Exploring the Cheese Isle...

Hello Fellow Cheese Traveler!

It feels good to “intro” with that again!...It has 15 months since I last traveled.

I just returned from a vacation on the island of Maui, which is the second largest of the eight Hawaiian Islands. At 727.2 square miles, it is the 17th largest island in the United States. Known as the “Valley Isle”, it used to be home to Sugar Cane and Pineapple crops, but that has since moved on to other parts of the world. Beef production (Maui Cattle Company) has taken over most of the spot where these fields once laid, some 20,000 acres to be exact.

But this Cheese Traveler didn’t travel 2,401 miles and just over 5 hours of flying time to talk about beef…We are here to talk cheese!!

Luckily, just before I left for my trip, I did some research on cheese makers in Maui. There I found one – Surfing Goat Dairy. Intrigued, I booked a tour (as nearly everything in Maui requires some sort of reservation right now).

I was pleasantly surprised to find this 42-acre goat farm nestled on the gentle hillsides of Haleakalā, the local volcano that created the island of Maui….No worries though, as the last time it erupted was 1600 A.D.  

I was welcomed to the farm by this year’s latest litter of kids (see left), and then by the owner, Thomas Kafstack.

Thomas and his wife Eva lived on a tiny German island in the North Sea named Sylt, but would vacation on Maui. Both Sylt and Maui shared much in common, but most notably, these are two of the best wind surfing locations in the world. As a result, they became friends with many of the surfers, so Surfing Goat Dairy just seemed like a natural fit.

The farm started in 1999. Thomas worked to clear the land, while Eva studied cheese making in France. Since then they have turned this property into a wonderful farmstead cheese dairy operation, comprised of 239 goats (French Alpine, La Mancha, and Saanen). They have won National, as well as International cheese awards.

We decided to try their “Ping Pong Balls”, small fresh goat cheese balls marinated in flavored oil (Who wouldn’t want to say that they ate ping pong balls for breakfast?)

We made a picnic breakfast out of them (along with a mini pineapple and local banana bread) just up the road at the Kula Botanical Gardens.

Still wanting to see if I could find more local cheeses, I stopped by the local Whole Foods Market (truly the specialists when it comes to local cheeses) and spoke to Danny, the cheese department manager to see if they carried any other local cheeses. He was happy to recommend Sweet Land Farm, Goat Gouda.

Sweet Land Farm is located in Waialua, on the island of Oahu. They specialize in artisan farmstead goat cheese and goat milk products (their goat lemon bars looked so good!). While we didn’t get to travel to Oahu, we did buy plenty of their Goat Gouda to enjoy for a breakfast along with locally grown Manzano Bananas (better known as “Apple Bananas”) which had a wonderful tropical flavor to them. We also enjoyed some local “Summer” Honey from Maui Bees in Kula, Maui (Neighbors to Surfing Goat Dairy)….They even make a “Winter” honey!!

Such a great visit! I am looking forward to traveling once again and exploring what new cheeses have made it to the cheese counters across this great land of ours!

Until next week,

Trevor