About Us

   Clover Meadow Cheese is a family owned and family run business, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to make the small family farm a profitable enterprise. That is made possible by our other great passion; crafting the highest quality, artisanal cheese made from the high quality, raw milk of our own cows.  

   Our goal is to create a high quality cheese from high quality milk from our own healthy happy cows.

   You too can support our dream by trying our fantastic cheese, leaving a review, and of course letting another person in on this little secret.

Background

  David and Ida Brown have been involved in the dairy business since their marriage in 1993. They worked for a family dairy farm for a few years, then began farming on their own in 1995 on a rented farm. David had the idea to make cheese, but having no experience wasn't ready to put it into action.  After fifteen years in the business of milking cows and selling to a couple of different dairy co-ops, dealing with unpredictable milk prices and high feed costs, they made the difficult decision to sell the cows and pay off their debts.             

   However, David was still involved with dairy in a different way, when he took a job working in various cheese plants across the Midwest. This gave him the opportunity to see a variety of cheesemaking methods and learn to make cheese himself.

   In spring of 2021 David calved out twelve heifers that had been bought as calves in 2019, and started experimenting how to make cheese using raw milk and kefir as a starter, with a small vat in the garage on the family farmstead.  After much trial and error, he was able to develop a raw milk cheese, using traditional English cheesemaking techniques. He named it Edenshire as it was developed in Eden Lake Township, MN.                                                                               

   In the summer of 2023 David and his sons remodeled the farm garage into a small cheese plant. After working through all the state and county regulations, in the spring of 2024 Clover Meadow Cheese LLC. received a manufacturing grade permit from the state of MN. to produce farmstead cheese.                     

Farming Practices

   We strive to raise our crops without chemicals and GMO seeds and to farm the land in an environmentally friendly manner. By using crop rotation and cover crops, in combination with the straw and manure from the cows bedded pack, we are able to improve the soil and maintain soil fertility without commercial fertilizer. High quality soil leads to healthy plants which feed healthy cows and produces high quality milk and cheese.

Cows 

   Throughout the summer months, our cows graze in the pasture and are fed supplemental hay and grain. In the winter they are in loose housing on a bedded pack. They are fed stored forages and grains, grown the previous summer. 

   The pasture and loose housing method works great for raising the calves with their mothers until weaning. The calves are nursed frequently and gain weight quickly.  They are healthier and more content at their mother's side. Raising the calves on their mothers until they are old enough to be weaned is a more natural and healthy upbringing, in our opinion.