Getting to know Lark's Meadow

Lark’s Meadow Farms is a twenty-acre sheep dairy nestled in a friendly community just outside of Rexburg Idaho on the sunny side of the Teton Mountains. This area has rich, volcanic soil providing for lush, nutritious pasture and some of the best alfalfa in the United States. Not only do the sheep literally run to eat it, but it also naturally increases milk production and brings subtle flavor nuances that enhance our milk and cheese.

Our flock consists of Friesian and Lacaune cross dairy sheep that we rescued from a precarious situation in 2008. There are currently seventy milking ewes and close to two hundred new lambs. Each season the lambs are hand fed for the first few days of their lives and then cared for carefully as they grow to market size. The ewes are brought onto the milk line and milked twice a day producing approximately thirty gallons of luscious, creamy milk.

The fresh, raw milk is gently handled and made into artisan cheese following a Basque style from Europe. It is made by hand each day after the morning milking. After the cheese wheels are formed they are rubbed with salt and allowed to develop a natural mold rind. The cheeses age in our cave for a minimum of sixty days before they come to market.

Lark’s Meadow Farms is family run and committed to producing the best sheep’s milk cheese in the region by giving attention to detail and great care to our animals and pasture.

Cheese for Sale!

Lark's Meadow Farms officially has cheese for sale! We spent the last weekend (June 18^th and 19^th) at two farmers markets in Rexburg and Idaho Falls and sold way more cheese than we expected. Pictured above you can see, Kendall, our cheese maker preparing samples of the first wheels ever to be offered publicly. We are grateful for the overwhelming support and positive feedback that we have been receiving.

Our first customer is from Rexburg. She will go down in the history files of Lark's Meadow! And she is beautiful too!

The farmers markets have a wonderful atmosphere and provide a neat opportunity to meet people in the community. If you have not been to one, we definitely recommend it!

Thanks! We hope you enjoy the cheese!

The Flock- We do mean Sheep!

One of the most common questions we have had when we introduce our cheese as sheep milk cheese is, "Sheep? You mean goats, right?"

No, we actually do mean sheep. These are our milking ewes out in the pasture. The soil here has rich nutrients that come from volcanic activity of days gone by. The pasture gives the ewes good nutrition that naturally increases their milk production and gives different flavor nuances to the cheese.

The breeds that we have are not common to this region. They are East Friesian and Lacaune crosses bred specifically for dairy production. In future posts we will introduce you to some of our sheep, so that you can see what they are like.