Mark Gilman & Elizabeth MacAllister

Cheesemakers Cato Farms

First question – why cheese?

Elizabeth: I didn’t grow up on a farm but I grew up in a cheese family. I grew up in a family where my father really loved cheese and I have endless anecdotes I could tell you about his adventures with cheese.

Mark: I grew up here and then went off to college and recently before I came back to make cheese I was a schoolteacher who taught 7th grade English. But was excited when Elizabeth started the business. I decided I wanted put the books in a box and go home and work with her for a while and see how that went and figured I could always go back to teaching if I needed to. But it was exciting to make cheese – you know I love cheese, I’ve always sought out good cheese and liked the idea of making something with my hands.

So now how does one become a cheese maker?

E: It helps to have the taste and know what things are supposed to taste like. But there are courses – I took a course at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo which was a technical course...the same course is given in two other universities around the country and also in Canada.

M: Yea I would say I first learned from Elizabeth and then participated in a number of different workshops – with somebody from Canada, somebody from Scotland, somebody from Vermont. I actually I went to a more intensive sort of chemistry of cheese – it was free class up in the University of Vermont that now offers a whole curriculum for training would-be cheese makers. So there are resources out there.

What’s special about your milk?

E: Well all the cows…their feed comes from where they live. So their milk represents the place you’re living in really. I mean in Europe where they take the cows up into the mountains in the summer it is very different from the milk in the winter. And so our milk is in a sense unique to our farm and that is an important thing if you want to make a product that is your own product – its sort of your signature.

There’s also the business side – who does that…share it?

M: Well we both do it. I handle the wholesale business but that’s only about 25%. About 75% of what we do is direct retail and the majority of that is down in NYC at the three farmer’s markets. Elizabeth has been going down almost every Saturday - occasionally I’ll go and work with some other people who work for us. It’s a long, exhausting day but it’s very exciting. You get instant feedback from customers, you’re there representing a product you’ve made and they’re excited about it.

How long is the day that each of your puts in?

M: Elizabeth works much more than I do. Monday and Friday are long days for me – probably 12 hours days. And then Tues, Wed, Thurs are 9 hour days. I have to work Saturdays but not always. But you end up working more.

E: I start at about 4 in the morning and am finished milking always by noon but sometimes it’s a little earlier than that. I order feed and hay and I take care of…I do a lot of managing the people who work for us. So I spend a lot of time with that. Then on Saturday I leave here a little after 4 and I go to NYC and not here until 9:30 at night. So that’s my long long day.

Now how would you define artesian cheeses?

M: Well we tend to use the word farmstead instead of artesianal which is a much more restrictive group. And that refers to - we own the cows, we own the animals. You know the milk only comes from our milk so there’s not a dollar amount or pound amount that’s a limit on that except what the physical capabilities are.

Do you do this b/c it’s a good way to make a living or because you love it or both?

E: We could earn more money. We could work fewer hours. I mean I’m 62 and I don’t know if I can work these hours forever and ever. You wish you could do other things and travel a little more but I certainly love doing it. I can’t imagine not doing it. I truly can’t.

M: I’ve been able to have a little more balance which I feel like I need for my family. It’s not a huge amount of money but its enough to live. And obviously it has to be a labor of love. I mean we work hard and we have to enjoy what we’re doing. Which we do.

Now what is it that you enjoy most?

E: I enjoy working with the cows. I love the animal. And I just relate to them as a kind of being and that’s very…I find that really rewarding. I like being with them.

M: There are lots of aspects about my work that I enjoy. I would say the most exciting for me is…I mean I’m focused on the cheese making so what’s exciting for me is when I know I have something good. You know you’re wrapping something for someone in the market and you’re realizing that….what do you recommend this week…I know these three cheeses are really good – I want you to have these three cheeses. That’s a pretty satisfying feeling.