'It is like eating candy': Antigo's Eckerman Sheep Co. makes award-winning cheeses
When most people think of the Dairy State, they’re typically thinking cow milk. Yet there are sheep milk producers here, including Darlene and Steve Eckerman in Antigo.
Dairy is at the heart of their story, including the fact that they met at a dairy workshop in Green Bay decades ago. Today, they raise lambs for meat and milk sheep at Eckerman Sheep Company. Giving a nod to Darlene’s regional roots and third-generation connection to Phlox Butter plant and Phlox Creamery, the couple named their sheep milk cheese brand Phlox Farms.
Their award-winning sheep milk cheeses have received recognition every year, and they’re shipped across the country. This year, the 2019 Ewemazing placed second in the mixed milk category at the World Dairy Expo’s 2022 Championship Dairy Product Contest.
World Dairy Expo will be held Oct. 2-7 at the Alliant Energy Center, 1919 Alliant Energy Center Way, Madison. Tickets are $15 daily.
On Oct. 4, all first-place winners will be auctioned and a portion of the proceeds will fund scholarships for students pursuing dairy careers. For information on the auction, call (608) 836-3336.
Back in 2017, the Eckermans also won with their 2016 Lovely Lamb. Yet they wondered what happened to cheeses that weren’t auctioned off, including second- and third-place winners. For the past 19 years, all second- and third-place winners have been donated to Madison Area Technical College’s culinary school. Students prepare new recipes with the products, which are then served Oct. 4 during a reception for the expo's auction.
Darlene spoke for the couple.
Generations of Phlox
We picked the Phlox label, Phlox Farms, because I grew up here. My grandfather started the Phlox Butter plant and Phlox Creamery. My dad continued. We went with Phlox Farms for our cheese. My grandpa started this in 1912. I’m third generation.
Our son Chris is now a cheesemaker and cheese grader. He’s working in Kansas at a brand-new cheese plant there.
A match made with milk
Steve was working in Wittenberg in the Morning Glory plant, a butter plant, now Nueske's. He came here from Iowa, had a degree in food science. That was his first job in 1975.
In 1976, I graduated from UW-Madison studying food science and dairy. My best job offer was my dad. … That fall, we both went to a dairy workshop in Green Bay. I was the only female in the room, didn't bother me because my professors were all teaching so I knew them. Steve called a week later later and asked me out.
Changes in the cheese world
There are far more women in cheesemaking now than when I started, and they are holding far more positions of responsibility. When I started they'd say things like, “We'd interview you but we won’t hire you, because it is too dangerous …”
Cows vs. sheep
Sheep are smaller to handle than cows. Steve’s family … in Brookings, South Dakota, had meat sheep. Steve spent the summers with them.
We started in 1989 with fair market sheep. That evolved as we attended a lot of meetings. Until the children got older, we didn't get into the milking. We became part of Wisconsin Dairy Sheep Co-op back then.
Educating consumers
There is an education aspect of it. Sheep’s milk, the proteins are more digestible. All milk has lactose, but when you make cheese, it breaks it down as well. I know a number of people handle the sheep cheese well.
Wisconsin has the most number of milking sheep, and that isn’t very many. We do have the new SDAW, Sheep Dairy Association of Wisconsin, and that would be a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more. …
When we lost (the dairy sheep research program at) Spooner and they closed that (in 2016), it was horrendous. They were the drive behind any of the research and bringing in new products. It was the only research station here, and I believe the only dairy sheep station in all of North America, and they closed it down.
The difference is in the details
Sheep’s milk is richer, sweeter and creamier. There is nothing like a good sheep cheese. Our cheeses are aged, and it is like eating candy.
There are places that make the fresh sheep cheese, but ours are aged. You have to remember with sheep cheese, you get so little milk out of a sheep compared to goat and cows.
No two cheeses are the same
Our 2017, it is also called Ewemazing, but it doesn’t taste anything like the 2019. Our cheeses are done by years and names.
Every other year, we do the same formula, but because it is artisan cheese it will taste different. In 2017, we won our class with Lovel Lamb. Last year in the same contest, the 2018 Lovely Lamb placed first as well for World Dairy Products.
Art and culture
Steve’s background is cultures, so he has an inside track on (cheese) cultures and how to put them together to make a good cheese.
Biggest source of sales
Our sheep cheese is sold coast to coast. We ship a lot of gift box cheese out at Christmas, and many sales come from the Oshkosh market. We will be there again (Nov. 26 and Dec. 17 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Oshkosh Arena, 1212 S. Main St., Oshkosh).
We also sell online. Shipping is not that bad for the cheese because that is smaller pieces, and in the fall and winter it is better because of the weather.
Making their cheese
We have to do 6,000 pounds, so we get 72 wheels.
This is artisan cheese. We are a plant, but we do not make the cheese here. We have our own recipe we have developed, but we have to find a cheese plant to make our cheese. Any other state, we could do our own right on site. So we partner with a cheese plant.
We found a great cheesemaker, Katie Hedrich out of LaClare (Creamery), and that last batch she did was the 2019.
What she wants you to know
Sheep milk cheese is amazing. We think it is the best cheese out there. You have to find a good sheep milk cheese and try it. Ours are very good, but it is limited-supply artisan cheese. It is sold in small pieces. It is expensive because a sheep does not give very much milk.
Savor small bites
People ask what I cook with it. I don’t. I might make a fancy grilled cheese, but otherwise it is a cheese you snack with wine or beer or serve at a party as appetizers. It is a special-occasion treat.
Why it’s worth it
A sheep will give five to 10 pounds of milk, and some farmers can get 10. We don’t. Cows will give 72 pounds at a time. So why choose sheep? Because the cheese tastes so good.
Plan ahead
Sheep only milk January through October. They are seasonal. Typically because of the tax work I do, we lamb after tax season.
More than cheese
We started selling in Oshkosh because my daughter Patricia and my son-in-law have a restaurant there called Manila Resto. They usually do these 100 pound pigs and make lechon. It is phenomenal.
They make Filipino food and sushi there, and it is so good. We had our 45th anniversary celebration there this weekend, because it is central for most of the family. I asked if they could do the lechon with a lamb. Why would I pay for a pig when we have lamb? Chef Ninoy had never cooked lamb this way, but it turned out so tender.
We sell a lot of our lamb. People often say “I don't like lamb” and I say you haven’t had ours. Our lamb meat tastes great. We ship that frozen. We did the lamb way before the cheese started in 2016.
Milk and money matters
I do taxes for farms. I have a sheep farm that is doing amazingly well, just milking. The cheese is an added value, which is why we went into the cheese. You make more money selling your own product. You can make a living doing this. You need an outside job or a lot of savings to get started.
Sheep science
One of the things about sheep’s milk, why it is so easily digestible, the fat is integrated so finely into the milk globules the cream does not rise to the top. You can also freeze it as it does not separate the same way as goat or cow milk.
Sheep milk can be frozen, and that's how we started. We’d freeze it in bags, ship it to New York and they’d thaw it. … Sartori cheese is 10 miles from us, but we don’t have enough to supply them on any given day yet. We have enough sheep, but we’re not milking enough yet.
More: Two Creek Farms creator, age 22, hired 23 summer workers as his meat business soared
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email psullivan@gannett.com.
Earlier versions of this story had an incorrect date for Eckerman Sheep Co.'s appearance at the Oshkosh market.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Eckerman Sheep Co. makes sheep milk cheese, wins at World Dairy Expo
