Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Marin.
Hi Sara, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up on my parent’s dairy farm in Cuyama. I love the farm and animals and everything about it. This year it will be owned by my parents for 50 years. Back in 2009 California Dairy’s struggled to stay in business because the price they got for milk from the state wouldn’t even pay for costs to make the milk and many dairy’s lost everything they worked so hard for. That stirred up a desire to help in any way I could preserve the family farm.
In 2010 after taking some cheese-making classes, I started The Santa Barbara Cheese Company. The plan was to make an added value product to sell direct to consumers so that the family farm could get more for its milk. And I love what I do! I love that I know where the milk comes from, I love the science behind milking cheese the making new cheeses and I love talking to people about the quality of artisan, locally grown food. My husband and I did farmer’s markets up until 2016 and being able to share our story with our customers and let them ask questions was so special. So many became apart of our lives and we’re like family. But once our own family grew, it became too difficult to continue doing them. Now our cheeses can be found in local grocery stores, farm boxes, and restaurants.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The desire to make cheese presented a problem… we had the milk, but where would we make the cheese? Just starting out this was a big hurdle because a certified building can cost hundreds of thousands to build to code in order to make cheese and cheesemakers can’t use a certified kitchen… we need a certified creamery. After struggling with our first creamery that we found to rent, we found Central Coast Creamery. Our friendship with this creamery has made our cheesemaking experience amazing.. so amazing that our need to build our own creamery has been put on hold.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Artisan Cheesemaker and Owner of a small business.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
As a cheesemaker, our success is in caring about what goes into the cheese. Even before having a family of our own, because I grew up on the farm I know how important the simple things are. Knowing where your food comes from, how it’s grown and made.. can make such a difference to the health of your family.
Contact Info:
- Email: Sara@sbcheese.com
- Website: SbCheese.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/santabarbaracheese/
Image Credits
Sara holding wheel of cheese – Dennis Marin Picture of children – Elisenda Farison Photography Picture of family – Shiloh Litonjua All others were taken by Sara Marin
