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e-News
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Tumalo Farms expands |
06.05.2009
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BEND, Ore.-Farmstead goat's milk cheesemaker Tumalo Farms is on track to wrap up its expansion this month. Once complete, the new plant and aging facility will be used to create a line of cow's milk cheeses.
On April 30, Tumalo owner Flavio DeCastilhos announced plans to expand his goat's milk cheese operation by building an additional plant and aging facility on the current premises where he will develop new, original cow's milk cheeses with organic cow's milk supplied by a neighboring dairy. The addition will be 2,400 square feet, and the entire facility will be 6,000-square-feet upon completion.
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In March, the three-year-old company's flagship cheese, Tumalo Classico, took First Place in its category and First Runner Up at the 2009 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest, a national competition held annually in Wisconsin.
Brazilian-born and university-educated in the U.S., DeCastilhos originally studied chemistry and computer science, which led him to a 20-year career in Silicon Valley. In 2002, while on hiatus with his family in southern Brazil, he became inspired by the idea of artisan cheesemaking and decided to pursue it as a business. Upon returning to the U.S., DeCastilhos bought an 84-acre former pumice mine near here and constructed the farmstead dairy.
"What Flavio DeCastilhos has accomplished in just three years is exemplary and another example why American artisan cheeses lead in quality, flavor and experience worldwide," says said American Cheese Society president David Gremmels, in a prepared statement.
DeCastilhos credits his strong early success as an artisan cheesemaker to his balance of "science, art and passion"-specifically, state-of-the-art technology and farming practices, his cheesemaking studies in the Netherlands, his dedicated staff, top-quality organic milk from his herd of 400 French Alpine and Saanen goats and his mountain-high location.
"We want to create original cheeses with flavors native to our specific locale," he explained in a prepared statement. "Our cheese expresses the unique mountain environment at 3,500 feet; flavor and texture result from finely tuned temperature and humidity controls in the high altitude." He cites as an example an original bloomy rind cheese, currently in development, that will emphasize the Central Oregon's terroir.
Future plans include a Tumalo Farms tasting room, to spread the word further about the quality of Central Oregon cheese and Tumalo Farms' eight artisan cheese offerings. Tumalo Farms' cheeses are distributed by Tomales Bay Foods, DPI Northwest, The Cheese Works and Aniata Cheese Co.
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