A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018
STAFF PHOTO BY JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF PHOTO BY JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
Belinda Smith puts Swiss cheese curds into a mold at the Smith Tiny Farms Microcreamery.
Bob Smith stirs a vat of milk and cheese curds.
MICRO-DAIRY REVELS
IN SMALL-BATCH
EXPERIMENTS
‘Huckleberry
havarti’ not viable
for large creamery
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
EO MEDIA GROUP
In a small warehouse in
their own back yard, Bob
and Belinda Smith make
almost every kind of cheese
imaginable.
Though you may see the
basics — farmstyle cheddar,
colby, Swiss, blue cheese
— the Smith Tiny Farms
Microcreamery is more
recognizable for its varia-
tions and specialty flavors.
“We can make cheeses
that a large-scale com-
pany can’t,” said Bob, stir-
ring a 60-gallon vat of milk.
“There’s no way they’d
invest even a day’s worth
of milk into something like
huckleberry havarti.”
The Smith Tiny Farms
operation
is
largely
self-contained. With five
cows they milk twice a day,
they currently make about
140 pounds of cheese a
week, which they sell to
small businesses around the
region.
Though the couple had
milk cows for many years,
they began their business
in late 2016. Bob was in the
Navy for 20 years, and a
teacher at Sandstone Middle
School for 17, before retir-
ing last year.
“When (Bob) was going
to retire, we were going
to have to do something,”
Belinda said. “We’d made
cheese at home in our
kitchen, and taken it to our
prayer group.”
“Either people are lying
to us, or they like it,” Bob
said.
They bought the equip-
ment and built a facility,
and now sell to businesses
such as Neighbor Dudes
Tap House, Echo Ridge Cel-
lars, Space Age and Country
Mercantile in Tri-Cities.
“This is as big as we ever
want to be,” Bob said.
Though the process
from milk to cheese takes
about two days, the product
must be aged for at least 60
days before it can be sold.
The aging room sits at 53
degrees.
Bob said cheesemaking
is all about time and tem-
perature, and likened it to a
science experiment.
“Every batch turns out a
bit different,” he said.
In a pasture behind their
house, the Smiths keep five
milking cows and, in a sepa-
rate pasture, a bull.
The cows are Jerseys,
which Belinda says they
prefer to other breeds.
“They’re small, easy to
deal with, they like you,”
she said.
The Smith’s cows are all
affectionately named. Gin-
ger and Mary Ann are named
after Gilligan’s Island.
“We’ve moved on to
Scooby-Doo,” said Bob.
“There’s Daphne, and
Velma if we get another
one.”
In a greenhouse on
the side of their property,
the Smiths also maintain
another operation — grow-
ing hydroponic plants.
“We’ve done this lon-
ger than our creamery,” Bob
said. They grow heads of
red romaine lettuce in long,
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horizontal tubes that can
hold dozens of plants, and
tomatoes in individual pots
with clay pebbles called
hydroton.
They sell both the plants
and their cheese products
at the Hermiston Farmer’s
Market.
Such a small dairy is
uncommon with the costs
and commitment of operat-
ing one, but the Smiths are
happy with the results so far.
“Dairy is a lifestyle,”
Bob said. “You have to
decide this is something you
want to do.”
STAFF PHOTO BY JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
A steer and a dairy cow at Smith Tiny Farms Microcreamery.