Finding Minnesota: Redhead Creamery
BROOTEN, Minn. (WCCO) -- Many dairy farmers never get to see their customers enjoying their products.
But for a family near Brooten, that is a thrill they experience every day.
Jer-Lindy Farms looks on the surface like any other Minnesota dairy farm. There have been four generations of dairy farmers in the Jennissen family.
But the fifth generation promises to be "cheesier" than all the others.
"When I was younger, probably 10 or so, I already knew I wanted to come back home to the farm. But I didn't know if I necessarily wanted to milk cows, so I was trying to find another aspect of the farm that I could be a part of," Alise Sjostrom said.
Alise, Jerry and Linda Jennissen's daughter, is a big-time cheese lover. She came across a Wisconsin farmstead during a 4-H trip in high school that also made and sold cheese -- right on the spot.
"That's instantly where I fell in love. I thought, 'This is the coolest thing,'" Alise said. "I literally came home and declared that we were going to make cheese someday. And my parents thought, 'OK, we'll see what happens.'"
Alise experimented with making different kinds of cheese while at the University of Minnesota. After college she married Lucas, who was also raised on a dairy farm. Together they moved to Vermont where Alise worked for a cheese producer.
"We sold cheese to John Travolta and the CEO of Walt Disney at the time," Alise said.
But home is where the heart is, and about two years ago the couple moved to Alise's family farm to put her dream into motion.
"We said to them, 'Your dream then will become our dream,'" Alise's dad, Jerry, said.
Lucas said the move was the ideal thing to do for people like him and Alise, who love to work with people and cows.
Alise designed a cheese-making facility right next door to the cow barn, utilizing all elements of the family farm. Thus, Redhead Creamery was born.
The Jennissens grow the crops which feed the cows, who produce the milk, which makes the cheese.
The more milk they produce, the more cheese lovers they gain.
"Milk is flowing through the wall, through a pipeline, into the cheese make room," Jerry said.
That is where Alise and her crew take over. Within minutes of the milk leaving the cow, it is in a vat. And once there, it can become one of six different cheeses that Alise has perfected.
Of course, some of it is left to age like a fine wine.
"'Lucky Linda' is the first cheddar that we made," Alise said.
That one is named after Alise's mom. There is also the 'Little Lucy Brie,' which is named after the couple's daughter.
Once the cheese is ready, it is brought upstairs to waiting customers.
"It's a destination. We're no longer just a gravel road. We are a destination place," Lolly Rooney said.
Lolly is a neighbor who has become a regular. Today she is loving the brand new 'North Fork Muenster' with fellow customer, Sherry Newell-Opitz.
"I just finished eating three wheels of that in two weeks, and I think I might have done it myself," Sherry said.
Alise's mom, Linda, says customers can taste the love.
"The ability to take that raw product and make it into something you can sell to consumers is exciting. It's fun to see," Linda said.
It is fun, like the name itself. Alise has to credit some of Redhead Creamery's success to her sisters.
"I have three other sisters who are all redheads. We've always kind of been known as the redheads in Padua [a small town near the family farm]," Alise said. "It was a fun way to kind of be a legitimate business. You are what your brand name is."
Redhead Creamery is also open for dinners and tours, and their cheese can be found at Lunds & Byerlys in the Twin Cities.
Alise was nine-months pregnant when we did this story. She gave birth to a baby boy, Henry Lucas Sjostrom, on Wednesday. We are told that mom and baby are doing great.
