Pure Luck Dairy

By Juliana Uruburu

For any cheese monger in the United States, the week of the American Cheese Society Conference rules supreme. This year's conference was in Austin, Texas we keep asking, why would anyone have a cheese conference in the middle of the summer in Texas?

We were pleasantly surprised It was 7 days filled with educational seminars, cheese shop tours, tasting new cheeses and there is always at least one local farm tour. This year we went to Pure Luck Dairy in Dripping Springs, Texas.

Pure Luck Dairy is run by Amelia Sweetheart. Amelias husband Ben and her three sisters, Hope, Gitana & Clare make sure that the whole operation is a success. This is a beautiful example of a family pulling together and making their dreams come true. They all manage different aspects of the business, from the farm, to feeding, milking and making cheese all the way to selling their delicious cheeses at local farmers markets. This is truly a farmstead operation everything is done on the farm.

So our tour begins on a 100 degree day at the farm. There were about 50 people on our tour from retailers and restaurateurs, to curious cheese makers wanting to see how other cheese makers run a farm. We were greeted by Amelias southern charm and ice cold locally bottled water. It was a nice welcome. We all gathered under the shade of their old oak trees while sister Hope paraded the beautiful goats up to greet us. We talked about the dairy and learned that they have 5 acres for the 100 Nubian and Alpine goats to roam freely. It was interesting to learn that they get their goats from Jennifer and David Bice of Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol. David Bice was on the tour with us and he kept recognizing the grown up ladies that he helped raise.

After getting to know the goats and the land, we were shown the many processes that happen every day on the farm. First, we milked a goat This was great. If you have never milked a goat, I recommend that you try it. There is an element of fear that the animal is going to kick you, but also a sense of gratification once you get the rhythm down. After we milked our girl, we moved the milk straight to the cooling tank. The milk was delicious and sweet with a beautiful silken consistency. These are the traits that are so important for great cheese it all comes back to the quality of the milk.

We headed to the cheese making room next door to see how their amazing cheeses were made. Pure Luck Dairy makes many award winning cheeses, including: Basket Molded Chevre, Saint Maure, Claire de Lune (named after Claire), Del Cielo, Feta and Hopelessly Bleu (named after Hope). We were set up to make the fresh basket molded chevre. The process is a 24 hour setting of the curd for a lactic fermentation cheese. This process makes a very pillowy and light cheese, classically French in style.

After we made the cheese we headed out to meet the stud of the organization, Freelance Fabulosos. I kid you not; this stud who services the 72 working girls was stunning. When I called his name, he struck a pose and showed us all of his glory. He stood three feet high, had the head of an Ox and the confidence of Zorro. He is only a year old David Bice told us, he is going to fill out and become a real stud in a few years.

Our tour was coming to an end, but not before we had the pleasure of trying all of the marvelous cheeses that they make. We all gathered around and basked in the shade while nibbling and sharing which were our favorites. It was to difficult to choose from the fresh basket chevre that we were fortunate enough to see the process of how it was made to the incredibly rich goat milk feta that they bathed in a fruity extra virgin olive oil and rosemary picked fresh from their certified organic garden. I must say that I fell in love with the Hopelessly Blue with its delicate and creamy texture and subtle blue mold; it went down real easy with a local cold brew.

Although Pure Luck Dairy only sells their cheese to local markets in Texas, I will try my best to bring in these hand made, artisanal cheeses so that we can all experience the best that Texas has to offer