Last week the Estrella Family Creamery stated publicly that they are out of the raw milk cheese business.

“Four months have passed since our cheese making operation was shut down by authorities, and we have finally come to the conclusion that it will not be possible to move forward in that same direction at this time. We never had any reported illness, we regularly tested for pathogens and we did our best to provide a safe product of the very highest quality. But the legal situation has made it all but impossible to continue.”

One of the most talented cheesemakers in the country and entirely self-taught, Kelli along with her whole family produced extraordinary cheeses that earned local, national and international recognition less than five years after the Creamery opened.

2006

American Dairy Goat Association

• Best In Show Grisdale Goat

American Cheese Society Annual Competition

• 1st Place Aged Goat: Grisdale Goat
• 1st Place Farmstead Goat: Caldwell Crik Chevrette
• 2nd Place Farmstead Cow: Bea Truffled

2007

World Cheese Awards, London, UK

• Silver Medal: Grisdale Goat
• Silver Medal: Caldwell Crik Chevrette

American Cheese Society Awards

• 1st Place: Weebles (Smoked Italian Style)

2008

American Cheese Society Awards

• 1st Place Aged Goat: Grisdale Goat
• 2nd Place Smoked Italian Styles: Weebles

World Cheese Awards, Dublin, Ireland

• Gold (Semi-hard goat’s milk cheese): Grisdale Goat
• Gold (Smoked Cheeses hard): Weebles
• Silver: Caldwell Crik Chevrette
• Silver (hard pressed cow’s milk): Bea Truffled
• Silver (Semi-Hard Cheese): Old Apple Tree Tomme

2009

American cheese Society Awards

• First in Class: Weebles

World Cheese Awards, Gran Canaria

• Gold (Semi-Hard Goats’ Milk, Plain): Grisdale Goat

2010

American Cheese Society Awards

• First In Class (Smoked Italian Styles): Weebles
• First In Class (Mixed Milks): Caldwell Crik Chevrette
• Second Prize (Flavored Peppers): Jalapeno Buttery

Kelli and Anthony Estrella moved to Montesano 25 years ago where Anthony worked as a logger and Kelli worked in various jobs. She also began to make cheese as a hobby.

After years of trying to conceive a child, Kelli and Anthony decided to adopt, and chose minority children because “we had the love and they needed families.” They now have six children; four came into the family as infants, and two came from Liberia as pre adolescents.

While their family grew, Anthony continued to work as a logger and Kelli stayed at home taking care of the children and a couple of goats that produced milk for what had become her passion, making cheese.

Ten years later the Estrellas bought an old dairy farm in Montesano. In 2000 the Estrella Family Creamery officially opened.

Selling their cheeses to restaurants, specialty cheese shops, at their farm store and to farmers markets, their extraordinary qualities were recognized and professionally applauded right away. They began to win prestigious awards and national attention.

The Estrellas were part of a tiny but talented group of raw milk cheesemakers across the country who were making great cheeses in traditional European styles. The U.S. culinary world (and thousands of enthusiastic eaters) stood in lines at farmers markets and specialty cheese counters to buy three and four ounce wedges of remarkable and U.S. made delicacies.

You might assume that the government would reach out to this fledgling industry and offer its support. Instead, somewhere around 2006, the FDA partnered with state health departments and began a national effort to eliminate raw milk and raw milk products from the marketplace. Identifying artisan raw milk cheesemakers as a threat to national health, “officers” of state health departments (many of whom have no concept of artisan cheese or the process of producing it) conduct unannounced raids on raw milk creameries, label hundreds of pounds of cheese tested or not unfit for sale, announce it to the press and leave the cheesemakers to work their ways through the state bureaucracies and FDA regulations to become in compliance with regulations designed for large commercial dairies and creameries that produce milk and cheese for the mass market.

Their campaign is working. Velveeta rules.