CYPRESS POINT CREAMERY, INC.
HAWTHORNE, FLORIDA

When I got out of the Navy, we moved home to help her mom decide what to do with the dairy since her father had passed away. I guess the die was cast – we bought the farm from her mom and began our lives as dairymen. Over the years we milked nearly every kind of cow there is, mostly Holstein and Brown Swiss. In 1994 we decided to sell our cows, take a vacation and do some remodeling. We decided to start back in the business as a grazing dairy and all the research showed the Jersey to be the choice. In 1996 we bought the first of our wonderful “little brown cows”. Over the course of the next several years we grew our herd of registered Jerseys to over 200 head. We still today milk about that many. Most of our milk is marketed through our co-op, where we are awarded a premium for our excellent quality and high butterfat. For many years we had been considering producing some value added product. After meeting with other artisan cheese makers and much discussion, we decided Farmstead Cheese was the way to go. In April 2009 we began construction on our cheese plant right next door to our milking parlor. In March 2010 we made our first cheese – a gouda. Cypress Point Creamery Located in north central Florida, just a few miles east of Gainesville and “Gator Country”, we are surrounded on all sides by timberlands. Deer, turkey, eagles and many other varieties of wildlife are our closest neighbors. For years we thought about bottling our own milk or making ice cream before we decided to make artisan cheeses. The decision came after meeting other cheese makers and visiting other farms. We thought, “we can do this”! I designed the plant and we began construction in April 2009. Less than a year later we began making cheese. We hired a New England cheese maker to show us how to use our new Dutch made vat and press and we were on our way! We began with Gouda and Havarti, and have now added Baby Swiss and Tomme. We plan to expand our line as we learn and as the market demands. Cypress Point Creamery