WINCHESTER, Calif. — A longtime dairyman in Winchester, Calif., Jules Wesselink didn't make his first batch of cheese until he was 66 years old. Displeased with milk prices and at an age when many dairymen are looking at an exit strategy from farming, Wesselink instead decided to try his hand at cheesemaking. Today, at age 75, he is the owner of Winchester Cheese Co., a farmstead cheesemaking operation that has continued to grow in both size and popularity and whose cheese has won recognition for the past several years at the Los Angeles County Fair and in the American Cheese Society's annual competition.

Born and raised in Haarlem, Holland, Wesselink and his wife Corrie immigrated to the United States in 1951. Wesselink, who had worked with Corrie's family on their dairy in Holland, started working in the dairy business for other dairymen. In 1958, the Wesselinks established their own dairy farm in Artesia and then moved it to Chino. They eventually moved their 900 cows to Winchester in 1978, where the cheesemaking operation is located today.

World War II had always had a large impact on Wesselink, but a trip to the Netherlands for the 50th anniversary of the liberation by the Allies did more than give him an opportunity to visit his homeland and celebrate the end of the war that he and his family had survived. It was there in 1995 that Wesselink learned to make cheese from his relatives. He then purchased his first amateur cheesemaking kit, a purchase that would have a career- and life-changing impact on him and his family.

The two baby wheels of cheese that resulted from that cheesemaking kit were so good that a friend asked Wesselink to make some more. He did, again and again.

In 1996, Wesselink bought 30 small moulds from a nearby dairy so that he could expand from a hobby into a cheesemaking business. Then he bought some larger moulds from Holland.

Winchester Cheese's product is a traditional Boere Kaas (translated as "homemade on the farm") Gouda. It is made using raw, whole milk from the Holsteins on Wesselink's farm, though Wesselink has sold the cows to a neighboring Dutch dairyman so that the Wesselinks can focus on the cheese business. In addition, as the cheesemaking business has grown, Wesselink's daughter and son-in-law, Valerie and David Thomas, have become master cheesemakers and assumed cheesemaking responsibilities. His other daughter, Pauline Thornton, and his son Leo Wesselink financially invested in the business as have Richard Van Loon, his nephew, and friend Joe Legler. Wesselink manages the business and focuses on sales, which has kept him busy considering the fact that there are now sales around the country. Presently, Winchester Cheese is using about one-third of the milk the Holsteins produce, making about 4,000 pounds of cheese per week.

"My wife says I should be retired," says Wesselink, who adds that he does plan to start taking it "a little easier."

"It's getting to the point where we need a more professional person than I am. It's getting big," he says, noting he sometimes receives requests for 5,000 pounds of cheese at a time from a customer.

The company makes mild, medium-aged, sharp and super-aged Boere Kaas Gouda as well as flavored varieties such as jalapeño, cumin and garden herb.

But in order to grow, Wesselink has had to be creative in terms of facilities management. When he first began making cheese, he started with an ice chest, then moved to a 60-gallon washtub. The company then moved to a 250-gallon tank a 500-gallon tank and then to a 1,250-gallon vat, its first real cheese vat, Wesselink says.

Of course with the increasing size, the company has needed a place to not only make the cheese but also a place to age it. Kangaroo rats, however, posed a problem. Legal protection for the rodents, considered an endangered species in the area, has made it nearly impossible for the company to build a cheese plant on the farm.

While this may have fazed some people, Wesselink and his family took it in stride. With the help of his brother-in-law Piet Van Loon, Winchester Cheese has been able to work around the kangaroo rat problem by converting refrigerated trailers into their cheesemaking and aging rooms. They started off with one trailer and now have nine — two trailers for cheesemaking, one trailer for brining, five for aging and one for cold storage. Technically, they're not buildings but they work just fine. Wesselink calls his brother-in-law a genius for figuring out the logistics and converting the trailers.

"We're on wheels and registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles," Wesselink says. "It's 100 percent legal."

Having enough storage can be a problem at times and the company has looked at adding yet another trailer, which they keep at the right temperature through air conditioning. However, the company also may be seeing the end of some of the red tape that has held up a cheese plant.

"The circumstances are changing and we still hope to build a cheese plant," Wesselink says. "We may build a cheese plant in one of the barns."

Winchester Cheese started out selling the bulk of its cheese at farmer's markets, and farmer's markets continue to be an important sales avenue. Wesselink's wife, Corrie, and daughter Valerie started at the Temecula, Calif., farmer's market. Then a friend offered to take the cheese to another farmer's market. Word spread, and then the L.A. Times did an article on the company, sending the company's story even more far afield. Wesselink says the company has worked quite a bit with the California Milk Advisory Board, which presented him an award in 2002 for his contributions to the dairy industry.

Winchester Cheese Gouda also has been showcased at the San Francisco Fancy Food Show, which has helped the company reach visitors to the show.
"Word spreads, people like it and others come (to the booth)," Wesselink says.

Today, the cheese can be found in several farmer's markets as well as California casinos; Henry's Market in San Diego County; Pasta Shop in Oakland, Calif.; Molly Stone in South San Francisco; Central Market, a specialty retailer with stores in Texas; Trader Joe's, a specialty food retailer with stores around the country; and Murray's Cheese Shop in New York, among others. The company's cheese also can be purchased over the Internet at the company's website, www.winchestercheese.com.

The company now is large enough that working with distributors is a must, Wesselink says, noting that it became too difficult to ship the increasingly requested large quantities of cheese on the company's own via UPS. Still, UPS is the way a lot of the company's cheese is shipped, two wheels per box, he adds.

The company's most popular cheese is aged about a year, he says, although some special wheels are aged two years. Wesselink notes it takes a lot of money to put all of the cheese up, but he feels happy and successful doing it.
"We don't make a lot of money, but we don't go downhill like all the dairymen do," Wesselink says.

CMN