How it all began The duo met while they were working for Gregersen’s family creamery in Sacramento. Originally dairy farmers from Denmark, Gregersen’s parents owned several dairy processing businesses in the Sacramento area in the 1960s. At one point, they ran an ice cream factory and three so- called drive-in dairies (actually small creameries), each that processed and sold dairy products andmilk under one roof. Imagine a modern drive-thru with milk processing in the back and people taking orders up front. It was at one of these creameries where Gregersen and Dundon first tinkeredwithmaking traditional farmhouse- style cheeses in micro-batches using no gums, stabilizers, preservatives, artificial flavors or added sugars—the same way their cheese is made today. Gregersen had studied cheesemaking in Denmark and Canada and said he would “talk John’s ear off ” about it, adding, “the more I got into it, the more I knew that’s what I wanted to do.” “Farmers will tell you, once you’ve gotmilk in your blood, it just stays with you,” he said. “I think John and I had that.” Dundun did not come from a dairy background but got into thebusinessworking at a creamery inMount Shasta right out of high school and later for Gregersen’s father. He later spent two years working at New Hampshire-based Brown Cow, where he learned to make yogurt and other cultured products, before moving back to the Sacramento region. By then, the Gregersens’ drive-in business had become more of a distributor for other dairy processors. This opened the door for Gregersen and Dundon to use the small processing room in the back for making cheese and other products. In1997, theydecided togo intobusiness together— deliveringmilk by day andmaking cheese by night. Making themove toGlennCounty “We were making it with our own hands, just a step up from your kitchen kind of thing when we started in the back room,” Gregersen said. “We liked the f lavor. Everything tasted much better.” For the first two to three years, they sold their products at farmers markets, where their cream cheese became an instant hit. “Itwas the farmersmarketswherepeoplewere comingback every weekend to look out for our product,” Gregersen said. The partners said the reason they moved the company to Glenn County was for the region’s milk, which came from more than 20 dairies in operation at the time. More important, they wanted to work with dairies that could
Sierra Nevada Cheese Co. employee Omar Velazquez, above, works with cheese curds during the production process.
provide grass-fedmilk, whichGregersen said was “right up our alley.” Today, Sierra Nevada markets a line of products called Graziers, named for farmers who graze livestock on pasture, notedMeghanRodgers, the company’s sales andmarketing manager. Products labeled as such aremade withmilk from grass-fed cows. The company also makes a variety of organic dairy products, which already come from cows raised on pasture and that meet national organic standards. Poised for growth Because his family produces milk for Sierra Nevada— and earns a premium for it—dairy farmer Zuppan said his family has returned to pasturing their cows, which they moved away from years ago when they converted their farmland to grow feed crops.What they couldn’t grow, they had to buy. Cows don’t produce as much milk on grass, he noted, but the money he now saves on not having to buy as much feed has made “a huge difference.” “Now the incentive to go grass makes sense,” he said, adding that the Graziers program taps into a growing trend of people “really trying topay attention towhat they’re eating.” The dairy, based in Orland, still ships some of its milk to a national dairy cooperative. But that milk must be hauled all the way to Alameda County; when the co-op closed its Glenn County cheese plant in 2019, more dairies in the region exited the business.
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January/February 2022
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