The new Washington Cheese Trail program is aimed at enticing consumers to visit the state’s many creameries.

Designed as a passport program by the technology company Bandwango, the online “trail” currently lists 22 creameries and 3 businesses offering Washington cheeses. More are expected to be added.

There are about 48 licensed Washington cheesemakers, said Courtney Johnson, executive director of the Washington State Cheesemakers Association.

“Which is a lot,” she said. “Most of them, they’re pretty hyper-local, they sell their cheeses in the town or county where they are, they don’t really travel. Most of them aren’t in retail.”

Most are along the Interstate 5 corridor on the western side of the state, but there are “pockets” and “clusters of creameries” to the north and “a nice smattering of folks” on the east side, in Yakima, Chelan and northeast and eastern corners of the state, Johnson said.

The commission board president is John Haugen, the creamery manager at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.

Johnson hopes to eventually reach at least 200 creameries.

“Slow and steady is good, especially to help get the cheesemakers acclimated to it,” she said. “Most of them are not techies.”

Cheesemakers at a glance

Cheesemakers are licensed as a milk processor in the state specifically to make cheese.

They’re either milking their own animals or buying milk from a neighbor, Johnson said. They make the cheese in their own state Department of Agriculture-inspected creameries and are licensed to sell it.

Cheese prices

As a longtime cheesemonger, Johnson knows people are often surprised by how expensive cheese can be.

“Especially since you go to the grocery store and you can get sliced or shredded, mass-produced cheese for much cheaper than cheeses made locally sometimes,” she said. “There’s very thin margins in cheese. Most cheesemakers aren’t making much money, if any. Most of them are floating by, if that.”

It’s a very physically demanding, labor-intense business.

“Basically a labor of love,” Johnson said. “Milk pricing in this country is challenging in and of itself, with the fluid milk market, for cow’s milk anyway.”

About 60% to 70% of cheese made in Washington comes from cow’s milk, she said. Many smaller creameries use goat’s milk, and a handful use sheep’s milk. Two creameries mix goat and sheep milks, but most are a single milk source.

“We all have expensive rent, wherever we live in this coastal state,” she said. “Especially when you’re aging a cheese, that cheese has rent, too.”

She also pointed to the cost of caring for and feeding animals as well. Feed prices almost doubled last year. This year, labor and staffing are more difficult.

“Inputs have definitely gone way up for our cheesemakers the past few years,” she said. “I think most of them have resisted raising prices for as long as possible. It is expensive during a time when a lot of people are struggling, but when you buy directly from a cheesemaker, at least it goes directly to them and supports their small business.”

Future goals

Will anyone try to visit every single cheesemaker on the trail?

“If someone wants to hit every single one, I feel like I can have a special prize for that person,” Johnson said. “We hadn’t thought about that, but that probably should be a goal.”

Johnson originally envisioned the program as a take on the Vermont Cheese Council’s trails-based scavenger hunt.

“…Vermont is a much smaller state than Washington,” she said.

But the program would help people determine which cheesemakers are closest to their region, or nearby if they’re planning a day or weekend trip.

Many cheesemakers don’t have their own shop or farm stand, so some listed certain retailers or farmers markets for their location, she said.

“An eventual goal would be for us to have other kinds of businesses on there, so you’d know, ‘We’re going to get our cheese here, and then go eat at this restaurant and shop at this grocery store or this farmers market,’” she said.

The Washington State Cheesemakers Association was founded in 2015 to support cheesemakers through education, promotion and collaboration.

Washington Cheese Trail

http://washingtoncheese.org/findwacheese/

Folks wishing to use the program can register online. They then receive a link to the passport, which can be saved to their phone as a bookmark – no need to install an app. Each time passport users visit one of the creameries or businesses listed in the passport, they can open the passport page to check in.

Users receive 10 points for each check in, and they may also receive discounts offered by the creamery or business with whom they are checking in.

Development of the Washington Cheese Trail was funded by a 2021 USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program grant award.

The project is supported by contributions from Genuine Skagit Valley, Tilth Alliance, and Dairy Farmers of Washington.