Fort Collins, CO- The progressive college town of Fort Collins, CO, has recently become home to its second artisan cheese maker -the MouCo Cheese Company.
Fort Collins’ latest resident began making its Camembert just six months ago. A short time earlier, the first batch of Rustic Blue from the town’s other cheese maker - the Bingham Hill Cheese Company- was made in December 1999 by owners Tom and Kristi Johnson. After four months of aging, it was shipped to market in late March of 2000.
In a town of roughly 120,000 people, two artisan cheese companies might get along as well as the Hat’ fields and the McCoys. But in the case of MouCo and Bingham Hill, their proximity is strictly advantageous.
MouCo is owned and operated by 32 year old Robert Poland and his wife, Birgit Halbreiter. Poland has 12 years experience as a professional in the food industry and Halbreiter’s background includes extensive education in the dairy field. She also grew up in a cheese making family - her father Franz Halbreiter has beer a master cheese maker in German, for the past 46 years.
“My father started making Camembert cheese in Europe somewhere around 1956,” Halbreiter said.
The MouCo Cheese Company originated eight years ago when the couple began making cheese out of their home.
“After a while, the cheese got good enough and it seemed obvious that people would buy it,” Poland said.
Just when Poland started to develop a business plan for his company, he saw an article in the local paper about the grand opening of Bingham Hill and was immediately anxious. As it turned out, Fort Collins was plenty big for the both of them.
“Fort Collins is turning into a slow foods community with lots of higher end restaurants that specialize in prime, esoteric, fresh food,” Poland said.
“Bingham Hill sells MouCo cheese. We use each other as a stepping stone to get the word out that you can eat something produced locally that’s really yummy,” he continued.
“As many people out there talking about artisan cheese, the better,” Bingham Hill owner and cheese maker Kristi Johnson concurred. ” The more, the merrier.
“The more of us around, the more we can foster artisan cheesemaking in Colorado,” she continued.
When Bingham Hill began operations, Johnson said there was no one to help advise the fledgling company.
“I think they’re doing a great job and it’s only to our benefit,” Johnson concluded.
So Poland and Halbreiter proceeded with the plan to create their own cheese company. The entire cheesemaking process is done by hand in a small facility.
He spent the next two months renovating the space and by the end of May, began making Camembert. Halbreiter’s father even flew over from Germany to help the couple produce its first batch. By the end of June, the cheese was whetted to perfection and ready for market.
MouCo’s Camembert, which is aged two weeks in special caves, then wrapped in special paper imported from France, is sold to such premium restaurants as the Brown Palace in Denver and the Wild Flour in Telluride, as well as specialty grocery stores like Wild Oats and Whole Foods throughout the state.
MouCo also sells its cheese through distributors to markets in Utah, Oklahoma and Mexico.
The company buys its milk - which is free from both antibiotics and growth hormones -from a supplier in Fort Collins affiliated with Dairy Farmers of America (DFA). Poland said he investigated the possibility of using organic milk, but it proved too costly.
“There’s not much of an organic milk industry in Colorado,” he said. “There’s just no access to the milk - I think Utah’s the closest place. And by the time you ship it, it’s the value of gold.”
MouCo makes cheese three days a week, every two weeks. That equals about 1,000 pieces of cheese a week, each weighing roughly 150 grams. Poland said the company concentrates on making a higher end premium Camembert rather than a plethora of other varieties.
“We tried to design a system that uses very little energy to make our cheese,” Poland said. “Consequently, the hot water boiler only runs once every two weeks for 12 hours.”
“We are excited about this winter -our cooling system will run off of the cool foothills air, not electricity,” Halbreiter said.
“We also respect the flora that we have in the building that affect the aging process,” he added.
Poland said his energy efficient system will eventually allow MouCo to produce more cheese with little extra cost. A future goal would be to make cheese every week.
“That we’ll be able to make more cheese is realistic as far as sales,” he said. “We’ll be able to capitalize on our efficiencies.”
After just six months, the company is making a big name for itself in Colorado. But how did that name get started, anyway? Poland said he and his wife wanted something that resonated good taste, but was also playful.
“After talking with the cows awhile, they said ‘moo’ was actually spelled ‘m-o-u,” Poland said. “M-o-o is just a tired cow.”.
