Texas Locavore

When I moved to Texas, I didn’t know what to expect. But I surely didn’t expect to find
local, artisanal goat cheese. What a wonderful surprise I got! Several different boutique producers around the state are making chèvre that would impress even French people. The one pictured above, a fresh (meaning not aged) version wrapped in savory hoja santa leaves, comes from the Mozzarella Company in Dallas, which was founded in 1982 by Paula Lambert. Then fresh out of college, Lambert had traveled to Italy to study the language, but also learned about the country’s fresh mozzarella cheese — and decided she had to have it at home. On return to Dallas, though, she couldn’t find anything like it. So she decided to make it herself. A similar thing happened to Chrissy Omo of CKC Farms in Blanco. Still a college student, Chrissy now raises goats and makes a wide range of cheeses from their milk. (You can read more about Chrissy in a profile I wrote for the current issue of Edible Austin magazine.) Local grocery stores and farmers’ markets make it easy to buy Texas goat cheeses in Austin today. But should you, too, desire to DIY, you don’t have to travel to Italy anymore to learn the art. Pure Luck Farm and Dairy in Dripping Springs offers weekend-long workshops, in addition to their own excellent assortment of cheeses.