Our local newspaper, the Polk County Itemizer-Observer, has a lovely feature story about our farm. Click here to read what Jolene Guzman wrote, in "Gaga for Goats."The photos by Pete Strong are delightful, including this hard to get shot of Ella and baby touching noses.

Hooray!  We're Certified Organic! We've achieved a long-time goal, with certification from Oregon Tilth. Our goats graze certified organic pastures, and are fed non-genetically modified feeds milled at a local Oregon feed mill. Their feed includes oats, peas, barley, pumpkin seeds, nutritional yeast, mineral salt, and kelp. We supplement with walnut hulls and leaves, blackberry brambles, garlic, and apple cider vinegar. No wheat is ever included in their feed.

 Eggs are now available at the farmstand!  You can pick up a dozen fresh organic eggs from hens on green grass. The yolks are really yellow. The new hens are laying white and brown eggs now, the Araucanas have just started laying blue/green ones.The hens eat a certified organic feed (contains no wheat) also made locally.

  Tip: frequently our egg buyers are dismayed that the eggs are so fresh they don't peel easily when hard-boiled. To overcome the freshness, you can let the eggs age for several weeks/months (like store-bought eggs) so they peel easily. OR, better yet, steam them. Put fresh eggs in a saucepan, fill water to half the height of the eggs. Bring to a full boil, remove from heat and cover with a lid. Let the eggs steam for about 45 minutes. They will peel easily.



Portland Monthly Picks Best Cheese Plates: Fairview Farm's

cheese is included--at the Sapphire Hotel.  Yaaay!

We're proud to be included in the Weston A. Price Foundation's 2011 Shopping Guide. Fairview Farm is listed under the "Best" category for aged cheeses.  Check out the WAPF's website and learn more about their nutrition education efforts. And, if you're looking for interesting history to read, get a copy of Dr. Price's book, which provides the core message for the Foundation. Published in 1939, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is a fascinating and eye-opening study of the effects industrial diet has on the body. 

 The Statesman Journal newspaper in Salem carried a really nice article about our goat dairy. Justin Much and his wife Annette tramped through the pastures with us that day, catching some nice photographs and enjoying lots of attention from the goats.

Goat herding methods kind to animals, cheese lovers
Dallas-area pair decided to produce healthy food
BY JUSTIN MUCH • STATESMAN JOURNAL • AUGUST 8, 2010
 

About mid-morning on a day that promised to nudge rural Dallas into 90-degree heat, several dozen goats at Fairview Farm got antsy and let Terry and Laurie Carlson know it was time for a snack.

The farm owners and cheesemakers begin walking down a farm lane toward their pasture, and the goats follow en masse. The gate to the pasture is open; the goats can head down there any time. But they prefer to wait until Terry and Laurie take the lead. Once there, the herd goes to work with delight.

"Goats are not really grazers: they are browsers," Terry Carlson said, noting how the animals snip and stroll along the pasture foliage before heading to the trees where bark and leaves provide minerals in their diet.

The Carlson's goats yield about 54 gallons of milk every two days; roughly the same number in pounds of organic goat milk cheese that's produced from that milk.

Each goat has a name. They all enjoy amenities — such as a manmade sand hill upon which they can engage in their innate king-of-the-mountain episodes — that make their lives comfortable. Those amenities are noted by the Animal Welfare Institute, which approves the Carlsons' farm and practices for its humane treatment of animals.

The couple came to Dallas about four years ago from Spokane, Wash. Terry worked in the trucking industry for 35 years before retiring.

Terry, 66, and Laurie, 58, began looking around the Willamette Valley with a goal of growing and making their own healthy food. Interaction with vendors at farmers markets in Salem and Corvallis fortified their interest in this area.

They enrolled in a course through the extension service to learn more about goats and making cheese.

Now they stay plenty busy in retirement, tending animals and making the cheese to sell at local markets, which they've done for two years.

"Our goal is to stay local," Laurie said. "Mostly Marion and Polk counties."

So far, the local demand has been substantial.

"We are very happy this year that we haven't had any extra cheese," Laurie said. "We are selling as much as we can make. People seem to want what we have."

Read more: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100808/NEWS/8080332/1001/news#ixzz0wMjaWtO8

Got Culture?? 

Culture, the nation's first cheese magazine, profiled our cheese venture in their latest issue, Spring 2010. Click here to read the story.

