Evergreen Creamery is a one-man operation in Trout Lake, Washington. Lucas King started the creamery with the “intention to put damn-good, local & organic cheese into the hands (and mouths) of locals; as well as adding value to the high quality organic milk that is produced in the Trout Lake Valley to support family owned farms and in turn, keeping productive farmland as farms.” Here, here!

Photo credit to Evergreen Creamery

Evergreen Creamery is a small creamery, but it is actually not a farmstead cheesemaker–which is what you would call a creamery where the milk and the cheese are made on the same property. Evergreen Creamery sources its cow’s milk from an 5th-generation organic dairy that is only three miles down the road. Luckily the milk doesn’t have to travel very far before it can become cheese, and the creamery plays an important role in its local community by providing revenue for its neighboring dairy farmer. The creamery is also looking for a licensed goat dairy in Klickitat or Skamania County to supply goat’s milk, too!

Photo credit to Evergreen Creamery

Evergreen Creamery specializes in raw, aged semi-hard and hard organic cow’s milk cheeses. All of their recipes are originals. The two main cheeses they make right now are Mt. Adams Gold and Mt. Adams Reserve–the names of both playing homage to the volcano that gives Trout Lake its unique terroir.

Photo credit to Evergreen Creamery

Lucas King is the sole proprietor of Evergreen Creamery. Lucas, pictured here with a new baby calf, started as a cheesemaker by training at neighboring Trout Lake Creamery, Cascadia Creamery. After diving head-first into cheesemaking through that experience, he continued his education by taking courses in Vermont, at Oregon State University and at WSU Creamery. He also spent three months backpacking through the mountains of Europe, apprenticing with family-owned micro-creameries. These experiences solidified his desire to build his own micro-creamery back home in Trout Lake so he could make an affordable and high-quality cheese for his community.

Photo credit to Evergreen Creamery

Evergreen Creamery is relatively new to Washington’s cheesemaking scene. Lucas King built the creamery in 2016, and then spent 2017 developing his cheese recipes and testing them. The creamery got licensed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture in 2018, and has been slowly growing ever since! Slow growth is not a bad thing for a creamery Evergreen’s size, though: the micro-creamery’s production space is only 120 square feet! These pictures show part of the evolution of the creamery building as it was built in 2016 to the finished product.

Photo credit to Evergreen Creamery

If you ask cheesemaker and owner Lucas, his favorite cheese that he makes is Mt. Adams Gold. Why? He says the recipe has taken him years to refine, but the end result really reflects the goals of his creamery to create an affordable, high-quality cheese for the people of the Northwest.

Photo credit to Evergreen Creamery

If you want to get your hands on some delicious cheese from Evergreen Creamery, prepare yourself to join a select group of folks who have access! The easiest way to find the cheese is through the creamery’s website; they sell online and ship to folks in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho when it’s not too hot out. You can also find their cheese at a couple of local retailers along the Columbia River Gorge, as well as on the menu at some wineries along the Gorge! Evergreen’s cheeses will also be available at select small cheese shops in Seattle and Portland in the next 12-18 months. Stay tuned!

Photo credit to Evergreen Creamery