Becca and Dan James really make quite the duo. James Ranch is a living and thriving example of living off the land and doing what you love. Visiting them was an incredible finish to our cross-country trek.
Dan grew up on the very farm on which they now live. So what brought this college boy back from Seattle and traveling around the world to settle back into the mountains of Colorado? Maybe it is the clean, crisp mountain air. Maybe it is because it is a great place to raise a family. Or maybe it is a family trait passed down through generations that creates the need to craft quality products from the land and animals. Maybe it is a combination of them all but whatever his reasons are, we are mighty, mighty glad he does.
Before the couple started selling cheese, they played around with recipes and styles for a year and a half using milk from their one cow, Dolly. Their cheese was destined to be great. If you believe in the idea of terroir and its effects on the final product then there was no other future then fabulous for James Ranch cheese. And it all starts with water. None of this would be possible without the historic water rights when settlers claimed stake to ample amounts of natural water flow. This water allowed for what is now James Ranch to remain lush and bountiful on the sole food source for James Ranch cows, GRASS.
Some cheeses claim to come from all grass fed cows but some claims fall short when it comes to milking time. Some cheesemakers offer feed to the cows to coax them into and out of the milking stall. But you wont find any of that at James Ranch. Dan and Becca’s cows are 100% grass fed all year round. And if that didn’t make them unique enough, the fact that they only milk their cows once a day and only seasonally adds another layer of awe to their practice. Most cheesemakers, whether they milk cows, goats, or sheep, milk twice daily.
But, even if you are starting with the best raw materials, you still need talent to pull off an outstanding cheese. Dan’s natural talent was only further inspired by education and travel. He took a short course in Utah. He and Becca also traveled all around Europe, minus France, including Holland, England, Whales, and Italy and learned all they could in 3 months. Then they went to New Zealand to pick brains down-under and, like the Feats, learned that those New Zealanders really know what their doing in terms of running an efficient successful dairy.
To make their Belfort, Andalo, and Leyden, they needed to buildup their cheesemaking facilities. They installed a custom fit cheese press to fit in their compact space. Their small cheese vat was a loaner from a man in New Mexico who was interested in getting into the cheese business. In exchange for fixing up the vat, Dan was lent the Double O cottage cheese prototype until the guy was ready to make his own cheese. It was the strangest vat I had seen on the trip.
Small enough to fit into the room but how the heck did he get in there to scoop the curd? Dan jokingly remarked that his tall thin physique allows him get in there and easily reach over the large milk vat. Anyone with a bigger belly or short stature would have trouble getting his or her hands down into that heavenly curd. Years later the New Mexican decided not to make cheese and Dan offered to buy it from him.
So where did this love for milking cows come from? Dan’s parents were in the meat business (Black Angus), not the dairy business. While he makes cheese with his wife, his other siblings are involved at James Ranch as well. One sister raises chickens to produce the farm fresh eggs, which they sell, and his other sister grows seasonal vegetables for the market. Dan’s brother has chosen to use food as his medium at his own nearby restaurant.
Dan now does all the cheesemaking and does it all by hand. There are no chemistry sets measuring levels and balance when Dan is making cheese. He does it all by feel judging when to add rennet and when to drain all by the feel of the raw milk passing through his hands. WHAT? That’s right. All by feel. As the seasons change he feels the milk change and through feel works to make the most consistent product he can.
Their flagship cheese is Belfort, a gouda style cheese that is aged for at least sixty days. Belfort is covered in cream wax that allows it to breath so that the cheese ages nicely for much longer (up to a year or beyond). They sell it in young form and aged form. They also make Andalo, and Italian style cheese and Leyden a Dutch style cheese with whole cumin seeds up in the da mix!
The James’ graciously invited us to dinner with the whole family. The children beautifully set the table while Becca baked a fresh fig tart (gluten free to boot). I was so inspired by that tart that I tracked down and bought some lard at the Ferry Building and have it waiting until my friend can bring me some fresh figs from her in-laws’ tree! (Of course I talk about dessert first) Whew! We had a spread of a cheese that night and a gorgeous farm fresh salad.
Our cheese board consisted of their young and aged Befort, and the Andalo. They also included a super aged goat cheese from another local cheesemaker. Their toddler daughter (who might I add shamelessly flirted with Darren) liked the stinky one the best! I love kids who love stinky cheese. She must have been introduced to “The Stinky Cheese Man Cometh” at a very, very early age. We contributed Old Kentuky Tomme from Capriole and another flavored cheese from Mozzarella Co. We sat and talked cheese, kids, family and more cheese. We hope they enter their cheeses this year at the ACS competition. They really deserve a ribbon.
The young Belfort was our favorite so we asked the James’ to send a wheel out to us. Buh-bang! Wow. Who you wit’?! We have been sharing with everyone, passing along the scrumptiousness, mouth-watering cheesyness of Belfort! There has been an absolutely unanimous response from novices to some of the most sophisticated palates in the San Francisco Bay area that this cheese is a winner. Bravo! We have helped add fans to James Ranch cheese. You should start a facebook page cuz youz got a lot of friends! Thank you Dan, Becca and family.
p.s. There was so much more to our visit. After two pages of text, however, I had to reign it in. I didn't even get to talking bout the construction of their cheese cave (or their Whey Good Pork). But I put in a pic of the construction anyway.
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