Clover Meadow Cheese

For David and Ida Brown, Clover Meadow Cheese is the fulfillment of a dream decades in the making: creating a viable future for their small family farm by turning milk from their own cows into handcrafted artisan cheese.

The Browns have been involved in dairy farming since their marriage in 1993. After working on a family dairy farm for a few years, they struck out on their own in 1995. Even then, David had an idea that someday he might make cheese.

After 15 years of milking cows and navigating unpredictable milk prices and rising feed costs, David and Ida made the difficult decision to sell their herd. David remained in the dairy industry, working at cheese plants throughout the Midwest, where he gained firsthand experience with a variety of cheesemaking methods and learned the craft himself.

In 2019, the Browns purchased a group of heifer calves. By spring 2021, 12 of those heifers had calved, and David began experimenting with cheesemaking in a small vat in the garage on the family farmstead. Working with raw milk from the family’s own cows and traditional English cheesemaking techniques, he refined his recipe through plenty of trial and error. The result was Edenshire, a raw milk cheese named for Eden Lake Township, Minnesota, where it was created.

In summer 2023, David and his sons transformed the farm garage into a small cheese plant. The following spring, Clover Meadow Cheese received its Minnesota manufacturing grade permit to produce farmstead cheese.

Today, the Browns' approach to cheesemaking begins with the land. They use practices such as crop rotation and cover crops to build healthy soil, which supports the crops that feed their cows. During the summer, the cows graze on pasture, while calves are raised alongside their mothers until weaning.

From caring for the land and raising their cows to milking and making each batch of cheese, the Browns’ work spans the process from farm to finished product. For this family, Clover Meadow Cheese represents both a passion for artisan cheesemaking and a new chapter for the small family farm they have spent decades working to sustain.

Find Clover Meadow Farmstead Cheese in the Specialty Cheese Department at your nearest Kowalski's location. Selection and availability of products vary by market.