Crafting a Dream
Jack's Passion for Cooking and Farming Began Early
Jack grew up visiting his grandparents’ farm in Cambria and loved the smells, sights, and scenery. He also had an interest in cooking from a young age and loved making meals and learning how to cook new things starting in elementary school. Like all 12 year olds, he watched Martha Stewart Living, then Pokemon, The Simpsons and then Iron Chef Japan. He had also visited the iconic Harley Farms in Pescadero, CA when he was in high school and loved the beautiful atmosphere, friendly goats, and delicious cheeses. What started as a kitchen hobby in Silicon Valley has now morphed into a decade old business.
Michelle's Animal-Loving Childhood
Michelle grew up moving around California, always trying to surround herself with animals, sports, and the outdoors. From a young age, she had boundless energy, always wanting to be moving and often struggling to sit still and staring out the window during school. Her love for animals was evident as she constantly begged her parents for more pets and spent her childhood with her dog, Mocha, who slept in her bed and followed her everywhere.
Michelle was known for playing in the dirt, collecting worms, ladybugs, and any other critters she could find. She was often found playing outside with the neighborhood kids while her mom tried to get her to come inside and do homework. Once in high school, Michelle played volleyball year-round and always had an appetite for work. She started working as a hostess, server, and at a high-end card shop selling wedding and event invitations.
Jack's Culinary Curiosity Leads to Cheesemaking
After college, living in Palo Alto and working at a tech startup, Jack was an adventurous home cook and hobbyist who had a curiosity for how delicious things were made and the labor and artisanship that went into them. This took him through various cuisines and many many cookbooks and kitchen appliances. After working his way through jam making, fermentation, esoteric regional Japanese dishes, sourdough bread baking, home built smokers, etc. (you get the point) he decided he wanted to teach himself how to make cheese. Cheesemaking was next on the list for a few different reasons.
In part, it was a good excuse to get some new kitchen toys and build some home cheese aging environments. Additionally, one of his best friends from high school, Zubin, had also started a farm and had some surplus goat milk available which he was able to play with. With that, he was able to make some edible cheeses, but he developed a deep interest in learning more about cheese from a microbial and technological level.
"Learn by Doing"
In college, Michelle's energy and enthusiasm didn't wane. She worked multiple jobs to gain experience and knowledge, thriving in Cal Poly's "Learn by Doing" environment. She studied recreation with a concentration in event planning and management, traveling to different parts of the country and world to explore tourism. Michelle learned what makes a great tour and a good vendor while juggling various roles in catering, weddings, restaurants, and merchandising. After graduating she chose to stay on the Central Coast, and started working at wineries, planning events, weddings, and wine tastings. While also absorbing all things small business and learning about wine clubs and curating customer experiences.
Jack and Michelle's Meeting and the Birth of Stepladder Creamery
After a year or so in Silicon Valley, Jack moved to his family’s ranch in Cambria to try to help turn the farm around. He got his first goats then, and was able to get deeper into hobby dairy farming and cheesemaking. Bev Michels from Alcea Rosea farm became a fast friend after purchasing goats from her on craigslist. She operated a beautiful small farmstead dairy in Templeton and made excellent cheeses and was a huge influence on the trajectory of the creamery.
The stars aligned and Jack and Michelle met and went on their first date and never looked back.
With a few goats, 14 milking shifts each week, and a couple of freezers rigged with thermostats and humidistats acting as aging rooms inside of Jacks spare bedroom, the couple thrived as Michelle quickly got her own milking shifts, and started bringing new levels of organization and seriousness to Jack’s hobby. After a few months of working them putting all their spare time into this hobby, they wisely realized this all-encompassing hobby either needed to tone down or things needed to get serious.
Michelle Joins the Business
Michelle’s appetite for hard work found a perfect match in the dairy industry and Jacks hobbies. Grueling hours of milking twice a day, making cheese, and selling it were familiar to her due to her background in the demanding event world. With her extensive experience in customer service and agro-tourism, Michelle naturally picked up goat whispering, selling cheese and leading tours and farmers' markets, while her partner Jack managed the cheese-making and numbers aspects of the business.
Growing Stepladder Creamery from a Hobby to a Business
In 2015, Stepladder Creamery had its first official kidding season and started making and selling its first cheeses. Jack and Michelle hired a neighbor who helped with some animal husbandry, but largely did all of the work themselves and sold most of the cheeses to a handful of local restaurants and at a couple of farmers markets. Things stayed fairly small for a couple of years with just a couple of employees and a few dozen goats until 2018 when they brought in help to manage production and make cheese. We now make roughly 75,000 lbs of cheese per year and while the Stepladder Creamery goat herd, team, and customer base has all grown significantly, the creamery still employs the same dedication and many of the small-batch artisan techniques as the hobby stage.