Read about our organic farming practices in the December issue of Salem Monthly: "The Organic Farmville."  They included a charming photograph of our goats, with our Alpine named Opal front and center! 

Got Culture?? 

Culture, the nation's first cheese magazine, profiled our cheese venture in their latest issue, Spring 2010. Click here to read the story.

 Oregon WinePress includes Fairview Farm in the August issue. Christine Hyatt (the Cheese Chick) wrote about sustainable practices on Oregon cheese farms, "What's Blue is Green."

Goodbye to Summer 2009

We ended the summer market season with the Montavilla Farmers Market in East Portland. Here's a photo and a link to the news story in the East Portland News.
(David Ashton photo)

Our local newspaper, the Polk County Itemizer-Observer, printed a story about us!

 Lovable goats make for luscious cheese

by Jillian Beaudry   (photos Adam Korst)

"Once we looked at the goats, it was all over," says Laurie Carlson of Fairview Farm Dairy.

DALLAS -- A history professor and her retired husband have created a unique goat cheese operation in Dallas.
   Laurie and Terry Carlson, self-described "foodies," visited Portland about four years ago and were in awe of the fresh fruits, vegetables and fish at the Portland Farmers Market.
   The Carlsons left their 20-acre chicken farm in Cheney, Wash., for a 6-acre plot in Dallas at 2340 SW Fairview Ave. three years ago to be part of the local food movement.
   However, owning 32 dairy goats was certainly not in the plan. The couple was more interested in growing berries and maybe having a few cows.
   "Once we looked at the goats, it was all over," Terry said. "They're so personable and friendly."
   The Carlsons found goats through Craigslist and fell in love with their cocker spaniel-like personalities. They took this "why not?" frame of mind and purchased five goats. The couple has been buying and breeding to the point that their herd now numbers 32.
   "We just kept buying goats and the goats had more goats," Laurie said.
   Terry spends his days fixing the buildings and milking the goats at their Fairview Farm Dairy while Laurie teaches history at Western Oregon University. Soon, that very same carefree attitude that led them to purchasing the goats, led them to enroll in a cheesemaking course in Portland last year.
   The Carlson's found they both enjoyed the craft and wanted to pursue it more seriously, so they invested nearly $100,000 in creating a small cheesemaking facility on their property. Terry built a milking parlor and cheesemaking room equipped with a large refrigerator.

   "We fixed it all up like a mini Tillamook (cheese factory) in here," Laurie said with a laugh.
   The 50-gallon cheese vat used to be an abandoned ice cream machine found on the Internet. It was tweaked for its new purpose.
   To ensure the best quality of goat milk, the Carlsons go above and beyond to treat their goats well.
   The farm is Animal Welfare Approved, the only farm approved in Oregon through the Animal Welfare Institute. All of the goats have ample room to run outside and are fed kelp, garlic, molasses and munch on the blackberries on the property.
  
It takes four hours from start to finish to make the big round blocks of cheese, which retail for $12 per pound.
While on the milking stand, Terry will slip the goats an occasional peanut as a treat.
   Every 72 hours, after collecting enough milk, it's time for cheesemaking. The farm produces only aged goat cheese and adjusts it with different cultures, salt and curing, Laurie said. The rough brown rind on the finished product makes it look like a peasant cheese made in Europe. However, she has also experimented with red wax rinds.
   It takes four hours from start to finish to make the big round blocks of cheese. The finished blocks sit in the large temperature and humidity controlled room for 60 days before they can be sold.
   The Carlsons spent one year practicing milking the goats and experimenting with the cheese before they got the hang of it. Then they started showing off their new product.
   In early June, the Carlsons took their cheeses to a cheese festival in Portland and were surprised at the positive feedback from the professional cheesemakers.
   "I thought it was good cheese, but I wasn't sure what the connoisseurs would say," Laurie said.
   All of the trial and error and cheesemaking courses paid off. The Carlsons entered the American Dairy Goat Association's national competition last fall and took home second and third place in the unflavored hard cheese category.
   The cheese was picked up by small shops and sold to restaurants in Portland. It can now be found at Steve's Cheese and Elephant's Delicatessen in Portland, Abbie and Oliver's Artisan Cheeses in McMinnville, and at the OHSU Farmers Market on Tuesdays.
   However, locals can certainly stop by the Dallas farm and purchase cheese on site or through the couple's Web site www.Fairviewfarmdairy.com.