If Wallace and Gromit had known about Cranberry Ridge Farm's "Matsu Washe" cheese they might never have felt the need for their "Grand Day Out." You don't have to go to the moon to find an experienced cheese maker.. just Alaska.

Rhonda Shaul noted,

"I was always interested in animals and started with horses and moved into most of the other farm animals while in my high school and college years.

While Matt and I were getting to know each other in 97 and 98 we got two pack goats and a milk goat. Matt had angoras before we met.  After we got married in Dec of 98 our goat herd grew and we started making cheese and ice cream and yogurt. This was out of desperation when our fridge had 8 gallons of milk in it!

We also bought a few bottle calves!  My cheese making wasn't real great at first, but because  Matt could not tolerate cow stuff he ate it happily. 

After we moved to Alaska we got two goats and I began again experimenting with cheese.  Each year I got better and soon I was Happy to eat the cheese.

Matt is the type of person to do much better working for himself and while he was doing construction, plumbing and odd jobs he had me learning to make soap and cheese so we could eventually make a living off the farm.

He started horse shoeing after some friends asked if he would shoe their horses (He had a degree in horseshoeing because he figured as a future poor farmer he wouldn't be able to afford a farrier!)  It was then as he was his own boss that he could afford to take the time to get started officially on a goat dairy."

Planning began in 2002 and by 2005 we had a FSA loan to start building.  That took about a year and a half and finally on March 30 2007, we got our license to be a raw goat cheese making dairy.