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Phyllis Rich (left) and her daughter Shavone Whipple (right) own The Cheese Factory in Kingfi sher, Okla. Photos by Elaine Warner


A Cheesy Tradition Mother and daughter team up on cheese enterprise By Elaine Warner “ I


t’s way hot!” Phyllis Rich exclaimed as her daughter Shavone Whipple popped a morsel of habanero pepper cheese into her mouth. “I don’t know how she does it!” The two were mixing up a batch of their best seller, Little Diablo. “I love it,” Whipple responded. “I shred it over chicken and noodles, put it in eggs, sandwiches, everything.” Little Diablo is defi nitely for those who can take the heat. Whipple and Rich are partners in an enterprise named The Cheese Factory in Kingfi sher, Okla. Whipple and her husband, Jay, members of Cimarron Electric Cooperative, lead a busy life. On their 3W Ranch, the couple and their three children raise and show Crossbred and Simmental cattle. With a full-time job, Whipple didn’t need another full-time enterprise but she and her mother wanted something they could do together. They opened The Cheese Factory in April 2011. Little Diablo is just one of a whole list of cheese blends that the moth- er-daughter team creates. They don’t make the cheese. Instead, they craft their blends using cheese produced by Lynn Dairy in Wisconsin. The cheese comes in 40-pound rectangles. They split the large pieces in half, slice them, and tear them into small chunks, placing them on a large pile atop a spotless, stainless steel worktable. That’s when they add the special ingredients used to create the different blends. They mix the spices and cheese chunks by hand until all the condiments are distributed through- out the mixture. When they are satisfi ed, they begin to pack the mixture into a 20-pound mold, pressing and pushing the cheese down to fi t and to remove air pockets. Next they put a lid on the stainless steel mold and place it, with seven other molds, into the cheese press. When the press reaches maximum com- pression, the cheese is held at that pressure for about eight hours after which it is put in the refrigerator to cool. Then it’s sliced into 8-ounce blocks, vacuum-sealed, labeled and ready for sale. Both women had worked in cheese factories before but didn’t want to go through the entire production process. Using ready-made cheese, both white and yellow cheddar, but creating a variety of fl avors seemed like a good idea. So where do they get their cheese? The women explained local


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cheesemakers weren’t able to provide the 12,000-plus pounds of cheese they use per year. Their cheese comes from Lynn Dairy in Grafton, Wisc., a third-generation, family-owned and operated producer. Lynn Dairy production is presided over by David Lindgren, a Master


Cheesemaker. This means he had 10 years of experience before being select- ed for the two-year and eight-month Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker® Program, an advanced education program established by the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, the University of Wisconsin Extension, and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. Wisconsin is the only state to have such a program. According to Whipple, it pays off in quality and consistency. The spices are stored on shelves near the mixing table. Large containers hold a variety of ingredients like garlic pepper, dill weed, chives and blends like Italian seasoning and Rancher Spice. It is pepper harvest time in New Mexico and Rich and Whipple are looking forward to getting freshly roasted peppers to add to one of their most popular seasonal cheeses—Roasted Green Chili Cheddar. They also add ingredients like cranberries, strawberries, sun- dried tomatoes, spinach and artichokes to some of the cheeses. With about two dozen blends to choose from, there are cheeses for every taste and oc- casion from breakfast—one customer likes to crumble Chive ‘N Onion Cheddar on a buttered English muffi n, then toast it—to dessert cheeses like Blackberries ‘N Wine. Whether they use white or yellow cheddar is a matter of aesthetics. They


choose the cheese color to complement the ingredients. There’s actually no difference in taste between the two cheeses. The traditional golden hue of colored cheddars comes from the addition of annatto, a tasteless, odorless vegetable dye made from the seed of the annatto plant. During the summer season, Rich and Whipple often sell their products at local farmers’ markets. Cheese Factory cheeses are also available in a number of grocery stores around the state. The store at the factory is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition to the 8-ounce blocks, gift baskets are available.


Address: 601 Starlite Drive, Kingfi sher-Okla. Web: www.mycheesefactory.com Phone: 405-375-4004


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