BLUFFTON, Alta. – A container load of feta builds in a mountain of white plastic pails in the back of a plain building on Johan and Barb Broere’s farm. Bound for Montreal restaurants, the “cow feta” is one of 30 cheeses the couple produces on the Alberta side of the Rocky Mountains.
Cheese making was Johan’s route to fulfilling his lifelong ambition of becoming a farmer.
“Where I come from, in Holland, when a young person finishes agriculture school and can’t find a job or can’t afford to start farming right away, they buy a cheese vat and start making cheese right on the farm. Here it’s not quite so easy, but I had to ask myself why,” he said.
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Broere came to Canada in 1984 intending to make cheese. He holds a degree in cheese science from a Dutch college and has worked as a cheese agrologist for the Dutch government.
He saw potential in Canada for farm-made cheese and began at age 22, with “little more than boots and an apron.
“I had applied for a licence but no one ever came to see me about it,” he said.
But soon after he opened, provincial food inspectors dropped by the farm and told him to shut down his operation until he got a licence.
“They told me they thought I was bluffing when I put in the application. Now they knew I was serious and they were less than helpful in getting me a licence.”
Broere spent the next two years making cheese and arguing with government departments. The licence finally came after a court fined him $10 for producing cheese without a licence.
“We made the national news and everything. It was a real struggle though. And just to make cheese,” said Broere.
The lumpy start could have been an omen of things to come for the fledgling Crystal Springs Cheese Farm.
“They told me I couldn’t have a liquid milk allocation. But I could have all the powdered milk I wanted. So we made cheese from powdered milk. You have to be flexible in this business if you are going to survive,” said Broere.
But the powdered milk cheese ran him afoul of the authorities again. After developing a market for his low calorie parmesan made from low fat milk powder, the authorities again closed his doors. He blames political interference by the major cheese companies.
“It wasn’t in the inspector’s book. So he told me I would have to stop making it. The same week (a major North American cheese producer) announced they had a new product. Light parmesan. We made cheese again the next week,” he said.
Employs 14 people
Eventually, Broere secured a supply of liquid milk from a dairy in Red Deer, Alta., and the business grew until 14 staff worked in the 5,000 sq. foot building.
Today, six staff handle the 80,000 litres of milk that becomes cheese each week on the farm.
“It is hard to get people who want to make cheese all day. You also have to compete with the higher wages in the oil and gas business,” said Broere.
“I could triple production tomorrow and sell it the following day.”
Today, most of their sales are made in Alberta, with the surging urban demand for unique cheeses at reasonable prices.
“We make what the big companies often can’t be bothered with. We have a cloves and cumin cheese. Some with tomato and basil, dill, a mild goat’s cheese and cow’s milk feta,” said Barb Broere as she unmoulded and sliced 10-kilogram forms of feta, stacked after being removed from the cheese presses.
Meanwhile, Johan’s youthful dream of a farm has come true with a herd of around 200 beef cattle.
“The cheese is now my six-day-a-week off-farm job that has made the other side of the farm possible. I just wish that after work, in the winter, when I’m going home I could see (the cattle). They’re all black and it’s always dark out,” he said of the long hours needed to run his cheese business.
