Can you imagine a time when goat
cheese wasn’t popular in the United States? It seems difficult to
believe, but a mere twenty-five years ago virtually all the goat cheese
sold in the United States was imported from Europe. And that’s where
our story begins, with a few enterprising Americans — mostly women —
who made small batches of goat cheese in their kitchens and began
selling it to discerning restaurant owners and retailers. One of those
enterprising Americans was Mary Keehn, and that’s where the story of
Cypress Grove begins.
Wanting a source of healthful milk for her children, Mary began raising
Alpine goats in the 1970s. She quickly discovered that she had a
natural talent for selectively breeding goats. Her herd began winning
numerous awards and before she knew it, Mary was recognized as
America’s premier breeder of Alpine dairy goats.
As Mary’s goat stock continued to improve,
she was faced with an unexpected consequence: surplus milk from fifty
goats! And so, armed with her kitchen stove and a knack for inventing
unique and delicious recipes, Mary began dabbling with cheese making.
It soon became clear that selective goat breeding was only one of
Mary’s many talents; she had a natural flair for cheese making as well.
Thus in 1983 with the help of family and friends, Mary made the move
from kitchen hobbyist to cheese making entrepreneur… and footwear
aficionado! (Often entrepreneurs talk about wearing many hats. Mary
remembers footwear: rubber boots for milking goats, sterile clogs for
making cheese, comfortable shoes for office work, and relative to the
rest, uncharacteristically high heels for sales and marketing!)
From the outset, Mary strove to make the highest quality, best-tasting
artisanal cheeses. Market acceptance, however, was slow. Americans, it
seemed, had become accustomed not only to the strong, tangy goat
cheeses made in France, but also bland, sliced “cheese” wrapped in
plastic. It took quite a few years before consumers developed a palate
for the smooth, delicate flavors of Cypress Grove cheeses. Mary used
this period of slow, steady growth to take special care of her
customers and to work in conjunction with other goat cheese pioneers to
develop the American market. Patience, hard-work and a commitment to
quality paid off and over time, a large, loyal following began to seek
out the Cypress Grove label. Today, renowned for its innovative range
of fresh, aged and ripened cheeses — many invented by Mary — and
internationally awarded for excellence, Cypress Grove is a leader in
the domestic goat cheese market.
