Today we’d like to introduce you to Veronica Baetje.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Baetje Farms LLC is a farmstead artisan goat cheese company featuring French-style cheeses. Our cheeses are made using traditional methods and have won more than 70 national and international awards. They are featured in all Whole Foods Market stores and Pastoral in the Chicago area. We love what we do and have been in business since 2007. We were featured in many magazine, newspaper and PBS specials including the New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/dining/goat-cheese-mennonite.html
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There are always challenges with farmstead cheese companies. The most significant ongoing challenge is best defined in the cheese case. Our direct competition would be completely different companies than we are by nature. Using traditional, slower, quality proven methods that require human interaction on a daily basis; such as hand ladling of curd, washing and turning of cheeses in the aging rooms, hand wrapping, and individualized animal husbandry…
Our competitors often use imported frozen curd, are completely separate from the farmstead, utilize robotic equipment, and high-speed industrial methods to sell their products at a much cheaper cost due to their high level of production and cost-cutting measures. The packaging may look artisan, and to the average consumer, it becomes quite difficult to tell what a really good local cheese is and why it is important to support the type of company we have.
Artisan cheese companies are in effect an endangered species that may not survive the industrialized cheese competition should the public not understand and support the work we do. As a result, we have to spend a lot of time educating while we sell our products.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently
Looking back, there is nothing I would have changed about the way we created our cheeses and conducted our business. We have done our best with what God has given us, and we always strive to do better.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8932 Jackson School Road
Bloomsdale, MO 63627 - Website: baetjefarms.com
- Phone: 5734839021
- Email: info@baetjefarms.com
- Instagram: baetjefarmsllc
- Facebook: Baetje Farms
- Twitter: @BaetjeFarms
Image Credit:
Kelly Junge, Steve Baetje
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