North
Valley Farms Chevre' has earned the Animal Welfare Approved
Seal. This is not an easy certification to achieve. The
program requires the animals to be grazed on a small family
farm with the family still providing the labor to milk and
care for the animals. More information about the program can
be found at the
Animal Welfare Approved website.
We are committed to the care and stewardship of our farm, the
animals and people, and to handcrafting farmstead cheeses that
are not only pleasing to the eye and palate, but more importantly
are "farmed and made with integrity."
Our farm philosophy is one which respects all entities (both people
and animal) as well as implementing farming and production methods which
preserve and protect the land and natural resources.
All of our milk and cheese is produced on site and we do not
purchase outside milk or curd. As a result, we can assure our customers that our cheese is free of antibiotics and hormones,
and that the animals producing our milk live in a very "low stress"
pleasant environment where their welfare is a top priority.
We do not sell milk as our license does not include milk bottling and sales.
All we produce is made into cheese or used to raise our dairy replacement
kids.
2007 was our first full year of production. It was a very exciting and
gratifying one as we learned much and met many wonderful people.
We were thrilled to have our cheese awarded a Gold Medal in the
2007 California State Fair Commercial Cheese Competition, as well as
a third place in it's first national level competition in October.
We thank you for your interest and welcome questions and comments.
Due to a full schedule of caring for the goats, making cheese and
servicing our markets, the farm is not open to the public for tours
or product purchases. Click on the "Cheese" link for product purchase information, and be sure to check out
"Deneane's
Farm Blog" to keep up with the latest news from the farm with new
entries every week or ten days.
Hopefully we will have a chance to chat with you about our farm
and cheese at a community event or local farmers market!
