Dressed in rubber boots and a hair net, and spending nearly every day elbow-deep in cow's milk is not exactly how Mandy Johnston thought life would work out after college.
The journalism major had dreams of becoming a magazine editor. Instead, at 26, her life revolves around 33 cows, a rigid milking schedule and the making of handcrafted cheese. There are no complaints from this accidental cheesemaker.
Every day, she drives from her Chico home a few miles south to the farm community of Orland, where Johnston's family has a small dairy, Pedrozo Dairy & Cheese Co. Her father, Tim Pedrozo, manages the dairy herd. She and her friend John Pearson run the cheesemaking operation.
Four days a week, Johnston makes cheese in 200-pound batches. Three days a week, she sells that cheese at various farmers markets, including the Sunday market at Eighth and Wstreets under the Capital City Freeway in Sacramento. Pedrozo cheese is also available at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op and Taylor's Market in Land Park.
Although life isn't quite as glamorous as Johnston had envisioned, she's content with how things are working out.
"I never expected to make cheese for a living," she says.
"But I really missed the farm when I was away, so I guess I am a farm girl at heart. The only regret I have is that there's never a day off. We take one week in August for a small break, then it's back to business again."
The family moved to Orland from Riverside in 1999. Tim Pedrozo, a third-generation dairyman, bought the land in Orland, 20 acres, and it happened to have a cheesemaking facility.
"Mom decided to try making cheese, since we had the equipment and the cows," says Johnston. "Then about two years ago, she returned to work as a kindergarten teacher and I decided to try selling cheese.
"Mom taught me her recipes, and I changed them around a bit to give them my own signature."
There are eight varieties of Pedrozo cheese, including Tipsy Cow, which is aged in red wine; Bubbly Cow, aged in sparkling rosé; Stout Cow, aged in stout; and Johnston's favorite, Blondie's Best, a buttery cheese named after her first pet cow. All are semihard cheeses aged a minimum of 60 days because they are made with unpasteurized milk.
"They all have a Portuguese influence," says Johnston, describing the nutty, buttery characteristics. The flavors are slightly cheddar but range in sharpness from mild to tangy.
Depending on the aging, they also vary from dry and slightly crumbly to smooth and creamy.
Her first batch of Black Butte Reserve won a gold medal for aged cheeses at the 2007 California State Fair. She makes Black Butte only in the early spring when the cows are grazing in clover-filled pastures. "The clover causes the milk to be very high in fat and slightly more dense than later in the summer," says Johnston.
"Clover also causes the cheese to develop a sharper flavor, which is why we can only make the Black Butte in the spring."
Because her cheese plant is so small and everything except the actual stirring of the milk is done by hand, the duo can produce only 200 pounds of cheese in one batch. That's four milkings of the small herd. Each batch takes 10 hours from beginning to end. (Extra milk is sold to a commercial dairy.)
"It's a lot of standing and waiting," says Johnston. "And while I ammaking cheese, I can't leave the building because I have to be so careful about contamination."
As Johnston, sequestered in the cheese production room, works on her latest batch, Pearson walks us out to the pasture to meet the "kids," as the family calls the dairy cows.
"They are practically pets," he says. About half are Holsteins and half are Jersey. A few are daughters or granddaughters of Blondie, the original cow. The herd has 50 acres to graze, including 30 acres of neighbor's property. As we stand at the fence, many of them lumber over and nudge our elbows, hoping for a scratch or maybe a treat.
"All of us are passionate about sustainable farming," says Pearson. "We take a lot of pride in creating the best pasture for the family's cows and in being good caretakers of the land.
"For me, being involved in this lifestyle is a blessing," says Pearson, who grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Chico to attend college.
"I left a corporate job where I traveled a lot and dealt with many successful people. But it didn't celebrate the things that are important to me. This is important, and it is more rewarding than anything else I can imagine."
For more information about Pedrozo Dairy & Cheese Co., visit www.realfarmsteadcheese.com. You can meet Mandy Johnston and John Pearson and sample their cheese Sunday afternoon at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.
Call The Bee's Gwen Schoen, (916) 321-1146.
