Locust Grove and the Great “Mistake”

When we arrived at Locust Grove, which is nestled in a somewhat suburban hillside of Knoxville, we found a dairy in a state of transition. Sheri Palko and her herd of all-star sheep are producing some great stuff. This past year she sold 6,000 pounds of cheese, about one third of her possible maximum production right now. That’s a big jump from the 35 pounds she produced her first year, which was not long ago at all. Sheri is now in the process of relocating the farm, relocating her home, and expanding her cheese production. Locust Grove has an incredible amount of momentum that has been accumulated after only a few years of milking.

Like the story at Everona Dairy, Sheri’s story begins with dogs. Back in the day she was a competitive exhibition dog trainer. She bought some sheep to do some exercises with her beloved canines. Next thing you know, the cheesemaker of Knoxville, Tennessee is born.

We rounded a corner behind her home and the house guard animal, a large mule, “HEE-HAWD” at us like crazy! Mules are guard animals! I had no idea. When those teeth are showing and those gums are flappin’ and the “HEE-HAWS!” and the imposing wide-legged stance—YIPES! If that fence wasn’t there I’d have been running like a jackrabbit!

Other farmers we have met seem to have a slight weariness about raising and milking sheep. The general thought is that sheep can be very delicate, prone to problems and not very productive. We asked Sheri what she thought of all this sheepishness toward sheep. “I think people have that misconception because they don’t have the patience to raise them properly,” she says. “It is very easy to over care for sheep,” she continues. That may sound too easy to believe, but her robust, productive, flourishing herd speaks for itself.

Along the way there was an accident that occurred at Locust Grove that much to Sheri’s surprise turned out to be an extraordinarily positive thing—a really great “mistake.” She had been breeding both Fresian and Tunisian sheep.

Fresians are typically the better milk producers and Tunisians are a bit heartier and require much less feed (and produce less milk). At the time, cross-breeding was not in her game plan. Until one day, a very excitable Tunisian ram escaped by jumping a fence and got one of the Fresian ladies pregnant. The result? Sheep that produce as much milk as Fresians but are much more cost effective. “Breeding Tunisian with Fresian produces sheep that lactate for 180 days on much less feed,” she explains. These super efficient cross-bred beauties work like magic.

Sheri is the kind of person that radiates success head to toe. She has a spark, outgoing positive energy and a zip that matches the bold and tasty zip found in her cheeses. Her “La Mancha,” a Manchego style cheese is sold at two ages, 60 days and 6 months. Both are really good. The six-month really has a nice complex tang and could easily be aged another six months. She also makes this interesting cheese called Cumberland, flavored with garlic, onion, sweet chiles and ginger. This cheese is unusual and really yummy. Of all the “flavored” cheese we’ve tried so far (which normally we’re not really into), this one is particularly satisfying. Sheri suggests grating Cumberland over a a pizza crust with nothing else, just O' Natural. Or try making a thinner, cheesy flatbread for an appetizer.

With Sheri we traded some cheese and said farewell. A day later we shared her La Mancha with a Spanish friend in Columbus Ohio who was really impressed. Give me a little Rioja, some olives and anchovies and Halehluja! Perfecto! We will look for this one in Cali. It’s pretty widely distributed.