Bellwether Farms' new sheep milk yogurt is already starting to garner awards. The Strawberry Yogurt is a finalist for a Sofi Award in the annual competition of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade.

Janet Fletcher, author of The Cheese Course and cheese columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, named Bellwether Farms’ Pepato in her column, “The Year’s Top 10 Cheeses (2008).”

Bellwether Farms received top honors for two of its cheeses at the 2006 World Cheese Awards in London:

The earthy and refined San Andeas won a Gold Medal in the Semi-hard Sheeps' Milk category.
The smooth, buttery Carmody won a Bronze Medal in the Semi-hard Cows' Milk Unpressed category.

Both of the winning cheeses are Bellwether Farms original recipes, made exclusively on the Callahan family farm in Sonoma County, California.


Crostini With Bellwether Farms Crescenza

Slice a baguette on the bias, ½ thick Toast lightly Put Crescenza on crostini. Top with: Wild mushrooms sautéed with garlic in olive oil or Chopped yellow onion and red and yellow bell peppers sautéed in butter
  Bellwether Farms

Nurse and lawyer Cindy Callahan moved to Valley Ford in western Sonoma County in 1986 from San Francisco with her husband Ed, a physician. With 34 acres of grass to mow, a few sheep seemed like a handy idea. The Callahans predictably found themselves with more and more lambs. Fine restaurants in the Bay Area began buying the lambs for their menus.

A Syrian friend told them that sheep's milk makes great yogurt. Sheep's milk is naturally homogenized, with small fat globules and other unique characteristics that make it quite different from cow's milk. The business evolved organically into California's first sheep milk dairy.

Ed and Cindy began their early cheese-making lessons at farms in Tuscany and Umbria. Their son Liam returned to Italy two years later to learn more. They produce limited amounts of cheese from their sheep’s milk and sell it to the same restaurants that buy the farm’s lamb, as well as directly to the public at various farmers markets around the Bay Area.

“My mother had no idea that she was placing her family at the forefront of the American revival in artisan cheese making,” Liam says. “Our family shares a passion for making the best cheeses possible, using only the highest quality milk.”

Assisted by family members, Liam hand-produces a number of cheeses. In 1994, they added cheeses made from Jersey cows milk to the sheep milk cheeses and fresh cheeses.

Bellwether Farms cheeses have won several awards at the competitions held by the American Cheese Society, the U.S. Cheese Championships, and the World Cheese Awards in London.
 
To contact
Bellwether Farms

Visit our Website
Contact: Diana Callahan
Email us
Phone: 888-527-8606
Shop online
Visit by appointment: 888-527-8606
Recipes
 
To receive the Savor
California newsletter,
"Savory News,"
sign up for our mailing list.

Copyright 2003-2010 by Savor California. All rights reserved.