November 18, 2011
For a listing of other previous Retail Watch stories, please see our Retail Watch Archive.

AWARD WINNING — LaClare Farms has only been making cheese a few short years but already has won the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest with its flagship Evalon.

FAMILY AFFAIR — Raising and milking goats and cheesemaking are a family affair at LaClare Farms. The Hedrich family is diversifying and expanding their business so more family members can be involved.

Hedrich family to grow company at new site

By Kate Sander

CHILTON, Wis. — A good business plan is important. A stellar product is key. And timing, it is said, is everything.

The right timing has helped the family of Larry and Clara Hedrich, who established their farm in 1978 with two goats, recently grow from a goat milk operation to a farmstead cheese company experiencing success on a national scale.

Larry and Clara Hedrich started with their initial goats as a hobby and eventually grew that hobby into a commercial goat’s milk dairy as their five children took on 4-H projects and grew the family’s herd. Larry Hedrich then helped found the Quality Dairy Goat Producers’ Cooperative of Wisconsin, (QDGPC), which he currently manages and which supplies goat’s milk to award-winning companies including Carr Valley Cheese and Sartori.

It wasn’t until early 2008, though, that the Hedrich family worked with a cheesemaker to have their own cheese made using their own milk. The cheese, with a recipe developed by cheese innovator Neville McNaughton, was made at Saxon Homestead Creamery, Cleveland, Wis., as part of a plan by Larry and Clara Hedrich to diversify their operation and give their five children more opportunities to enter the family business.

Their middle child, Katie Hedrich, now 26, has since become a licensed cheesemaker and is the cheesemaker for the Hedrich family’s LaClare Farms.

Katie, who began making goat’s milk soaps when she was 16, now is not only a cheesemaker, she is one of an elite group — her goat’s milk cheese, Evalon, was selected as the U.S. Champion in this year’s U.S. Championship Cheese Contest sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. The cheese is only the second goat’s milk cheese to win the biennial competition. Katie also is only the second woman to win the competition.

Since the big win last spring, demand for Evalon has risen dramatically. In 2008, the company only made a few batches of the cheese. By 2010, that had risen to a batch every other week. Now the company is making two batches a week in a 5,000-pound vat, and the company still can’t keep up, says Katie Hedrich.

“Winning has been incredible for us. It’s really solidified what we are doing,” says Hedrich, who continues to express amazement that the company has gone far beyond her expectations by more than doubling its production since the beginning of the year.

The win was a blessing, she says, and the timing perfect. In December 2010, Katie’s sister Anna and brother-in-law Mike purchased 180 goats to add to the operation. No one knew Evalon would win a major competition three months later, but without that milk, there is no way the company could be producing two batches a week, she says.

Currently, the company is using about six days’ worth of their production for its cheese. The rest of the milk goes to QDGPC, and this milk is used in bottling by Sunshine Distribution for Southern Wisconsin and the Chicago market. The co-op’s milk also is used in LaLoo’s goat milk ice cream and by several other cheesemakers.

Evalon is a hard goat’s milk cheese that has a body similar to Gouda but with a texture and flavor that hints of Asiago. It typically is aged about five months. In addition to winning the overall top prize at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, the cheese placed first in the open category of aged goat’s milk cheeses at the American Cheese Society’s (ACS) annual competition this past summer as well.

Katie Hedrich also makes an Evalon with Cumin and an Evalon with Fenugreek, both of which are aged for two months. Evalon with Fenugreek placed second in its class at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest and first in its flavored class at the ACS competition. Hedrich also is experimenting with hot peppers in the cheese. This cheese has done well at farmers’ markets, although she doesn’t plan to introduce the cheese elsewhere in the near future.

Hedrich says she believes the key to the flavored cheeses’ success is pairing the flavor with the cheese so the unique cheese flavor still comes through.

“The flavors are put in the center of the wheel and pressed. It gives a nice subtle note that doesn’t overpower. People still get the nice balance,” she says.

With demand for Evalon at an all-time high, Katie Hedrich says she is working on keeping current customers’ orders filled and introducing other cheeses she makes to new customers.

“I get them set up with other cheeses and then honor them as current customers (when Evalon is available),” she says.

Among her other cheeses, Hedrich makes a Chevre which she describes as “light and a little sweet.”

“Chefs love it,” she adds.

In addition to making Evalon twice a week at Saxon, Hedrich travels every third week to make the Chevre at Cedar Grove Cheese in Plain, Wis., which is set up to allow her to make the pasteurized, soft cheese there. The cheese won second in its class at the 2011 Wisconsin State Fair.

Katie also makes Raw Milk Cheddar, Cheddar and Fondy Jack, a Monterey Jack-style goat’s milk cheese, named after Fond du Lac, the county in which the Hedrich family hopes to soon locate their dairy business.

To meet growing demand, the family plans to move their dairy operations to Pipe, Wis., in northeast Fond du Lac County. The land has been in the family for more than four generations and is being purchased and farmed by Larry Hedrich and his cousin John Jenkins.

They hope to break ground soon on a $4 million project that will include a double-24 parlor, a cheesemaking facility, an education center and a retail store with a sandwich shop. The family plans to double its herd size to 600-700 goats.
The move will allow the company to add employees as well as allow more family members to be involved in the business. In addition to Katie Hedrich who serves as cheesemaker and marketer, her brother Greg already has left his job in education to be the business manager and is looking particularly forward to overseeing the education component of the new facility. Her sister Anna works full time off the farm and also manages the herd remotely. Opportunities for younger sisters Jessica and Heather exist as well.

Larry Hedrich, who has worked in construction management, will oversee the

project. There have been some delays as final funding details are worked out — Fond du Lac County is acting as a “sponsor” for $3.2 million in industrial revenue bonds — but Katie Hedrich says that with her father on the job, she expects that once ground is broken the goats will be moved in about four months’ time.

“He worked in construction for 24 years — we are the luckiest people to have him on our team,” she says.

The new cheesemaking facility will have a 10,000-pound vat and a 5,000-pound vat, allowing the company to make more cheese and bottle its own milk. The family would like to allow others to make cheese at the new facility as well.

“We want to open it up as an incubation center,” she says, allowing other aspiring cheesemakers to learn and try cheeses just as other companies have given the Hedrich family opportunities.

Katie Hedrich is quick to give credit to many people who have helped the company grow — Sid Cook of Carr Valley, who supported and encouraged the formation of QDGPC, Neville McNaughton and Saxon Creamery for the help with Evalon, and Bob Wills and Cedar Grove Cheese for the help with other cheeses — to name a few.

“We’ve been extremely blessed, and we want to give back and honor those who have given to us,” Hedrich says.

CMN