Tumalo Farms was founded in 2004, by Flavio DeCastilhos. The 84-acre property is in right in the middle of Central Oregon between Sisters, Bend, and Redmond, and is surrounded by the Cascade Mountains. DeCastilhos had no background in dairying or cheesemaking. He spent 20 years in Silicon Valley and is the co-founder of Healtheon/WebMD. The inspiration for his career-change came when he visited Brazil with his family and became enamored with the artisan cheeses being produced there. He was interested in founding a business that would produce high-quality, nutritious food made with care. After traveling and studying cheesemaking in Europe, the Midwest and the Northwest, he set up his creamery initially using only the milk from his herd of Alpine and Saanen goats. Gradually, he expanded to use milk from some neighboring farms, too. This allowed him to produce more cheese and also to experiment with some mixed milk cheeses made with cow and goat milk. All of Tumalo’s products are inspired by Dutch and Italian cheese. The goats at Tumalo Farms spend much of their time outside and their feed comes from neighboring farms. Whenever possible, the goats are given organic feed and the feed is never supplemented with hormones, additives or antibiotics.
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