SAY CHEESE: Goat milk products take top restaurant billing

Are these baby goats the cutest mascots you've ever seen?

Wamuran business Little White Goat Cheese. Picture: Contributed

KAREN Lindsay might seem like she's kidding around, but she takes the production of her Little White Goat Cheese very seriously.

Taking a sustainable and ethical approach to her 80-strong herd, the end result is an award-winning goat's cheese lovingly made by hand from teat to eat.

Karen Lindsay was living on a banana farm in the foothills of Wamuran when she started making soap out of goat's milk 15 years ago.

After varying levels of success, she let go of that idea and turned to edibles - custard, ice cream and yoghurt, the latter most definitely not working.

Wamuran business Little White Goat Cheese. Picture: Contributed

Karen and her daughter, Georgia, then learned the art of cheese making and Karen found her calling.

The only problem was they didn't have enough goats to make cheese.

"We had two lousy milkers, Possum and Poorinda - Possum with her little baby finger teats and Poorinda with her massive jugs,” Karen said,.

"Four years later, these hands were milking 32 goats.

"Picture this woman sitting on a stool, milking every conceivable shape and size of goat titty - long ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones, dangly ones, perky ones, even spotted ones.”

Until that point she and Georgia had been "playing” around making goat's cheese, Karen said, and when it came time to really focus on their product, Georgia lost interest.

Since then, Karen has been a woman of many talents and worn multiple hats including cheese maker, breeder, milker, midwife, nutritionist, vet, herbalist, grief counsellor, companion and undertaker.

"Love, heart and soul is poured into every stage, from birth to death,” she said.

"Indeed, I have yet to find another goat's cheese maker who is crazy-passionate enough to do it all on their own, to devote 24/7 to the physical and emotional wellbeing of their goats.”

But it's been worth it, as Little White Goat Cheese has become a firm favourite over the past four years with cheese lovers and chefs alike, it even appeared on this season of MasterChef with great aplomb.

Little White Goat Cheese also recently won three gold medals at the Royal National Association's (RNA) Dairy Produce Awards.

The signature product is persian goat feta ashed chevre, which is hand rolled in roasted vegetable ash, and Karen is currently maturing a tomme style cheese, which is similar to a cheddar.

Over the years, the farm has grown to 80 dairy goats, not including those that have been relocated to other farms to ensure the genetic diversity of the herd, and Karen now has 25 milkers, which she's looking to more than double to keep up with product demand.

It's a big job, with Karen milking daily.

She also takes a sustainable and ethical approach in managing the herd, which allows the goats to breed naturally, at their normal time of year and are not subjected to any kind of hormone or light therapy.

This means Little White Goat Cheese experiences seasonality in its supply.

To offset this and have a constant supply of cheese, Karen sources buffalo, camel and cow milk from partner farms, her range now including a marinated buffalo feta in brine and a Persian-style camel feta.

"Little White Goat Cheese not only pleases the palate of my customers, it also provides a delicious dairy delight for the lactose intolerant,” Karen said

She said her cheese didn't have the typical gamey taste of most goat's cheeses.

"It's hard to explain why it tastes different without explaining how the farm is different.

"The herd is split, with boys and girls kept separate because the boys tend to wee on and around the girls, which impacts the flavour of the goat's milk.

"By separating the boys from the girls, the milk is smoother in its flavour profile which means the cheese starts on the smoothest base and results in an overall smoother, tastier cheese.”

Little White Goat Cheese is available from local IGAs and Maleny Food Co.

You can also find it on the menu at a range of restaurants including Matt Golinski's View Restaurant in Noosa, Ocean View Estates at Mount Mee, Pomodoras in Maleny, Harry's on Buderim, The Long Apron and Flame Hill Vineyard in Montville.

Little White Goat Cheese was one of 13 food and beverage businesses chosen to participate in the GrowCoastal food innovation accelerator program, delivered in partnership with the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast and the Food and Agribusiness Network.

For more on Little White Goat Cheese, go to www.littlewhitegoatcheese.com.au.

Applications are now open for the 2020 GrowCoastal program, subject to support from new/existing funding partners in 2020. Applications close 13 December, to apply go to http://to www.innovationcentre.com.au/growcoastal