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The Cheese Guide 15 Metzger, a Partner in HK/New Era who's also a Small Ruminant Field Educator at the Michigan State University Extension Service. Metzger's partner, Rusty Plummer, manages the farm day to day. The farm has some 143 does in milk, Metzger said, mostly Saanen and Alpine. "About two thirds of our milk goes to Zingerman's," Metzger said. "We deliver once a week, and they pay us a premium because they know the milk they're getting is high quality." Metzger said the premium, which helps makes the farm profitable, is just one way that Zingerman's helps its local producers. "A few years ago, when alfalfa hay prices were really high, they offered to underwrite a loan for us that would let us buy the year's hay," he said. "That really made a difference for us." Thomason, the Creamery's Managing Partner, said the creamery buys about 500 gallons each of cow and goat milk from its suppliers. "That makes us pretty mid-sized," she said. That may change soon, though. The Creamery is in the middle of a $1.2 million renovation, which will allow increased production and, Thomason said, "will bring it up to standard, and to make it a facility that can be audited. Some distributors, like Whole Foods, can't sell our cheeses because we don't have an audit in place." Audits would cover lot tracking, and monitor sanitary issues, such as complete control of the air coming into and leaving the creamery, and whether the entire plant is cleanable and washable, she said. Under some audit plans, mock recalls test the company's ability to respond to such problems. Creating a HACCP plan is also taking time. "It's the same amount of paperwork for any small business," Thomason said. "The bakery had someone working full-time for two years on creating a HACCP plan." Thomason has 17 employees, most full time and some part-time, but they're gelato or cheese makers, counter people or work in mail order and shipping. There are other pressing concerns, Thomason said. "We have to be compliant with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) by January, 2018, and that's not that far away." And then there is making plans for long-term improvements, she said. "It's the million cuts that kill you," she said. "We had visions and desires of achieving 15 percent profit. We know that we can do it – it's just achieving it." Des Moines Cheesemonger Bienert is confident that Zingerman's Creamery will continue to excel. "They're a front runner. If it wasn't for these folks — these artisanal American producers — we wouldn't be in business.... We're just at the forefront of a cheese revolution, and their new creamery is going to be a big deal." A lactic cheese is made with little to no rennet, relying on the action of bacteria to convert the milk sugars into lactic acid. When acidification reaches high enough levels, the milk will coagulate even without rennet, but it can take 16 to 24 hours to reach high enough acidity. By contrast, rennet-coagulated cheeses set in just 10 to 30 minutes. Zingerman's Creamery opened in 2001, under the guidance of then-managing partner John Loomis. The creamery also makes gelato and has done so since its beginnings. While its first cheeses were simple cream cheeses, today the creamery produces nine fresh cheeses and 11 aged cheeses, many with Michigan-centric names. The Detroit Street Brick, for example, is named for the brick-paved street in front of the Deli. The fresh cheeses are cream cheese; fresh goat cheese; Liptauer, a spread flavored with garlic, capers, paprika, caraway and anchovies; Vance's favorite pimento cheese; the City Goat, a round, traditional chèvre; Sharon Hollow, a seasonal cheese offered in either garlic and chive or garlic and black peppercorn; fresh mozzarella; and burrata, the traditional Italian mozzarella pouch filled with shredded mozzarella and heavy cream. Zingerman's Creamer y's aged cheeses are Pere Marquette, an homage to the classic French St. Marcellin; Manchester, a cow's milk cheese made with added cream; Manistique, a Manchester round wrapped in savoy cabbage leaves to age; Washtenaw, a cow's milk round with a rind washed with a Saison ale; Chelsea, an aged chèvre log with an ashy rind; Bridgewater, a cow's milk double-cream globe dotted with whole and cracked Tellicherry peppercorns; Detroit Street Brick, a multiple award winner in American Cheese Society competitions, a goat milk cheese with a penicillium rind, flecked with green peppercorns; Lincoln Log; Little Napoleon, a chèvre with a buttery rind and a velvety paste; Chestnut Little Napoleon, which is wrapped in wine-soaked chestnut leaves; and Little Ypsi, a chèvre honoring the classic French crottin. All of Zingerman's Creamery cheeses are made from locally- sourced milk. The Creamery gets much of its cow milk from Calder Dairy, a nearly half-century old-Detroit metro dairy that milks Brown Swiss, Holstein and Jersey cows. Brown Swiss and Jersey cows produce milk that's especially high in butterfat and protein, both important to cheese makers, while Holsteins produce high volumes of milk. The Creamery has been buying goat milk for five to six years from HK/New Era farm in Onandaga, Michigan, about 20 miles south of Lansing. "Before we sold milk to Zingerman's, we sold to other places, but we weren't getting enough money to make the feed bills," said Mike

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