Rod Volbeda grew up on a dairy farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. He is the second generation in his family to run a dairy farm in this part of Oregon. Rod earned a degree in food science from Oregon State University and spent a year abroad in the Netherlands, exploring his family’s heritage and learning about Dutch cheesemaking. Once he completed his degree, he worked for Tillamook Creamery in their lab, continuing to build on his understanding of cheesemaking and aging. Willamette Valley is a farmstead operation and Volbeda uses milk from his Jersey herd for all of their cheeses with the exception of Perrydale, the sheep/cow blend that he makes with sheep milk from another supplier. The herd of 90 cows is fed pesticide and hormone free feed and does not receive any antibiotics. At Willamette Valley Cheese, the milk is handled delicately, gently pumped into a pasteurizer where it is slowly pasteurized (note that some of their cheeses are unpasteurized) and then moved with only the force of gravity into their rectangular vat to be transformed into cheese. Rod believes proper handling of milk is necessary to achieve maximum flavor and creamy texture in their cheeses.
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