Estrella's: Cultivating the Love of Cheese

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Author: Gail Greenwood Ayres

What kind of cheese causes a bride in her wedding dress to stop by a working dairy en route to her honeymoon to buy some?

You’ll have to ask Anthony and Kelli Estrella of the Estrella Family Creamery in Montesano. Or better yet, sample some yourself.

That’s the kind of draw their cheese has. It’s not just brides; it’s cheese lovers of all kinds, from local farmers to dozens of top Seattle-area chefs, who are enamored with their cheese.

The top cheese experts in the nation and world agree with the popular clamor.

At the 2008 American Cheese Society Awards their “Weebles” cheese received second place in the Smoked Italian Style category and “Grisdale Goat” placed first in the Aged Goats’ Milk Cheeses category.

Even more remarkably, at the 2008 World Cheese Awards in Dublin, Ireland, of the six cheeses Kelli sent, three received silver awards (Caldwell Crik Chevrette, Bea Truffled and Old Apple Tree Tomme), and two received gold (Grisdale Goat and Weebles).

“When I heard the news I was shocked. I was screaming and jumping up and down,” said the 47-year-old Kelli. Of the 2,400 cheeses entered, only 174 in the world took gold.

“I couldn’t believe it. It almost feels like a mistake. There were people there from countries that have had cheese makers who’ve been making cheese for generations. …”

Healthy Eating and Living
But beyond winning awards, Kelli loves that what she invests her time, energy and heart in, is something that is so healthy all around.

“Quality ingredients are important to me. I don’t want to make money at the expense of people’s health.”

All the Estrella Family Creamery cheeses are made from raw cow or goat milk or a combination of the two. The milk comes from the 25 cows and the 45 goats that graze the 164-acre farm.

“We have healthy and long-lived animals,” said the pretty, fresh-faced blonde.

In an effort to produce high-quality milk, “most of our cows are a French Normandy cross fed on grass and dry hay. We don’t feed silage because we don’t think it’s the best for making good cheese.”

The animals are milked at 5 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day. She then uses that raw milk – carrying 3-gallon buckets from the milking parlor to the creamery – each day to produce the awardwinning cheeses.
It takes from 5 a.m. to about 11 a.m. to make cheese, usually making three different kinds, in her one 40-gallon and two 60-gallon vats.

A Family Affair
The couple has six children, Faith, 10; Melody, 11; Ernest, 14; Samuel, 15;
Patience, 16, and Ruth, 19. All have been adopted, three from birth and the other three nearly four years ago from Liberia.

They are home schooled and definitely part of the family business.
“I like seeing my kids working hard and getting satisfaction out of working hard and getting the opportunity to earn a good name for themselves,” said Kelli.

While Kelli is the cheese-maker, Anthony, 46, a former logger, uses his multitude of talents to keep things running. And there’s a lot to be done on a farm – from milking to mending fences, to fixing just about anything. On a recent visit he was preparing to plant 5 acres of oat hay because they’ve learned from local old timers that it grows well.

Off to the Market
Anthony is also the one who heads to Seattle each Saturday to sell the cheese at the University District’s Farmers Market. On Sunday, he’s at the Ballard Farmers Market. Kelli and the kids join him on Sundays and the family attends church there.

About 15 percent of their business is done during these Saturdays. The rest comes from other farmers markets and the many people and chefs who have discovered the cheese and order it sent to them.

Meanwhile back at the farm on Saturday, the cheese store is open from
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors who come early enough can see Kelli and/or the older girls cooking up the next batches of cheese. And if that isn’t enough to make one stop in, those waiting to purchase are offered tastes of some of the more than 20 varieties.

The walls of the little store are lined with feature magazine and newspaper articles on the farm and ribbons and awards, while the cheese sits in rounds under glass.

A guest can also watch the normal life of the cows and goats – along with some senior citizen horses that were free to a good home, dogs, cats, chickens and sometimes turkeys.

Being in the farming business after growing up a “city girl” in California, Kelli is aware how so many people are “divorced” from the realities of life such as where their food comes from.

For instance, many folks don’t realize that a cow or goat needs to give birth before it begins to produce milk, she said.

“That’s why it’s neat when people can see it first hand,” she said. 

One Special Saturday
“One Saturday a goat was having a baby out in the field and it was particularly cold,” Kelli recalls.

Once the goat was delivered, one of their sons, Samuel, went out and picked it up to bring it inside. It was still wet. As he walked up the hill to the gate toward the creamery with this slimy baby goat cradled in his arms, a customer asked, “Can I help you?”

So, much to the man’s surprise, Samuel just handed him the baby, Kelli said.

“There he was suddenly holding this amazing brand new creature in his arms. … You could tell it made a huge impression on him,” she said.

Struggling with Success After 17 years making cheese in her various kitchens while living on a shoestring budget, the Estrellas bought the farm they live at today with help from her dad.

Still, even after the Estrella Family Creamery was established in 2003, there was much frustration as naysayers laughed and told them it couldn’t be done. Kelli also struggled and struggled to get her blue cheeses right, ending up literally taking round after round of cheese that wasn’t good enough to sell to the dump.

After many tears, she felt her prayers answered as she renewed her resolve.

“I quit crying and kept working and finally figured it out,” she said.
The Estrella’s story is as rich and full of variety as their cheeses. From living in barns and working as caretakers to having 5 acres in Gig Harbor where their one cow got in trouble wandering around suburbia.

But now being in Grays Harbor County at a real Grade A dairy farm, working as a family to produce world-renown cheese, their prayers have been answered and no one is laughing anymore.

But it’s not just the great end product that makes Kelli smile.
“I love that we make a healthy, quality product that is part of the special moments of people’s lives.”

The Estrella Family Creamery is at 659 Wynoochee Valley Rd. in Montesano. To get there, west of Montesano take the Devonshire Rd. exit and go exactly 4 miles north on the Wynoochee Valley Road. Enter the driveway to the farm on the left. The Creamery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, or by appointment.

For more information, call (360) 249-6541 or visit www.strellafamilycreamery.com.