Loaf Bakeries andHumboldt Creamery's new ice cream plant (see separate story page17). Not bad for an enterprise operating out of an old barn on aformer chicken ranch in McKinleyville.īut Cypress Grove Chevre is just one of a number of North Coastfood and beverage producers that constitute a growing segmentof the economy.Īccording to a report in the North Coast Almanac, by localeconomic analyst Phyllis Lammers, food and fish processing jobshave grown 58.5 percent from 1991 to September of 1997 - from540 to 856. Sales haveescalated at a rate of 25 to 40 percent per year. Since she began making cheese commercially 14 years ago, Keehn'scompany, Cypress Grove Chevre, has gathered 26 gold and best-of-showawards in national and international competitions. No one has ever made itbefore,' Keehn said with an obvious note of parental pride. In March Humboldt Fog scored 99.5 out of 100 points at a worldcheese competition in Madison, Wis., placing third in a fieldof hundreds of entries from around the globe. In August at the American Cheese Society's competition in Seattle,Keehn's PeeWee Pyramid took top honors in the soft-ripened goatcheese class, the Herb Chevre placed first in spice and herb goatcheese class, and the Humboldt Fog - an aged, mold-ripened goatcheese with a distinctive gray vein of edible French vegetableash - finished atop the American Original category, the equivalentof an Academy Award in the cheese business. She's dazzling the snobbiest connoisseurs acrossthe United States and around the world. Mary Keehn is not simply making a living making goat cheesein Dows Prairie. North Coast Journal - January 1998: COVER STORY - Edible Exports

Humboldt fog mini at whole foods