Blakesville Creamery

Port Washington, WI

A farmstead goat cheese maker established in 2020 located on the shores of Lake Michigan in Port Washington, Wisconsin and led by Veronica Pedraza, a world-class cheesemaker, beer connoisseur, and Anne’s first employee at her original Essex Market shop!

At Blakesville Creamery an Apprentice might learn how to milk goats using inflations; how and when to feed goats; the basics of sanitation (i.e. how to make cheese safely); the basics of milk chemistry (i.e. what is milk); how to culture and coagulate milk to make cheese; how to "hoop" curds into cheese-forms; how to salt cheese; how to care for cheese (affinage).

The goals at Blakesville Dairy Farm and Blakesville Creamery are to humanely raise healthy goats using sustainable farming practices and to produce the highest quality of handmade artisan cheeses. The farm name was updated in 2019 from Lake Breeze (now one of their cheese names) to Blakesville Dairy Farm to honor the original village that was once located on the land.

The cheesemaking facility began production in the summer of 2020. They are a farmstead creamery, meaning that their cheeses are made by hand on the same farm where the animals are raised and their milk is collected. Because of this, care and attention to the purity, quality, and flavor of the milk are critical to the production process.  

The cheeses are ripened naturally, focusing on developing characteristic flavor and texture and eschewing shortcuts or techniques that would affect quality. Respect for the traditions and history of cheesemaking are honored within their 10,000 sq ft state-of-the-art creamery, resulting in a modern-day facility that seamlessly blends a timeless art form with modern science.