| | Ian Treuer and Aurelio Fernandes own and operate Winding Road Artisan Cheese near Smoky Lake, Alberta. Their regular product line includes everything from butter cheese, to Swiss Appenzeller style cheese, to Queijo Fresco, and Greek style yogurt.
You can find Winding Road Artisan Cheese products at various Edmonton area farmers’ markets, including the French Quarter Farmers’ Market, the City Market Downtown, and at select retailers and restaurants in Alberta. To learn more about Winding Road Artisan Cheese and where to access their products, check out their website or follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
How Winding Road Artisan Cheese began:
Ian has always enjoyed making cheese as a hobby and has a number of dairy farmers and cheese makers in his family lineage. In 2015, he was working at the print shop at NAIT when a local cheese maker he had worked for in the past called Ian and asked him if he was interested in buying their business.
Aurelio and Ian were working on a different project when, one day in a meeting, Ian explained that he was in a dilemma regarding whether or not to purchase a cheese business; Aurelio’s interest was immediately peaked.
Coincidentally, Aurelio had recently been working with a company that was extracting enzymes from cardoon flowers. In Europe (where the flower grows) there is a history of cheese making that uses enzymes from cardoon flowers. Working with an enzyme from a wild flower comes with its own set of difficulties as the properties of the flowers are at the mercy of the weather and varying conditions from year to year. The company with which Aurelio was working was seeking to extract and standardize the enzyme from the cardoon flower to make it available for use in cheese making.
Aurelio and Ian decided that this chance was too good to pass up and they partnered together to form Winding Road Artisan Cheese. In late 2015, Ian quit his job at NAIT, packed up his family, and moved to the Smoky Lake area to make cheese full time. By March, their facility had passed all inspections and, in spring of 2016, they began attending farmers’ markets to sell their delicious cheese.
Ian now uses the cardoon enzyme in his cheese making and is currently the only cheese maker in Canada to do so. It took him about half a year to figure out the right formula, but he is now a leader in the process within North America. Cheese makers from the United States have come to Smoky Lake to learn more about Ian’s process, and he has also taught cheese making through Metro continuing education and at Grande Prairie Regional College.
Winding Road Artisan Cheese products:
While the use of the cardoom enzyme in their process makes Winding Road Artisan Cheese products unique, they’re also all handmade. The only mechanization within their entire process is the motor used to heat the milk and cut the curd. This hands-on process makes for a very unique product right down to the size of the cheese wheels which vary with each vintage.
The labour involved with handmade cheese is exceptional. For example, one of their most popular cheeses, the RDB, is a washed-rind cheese, and each wheel is washed by hand every two days. Much like chefs being drawn toward cooking as an expression of their personality, Ian sees his cheese making as a form of self-expression. He notices that the cheese takes on the flavour and style of his mood and attention.
In addition to their cheese line, Ian also makes yogurt. It has only two ingredients: milk and starter-culture. While the yogurt is in a Greek style, it has a thicker texture than most brands and he has seen a huge appreciation for his yogurt within his customer base.
Their connection to the community and customers:
While Ian is joining the ranks of a small but award-winning community of cheese makers in Alberta, the profile of Alberta cheese makers is not prominent in minds of most Alberta consumers. Ian and Aurelio find that they spend a significant portion of their time talking with customers, sharing their experiences, and doing their best to build the profile of Alberta cheese.
Ian uses Alberta organic milk from Vital Green Farms in his cheese and loves the way his cheeses can showcase the fantastic qualities of a local product. Ian even notices seasonality in the milk that really highlights the land and animals that are producing it. In fact, his Queso fresco contains no starter culture so this product in particular is able to really demonstrate the quality of the local organic milk they use to make it.
In the tradition of many great cheese makers, Ian uses the naming of his products to pay homage to their geographical and historical influences. Whether it’s “Highland Hall” – a nod to the nearby 1930’s Ukrainian structure, or “Josef” – a Swiss Appenzeller cheese named after Ian’s grandfather, their product names display a connection to Winding Road cheese or the area in which it operates.
The future of Winding Road Artisan Cheese:
Ian has seen a large positive response from the community since they began Winding Road Cheese. They’re starting to be known for the quality of their product within their local community, and they’re gaining a lot of ground in the restaurant world where chefs love their high-end product.
Ultimately, Ian and Aurelio would like to see their cheese in more Alberta retail locations and be able to sell their cheese across provincial borders. However, laws governing cheese production are complicated and they’re working through the licensing needed to bring their products to restaurants and markets in British Columbia and Ontario. Their facility is built with expansion in mind and they hope to see a demand that requires them to scale up their production.
Each spring the Dairy Farmers of Canada hold a “cheese grand prix.” This year, Winding Road Cheese is planning to submit some of their product to help grow their brand profile and receive feedback about their cheese.
“There’s a lot of science behind cheese making, and it's an art-form as well" - Ian Treuer
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