It was at the 2007 United States Cheese Championship Contest when Wisconsin farmstead cheesemaker Brenda Jensen first knew she might be on to something.  Having nervously entered her fresh sheep's milk cheese in a national cheese competition in only her first year of cheesemaking, she was astounded to be called to the podium to receive a Best of Class Gold Medal for her Driftless Cheese.

 

"To win that kind of award in my first year of cheesemaking was amazing," Jensen says. "It really gave the confidence to start crafting some original cheeses and see what I could do."

 

Jensen, who in 2006 left a management position in the corporate world to start her own sheep dairy and creamery, is today an award-winning cheesemaker and national media darling. Profiles of her journey into cheesemaking have appeared in both The New York Times and Wall Street Journal and have helped place her cheeses in several national specialty retail stores, further enhancing Wisconsin's reputation as a growing mecca for artisan cheesemakers.  But Jensen hasn't let the fame go to her head – in fact just the opposite. She is eternally thankful to all the cheesemakers and trade organizations who helped her get started, and is determined to share her knowledge with anyone who wants to learn more about sheep dairying.

 

Jensen and her husband, Dean, operate Hidden Springs Farm near Westby, Wis., which sits at the end of a winding road, perched on top of a high ridge in the heart of the Coulee Region and on the patchwork terrain of Wisconsin's "Driftless Area" (during the ice ages all the glaciers passed it by, hence the "Driftless" name). The Jensens milk about 115 Lucane and East Friesian dairy sheep, which graze seasonally. They also farm the surrounding land the old fashioned way, with no tractors or heavy equipment -- using only Percheron draft horses.

 

"Our vision for Hidden Springs Farm and Creamery is to be sustainable environmentally as well as financially: an all-natural, back-to-basics, old-fashioned, original farmstead approach to farming and crafting cheese," Jensen says.

 

In the only modern building on the farm -- a certified Grade A dairy plant -- Jensen crafts several styles of sheep's milk cheeses, including Driftless, her award-winning fresh cheese, which Brenda describes as "very rich, creamy and almost dreamy." She also crafts aged sheep's milk cheeses, including bad Axe, a young, semi-hard yet creamy cheese, and Ocooch Mountain, a raw milk, washed-rind cave-aged mountain-style cheese, which won a blue ribbon at the 2008 American Cheese Society competition.

 

Never one to rest on her laurels, Jensen is now crafting several new styles of mixed-milk cheeses, which she hopes to have ready for sale in 2009.

 

For more information about Hidden Springs Creamery, visit http://www.hiddenspringscreamery.com/

 

Profile by Jeanne Carpenter. Photo courtesy of Suzy Pingree and Hidden Springs Creamery.