Learning to Make Artisan Cheese from Michigan’s Leading Cheesemakers
The best cheesemakers balance a little bit of the soul of an artist and the brain of a chemist in their work.
How do they do that?
Find out by joining Michigan’s leading cheesemakers for a two-day artisan cheese workshop.
The workshop, sponsored by the Michigan Cheese and Dairy Guild, provides students with everything they need to know to make artisan cheeses. They also learn about the business side of selling cheese – regulatory requirements, marketing, sales channels, pricing and more.
The workshop is geared towards aspiring or new cheesemakers, although it has also proved to be popular with people who sell cheese or supply cheesemakers. Other people have attended just to learn about cheesemaking for their own personal interest.
At a recent workshop, the class finished a lecture that covered rennet types, enzymes and curd formation. Then, they went to a hands-on lab to help make cheese. Geared up with sanitary jackets, shoe covers and hairnets, they entered Sanilac Creamery’s stainless-steel cheesemaking space. There, 100 pounds of cheese curds waited for them. The students salted, mixed and tasted the curds, before putting them into hoops to continue their transformation into cheddar cheese.
“It’s amazing, I’ve learned so much,” says Bekah Last, swing cheesemonger, Busch’s Fresh Food Market, about the class. “I sell cheese every day, but I don’t think you can get your head around how cheese is made until you get your hands into the vat and do it yourself.”
Classes are taught by Jerry Alcenius, Sanilac Creamery; Josh Hall and Gary Smith, Leelanau Cheese Company; and Zach Berg, Mongers’ Provisions.
Amanda Ferris has been making cheese at her Ionia-based Dancing Goat creamery since 2015. Although not a cheese-making novice, she was very interested during the hands-on feta-making lab.
“It’s fun to watch everyone’s process, to see how other people make it,” she says. “It’s not how I do my feta, but I might have to adapt.”
Another student, Robert Ester makes ice cream among his other duties at Calder Dairy and Farm.
“Learning a new skill is something I value,” he explains. “There’s a lot of science involved in making cheese.”
He says he’d encourage someone interested in cheese, either for professional or personal reasons, to take the class.
“Absolutely do it. The more you know the better you are,” he says.
Sign up for our the next Cheesemaking Short Course here!
Artisan Cheesemaking Short Course - Summer 2026
Review written by Sharon Morton - EdibleWow