Terra Madre Delegate Profile -
Stuart and Connie Veldhuizen, cheesemakers
Veldhuizen Family Farm - Stephenville, TX

No matter the weather at Austin's farmers' markets, one of the biggest crowds of happy people gathers at the stand of Stuart and Connie Veldhuizen. Once the only raw milk cheesemakers in all of Texas, the Veldhuizens now produce ten types of cheese, and customers line up to sample the six or so rotating varieties available on any given market day.

When the Veldhuizen family moved their dairy farm from Minnesota to Texas in 1990, making cheese wasn't part of the plan. Why Texas? "Well," Connie laughs, "when it was minus 20° in Minnesota, Texas started sounding pretty good." The new farm outside of Dublin began as a conventional dairy farm, but Stuart and Connie started thinking about how they could buck the trend toward ever-larger, confinement-style dairies. Stuart attended "cheese school," taking classes in Wisconsin, Georgia, and elsewhere. They bought baby calves and raised them organically. Their first customers were friends and a single local store, but Stuart's confidence and their fan base quickly grew.

Stuart says, "It doesn't get boring, because every day I can create a new cheese." Their cattle live on grass, with only small feed supplements, and the natural, seasonal changes in greenery the cattle eat influences the flavor of the milk. A maximum of only three days passes between milking and cheese production. "We milk the cows, we make the cheese, and we age it, all on our own farm," Stuart says. The "family" of the Veldhuizen Family Farm includes Stuart's dad, who made the southward move alongside Stuart and Connie fourteen years ago, and the seven Veldhuizen children, ages 6 to 20 years, who all pitch in. Ten people, ten cheeses-one big happy Texas dairy farm. -Mary O'Grady, Slow Food Austin/Hill Country