Shear Shaggy Sheep! Afterward, Eat Some Great Cheese

At Valley Shepherd Creamery in Long Valley, they are getting out the clippers. About 700 sheep need to be sheared this month, and you're welcome to pitch in. Sheep are giving birth, too, and you are welcome to cuddle the newborn lambs. And then, not least, there's the cheese.

Valley Shepherd has come to be known for the excellence of its many artisanal cheeses. By the end of May, hundreds of lambs will be born, sending their mother’s into the spring-to-fall milking season that provides much of the dairy for owner Eran Wajswol’s 35 different products.

Starting this month, visitors can tour the farm and creamery on weekends. On April 20th and 27th, for  $10, you can try your hand at shearing. One of Valley Shepherd’s veteran shearers can trim a sheep in about two minutes. A novice would likely need about 15 minutes. You probably won’t get to shear an entire sheep yourself, but the staff will show you how to handle the shears carefully so you don’t snag a finger.

While you’re there, you can also watch cheese being made, sample finished cheeses and cuddle those cute little lambs.

In April, May and June–check valleyshepherd.com for dates–the Creamery will offer in-depth cheese-making workshops. Using milk from Valley Shepherd’s Guernsey cows, about 25 students per session will make their own  two-pound wheel of Dutch farmstead cheese.The wheels will be aged in Valley Shepherd’s mainly underground aging rooms for 90 days. Then students return to claim their wheel, tour the property and enjoy a luncheon. Cost per student for the whole experience is $155.

Before opening the creamery in 2005 with a dozen sheep, Wajswol–an engineer trained at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken–developed apartment buildings and shopping malls. His background came in handy when creating the cheese-aging cave that was blasted out of the side of a rocky hill and covered back over with earth, leaving just the entrance protruding. The cave naturally maintains a temperature of 52°F and 85 percent humidity, except in July and August, when some cooling is required.

Four years ago, Valley Shepherd added goats and cows, which have a longer milking season, enabling Wajswol to expand cheese production and variety.

The Edam-style Gotogetagoat and paprika-spiced Red Goat are popular, but the original cheeses–like Oldwick Shepherd, resembling Manchego, and the award-winning Crema de Blue–sell best.

Wajswol names many varieties for New Jersey locations, including Tewksbury, a nutty Swiss; Gouda-style Califon Tome; and sharp and salty Hunterdon.

The Creamery’s Sheep Shoppe sells, in addition to cheeses, other artisanal products, such as pasta, meats and sweets from all over.

From start to finish, Valley Shepherd strives for sustainability, meaning nothing is wasted. You can even buy bags of Ewe Poo compost for your garden.

Much of the roughly two tons of wool sheared from the 700 sheep each spring goes to a mill that weaves it into raw wool, cream-colored blankets sold at the Sheep Shoppe (a 76 x 104” blanket costs $155).

SUZANNE ZIMMER LOWERY is a food writer, pastry chef and culinary instructor at a number of New Jersey cooking schools. Find out more about her at suzannelowery.com.

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