A visit to Cosmic Wheel Creamery and Turnip Rock Farm & an interview with Rama Hoffpauir
Words and images by Iglika Petrova (a devoted Mill City Farmers Market shopper)
When talking to Rama at her booth at the Mill City Farmers Market one easily notices the warmth and genuineness she radiates. She is always present and engaging with each of her customers, and quietly awaits for them to try her cheeses and see the joyful reaction on their faces. One starts to wonder if this is the effect that nature has on us when we spend more time with it, like living on a farm and being so connected to nature and where our food comes from.
Rama and Josh Bryceson’s farm is not just any farm, but an ecosystem of healthy and wholesome land and animals. They approach each piece of their farm from a holistic point of view where everything is connected to everything. As Rama would say:
“The way we like to think and talk about our farm is a whole farm ecosystem. The whey from cheese-making goes to raise pigs. We compost all the bedding, and everything from the animals goes on to the veggie fields and the pastures, so that we can create as much of our own fertility as possible on the farm […] everything has purpose. Every animal, insect, fungi, bacteria and human is linked in a web of interdependence. Nothing goes to waste and we try to make each aspect of our farm complement and support every other aspect.”
Their love for growing, making and sharing their own food is so strong and anyone who encounters them feels that. They are a family of people who have a tremendous respect for the soil and, their natural environment, and it is reflected in their cheese and fresh produce.
Cosmic Wheel Creamery is part of Turnip Rock Farm, which is located in Clear Lake, Wisconsin. “We make cheese on our farm with milk from our own cows who are 100% grass-fed. We do rotational grazing, and the cheese is small-batch, hand-made where I make the cheese and my partner and a couple of employees milk and manage the livestock.” Rama’s and Josh’s philosophy about what they do and how they do it is so strong and can be seen in every aspect of their farm. Their sense of intention and purpose to live well-rounded lives, grounded in nature and its laws it’s so strong and it shows through their presence, energy and their cheese craftsmanship. And their farm and their home is a reflection of that. The grass fields are kept healthy by rotational grazing, giving the best grass by moving animals after a certain period to the next field. As cows would eat their favorite grass first in a pasture which contains several grass species, rotational grazing prevents the fields from being overgrazed and keeps the animals moving. In turn, the cows will give the best milk when roaming the fields freely, which is the best condition for their natural cow-self. And when that milk is turned into cheese, the flavor is as full and complex as the pastures and the air the cows have grazed.
What is so wonderful and unique about Rama’s cheese is that every batch of her cheese is different – just like a piece of art. For a long time Rama struggled because she couldn’t achieve consistency with her cheese only to realize that this is a blessing:
“One thing that’s been a challenge for me, as a person from the United States – we really expect consistency in everything. When I buy something, I really expect it to be the same every time. I had to learn to lean into the changes that happen when you’re milking and when the milk is coming from a single herd. There’s going to be a lot of variation based on the weather, what pastures they’re on, where they are in their lactation, things like that. I am still learning to work with the changes in the milk to make the best cheese that I can.”
Last year Rama was awarded a Next Stage Grant from the Mill City Farmers Market Charitable Fund, and she went to learn from another cheese-maker who has a similar size herd of cows, making cheese with seasonal milk. Not very many people in the United States are doing really small-scale, seasonal and grass fed cheese making. What she learned from that experience is to lean into the strength that is the seasonality of her milk and having something totally unique, and thinking of it as more of an art than a commodity. While there she also learned how to improve production for many of the cheese types she was already producing, and has gained confidence to venture into experimenting with new types of cheese like tomme and bleu.
At the beginning of her cheese-making Rama thought that she could make cheese in the winter and focus on their vegetable farm in the summer. She noticed and learned that the milk produced by cows in the summer is a lot more rich in flavor, and in turn, the cheese made from it has more complex vegetal and grass notes. The milk also has more beta carotene which gives the beautiful, natural yellow color of the cheese. Seasonal milking also works with the natural lactation cycle of cows, where they are at their peak in the summer and veer off in late fall.
Rama started making cheese as a way to fully enjoy the milk from the one cow named Carl that she and Josh bought in the beginning of their farming days. Over the years her love of cheese making has turned into her calling, and her herd has grown to 10 cows. Rama is as curious about cheese making techniques as she is interested in what it takes to have the best milk and healthy cows. Her relentless love, hard work, determination and science-like curiosity produces cheese with flavors that are full, bold, complex and as beautiful as the nature, the animals and the hands involved in crafting it.
As in the words of H. Jackson Brown Jr.: “Remember that children, marriages and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” Rama’s wonderful cheese is also a true reflection of this statement.
If you haven’t tried her cheese, stop by her booth at the Mill City Farmers Market and bring a piece of her farm and herself into your home. She will be at the upcoming December markets on 12/7 and 12/21, and for a full list of upcoming market dates you can check their vendor page or follow along on social media!
Get the Recipe: Baked Camembert with Garlic and Honey
