Chapel Hill Creamery attracts attention

Flo Hawley always wished she had grown up on a farm, and nine years ago, she got her shot at a life in the country.

Hawley is the co-owner of Chapel Hill Creamery, where she and her business partner Portia McKnight keep cows and make original cheeses.

“The cheese-making process is a mix of art and science,” said Hawley, a North Carolina native.

The creamery, which is located just outside of Chapel Hill off Dairyland Road, is home to about 55 cows, 25 of which are milked.

The herd is closed, meaning the creamery doesn’t buy and sell cows but breeds its own to best serve its purposes, Hawley said. The herd includes a few bulls and younger cows that can’t be milked.

From March through December, the creamery produces more than six different types of cheese, including “Carolina Moon,” which is similar to Camembert cheese, and “Thunder Mountain Swiss.”

When the pair initially decided to open the creamery, McKnight said, the first thing they did was learn how to make it.

The pair took a cheese-making course in Canada and later apprenticed in the U.S.

“We decided we wanted to raise our own animals, so in 2001 we got nine cows and just started milking them and making cheese,” she said. “It’s a fairly magical process.”

“You start with just milk and end up with all these possibilities.”

Though the production process varies for each type of cheese, generally the first step is adding bacterial culture to milk before it coagulates. The solids are then cut into cubes and gathered to make a wheel before being aged and salted.

The creamery’s cheese can be found at local farmers markets, restaurants and retailers throughout the state.

Next week the creamery is being featured at Panzanella in Carr Mill Mall for the last of the restaurant’s summer farm dinners.

There will be an abbreviated version of Panzanella’s regular menu and a specially prepared a la carte menu to highlight the creamery’s products.

“We started a relationship with certain farmers, including the Chapel Hill Creamery,” said Panzanella’s front manager Paola Cisarano. “We wanted to integrate something besides meat or vegetables in our event.”

The farmers are usually featured at the dinner as guests of honor and socialize with the event’s patrons. Other farms that have participated include Eco Farm, Peregrine Farm and Perry-winkle Farm.

Panzanella’s executive chef, Jim Nixon, said he hasn’t created the menu yet because he doesn’t know what the creamery will harvest in the days before the event.

Cisarano said the menu will probably consist of a soup, salad, appetizer and special pizza.

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