Bleating Heart Cheese

Corsica 2011

Seana — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 05:52:06 +0000

Our big trip in the Spring of 2011 was spending two weeks on the amazing and beautiful island of Corsica, where most of the cheese is made from sheep milk, along with some goat too (no cows there). We were just blown away by the dedication to local products in every shop and store we visited, even supermarkets, which all had completely dedicated sections for Corsican cheeses. In Corsica they have their own "brebis du Corse" or Corsican ewes, which are very similar to the Sarda sheep that inhabit Sardinia, their neighbor to the south. These sheep are much smaller than the cross-bred dairy sheep we have in the United States. This was a truly unforgettable experience!

The History of Bleating Heart Cheese

Seana — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Founded in June 2009 by Seana Doughty, Bleating Heart Cheese began with a mission to produce unique, handcrafted, premium quality “American Original” sheep milk cheese. The inspiration came shortly after Seana quit her desk job and went to work at a neighborhood cheese shop, - California's 4th sheep dairy - in Marshall, CA. Marcia's name appeared on LinkedIn when Seana searched on the word "sheep" just to see who might show up; Marcia was a 2nd degree connection to Seana's husband, Dave Dalton. As it turned out, Marcia and Dave had worked in neighboring laboratories at the same research institute 20+ years earlier, long before Seana and Dave had ever met, and long before Marcia or Seana ever had the crazy idea of making and selling sheep milk cheese....talk about a small world! Seana wasted no time getting connected with Marcia and within weeks the two had met and made plans for how they could help each other in what was the first year of cheese production for both new companies.

Seana gained a lot of experience helping in Marcia's new sheep dairy, and had a great time sharing Marcia's little creamery. During this time, Seana created Bleating Heart's most popular cheese, "Fat Bottom Girl." By the end of summer 2009, Marcia realized that she needed every precious drop of her flock's milk for her own delicious cheese, which meant she could no longer sell the amount of milk Bleating Heart needed to continue cheese production. Seana had a choice to make: stop making sheep cheese, OR, get some sheep.

In December 2009, Seana took the plunge and purchased a starter flock of dairy sheep. She bought a big truck on Craigslist, drove to Wisconsin and picked up 10 pregnant ewes from a sheep dairy in Wisconsin. These ewes were crosses between the East Friesian and Lacaune dairy breeds which are common throughout Europe. Seana and her husband Dave attentively cared for these ewes while they lived in the apple orchard in their backyard. Despite the fact that Seana and Dave never sought to become farmers or raise livestock, they figured they'd better learn more about the animals that were living on their property! Dave enrolled in a sheep management class at Santa Rosa Community College, and Seana completed a intensive course in sheep dairying at the University of Wisconsin.

At the same time the sheep were on maternity leave in Seana & Dave's backyard, Seana was scouring the region looking for partners - people that knew more about farming and animal husbandry - to start a sheep dairy on a real farm. Seana knew she could not possibly startup a new dairy and learn to raise sheep at the same time she was honing the craft of cheesemaking and building the new cheese business. With the help of a flyer Seana posted at the local farm bureau, she was connected with experienced sheep ranchers, Rex & Kerry Williams, owners of

From 2009 through 2012, Bleating Heart had no creamery of its own. All of the cheeses were produced by renting time in other cheesemakers' facilities. During the first 3 1/2 years of Bleating Heart's existence, Seana made cheese in 5 different creameries in the Sonoma-Marin region. Also during this time, Dave became increasingly involved in the business and eventually became an equal partner with Seana. In 2013 Bleating Heart finally secured a more permanent home, moving cheese production to a newly renovated facility located on the historic Thornton Ranch in Tomales, CA. Another bonus of having the creamery located on the Thornton Ranch is proximity to more milk - both sheep and jersey cow. Bleating Heart wasted no time in contracting with Marissa Thornton to purchase all of the milk from her newly revamped dairy,

In December 2009 Seana took a big and risky leap of faith and . These ewes were crosses between the East Friesian and Lacaune dairy breeds which are common throughout Europe. East Friesian sheep originated in Germany and are considered to be the highest producing dairy breed by milk volume, while the French Lacaune sheep produce milk with slightly higher milk solids. The famous Roquefort blue cheese from France is made exclusively from the milk of Lacaune sheep.

These first 10 ewes lived happily in Seana's backyard - which happens to be a 6 acre apple orchard - for 5 months where they all had their babies and had Seana as their faithful shepherdista through Spring 2010. By that time Seana had formed a partnership with seasoned sheep ranchers Rex & Kerry Williams who live just a few miles away on a proper farm. After all the babies were born, they packed up the flock and moved them down the road. Work was already underway to fix up part of an old barn on Rex & Kerry's farm which became the milking parlor. The three sheep dairy dreamers formed an LLC, becoming Black Oaks Sheep Dairy, the 5th licensed sheep dairy in the state of California.

While Seana certainly had an unforgettable adventure buying and caring for the starter flock, she decided to focus on honing her cheesemaking skills, and let much more qualified people focus on the dairy! Black Oaks Sheep Dairy is now owned and operated by the very dedicated and talented Rex and Kerry Williams, who continue to be close friends and collaborators, and who continue sell all of their milk exclusively to Bleating Heart.

Meet the starter flock! The first 10 ewes with their names and birth year.... (and Whoopi above)

The Story of the Name & Logo

Seana — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:22:17 +0000

Folks often ask: how did you come up with the name Bleating Heart®? Well....cows moo, goats and sheep bleat. From the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

bleat : to make the natural cry of a sheep or goat

It is a pun, a play on the term "bleeding heart" which is defined as "a person who shows extravagant sympathy especially for an object of alleged persecution." We certainly have extravagant sympathy for American food artisans, but mainly we just thought this name was funny. After all, our motto is making seriously good cheese without taking ourselves too seriously. All of our cheese names are conceived with that same spirit. Our basic rule is that if a name isn't sort of funny, we're not using it.

From the start, we chose to break from convention and not use our own given names, or the names of places within our region to identify our cheeses. This does not diminish the quality of our cheese, or the profound respect we have for the dairy farmers who work so diligently every day to produce the milk to goes into our cheeses, nor does it mean we don't take immense pride in our region. We just decided to take a non-traditional, more humorous approach. It's actually no different than how most craft brewers name their beers (and we are BIG fans of craft beer).

We also get questions about our logo, because it is not your typical cheese brand logo. That was also on purpose. The heart is obvious - the name is Bleating Heart®. Our tagline of handcrafted with whimsy™ conveys the fun and whimsical spirit driving everything we do. In keeping with the handcrafted, unpretentious, whimsical nature of Bleating Heart cheese, we opted for a font that looks handwritten. We wanted to get as far away from elegant and fancy as possible.

As for the sheep in the logo, Seana met her in France in 2009. This is a real life sheep - not a drawing - who approached Seana while visiting a cheesemaker in the French Pyrenees mountains. This particular ewe was quite curious about Seana and her friend Minan who were engaged in cheese travel adventures at the time. This sheep approached Seana to say hello and then turned to Minan and heartily bleated at her just as the photo was being taken - a mid-bleat shot. Here is the original sequence as it happened in the barn in France:

Operation Sheep-O-Rama 2009

Seana — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:05:12 +0000

Here is the story of my journey from the Bay Area of California all the way to River Falls, WI to pick up my sheep. Along for the ride was my sister Jennifer, who was equally lacking in experience with driving a big ass 4x4 truck or driving in snowy/icy road conditions, let alone with livestock on board. So here's the lowdown on the 1 truck, 2 girls, 5 days, 10 sheep, and 4,200 miles that were......Operation Sheep-O-Rama. This is the initial map I put together for the trip, with tentative stopping points along the way.

Roquefort, France 2009

Seana — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Trip to the town of Roquefort in France, where they make the legendary and super delicious Roquefort blue cheese. The limestone caves were so awesome, and look at those gnarly aging shelves!

At the Spanish border, near El Formigal, Spain in the Basque Country 2009

Seana — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

My longtime BFF Minan was always in tow on my hot pursuit of cheese, and this day trip to the Spanish border high up in the Pyrenees mountains was no exception. Bienvenidos a Espana!