Lorrie Conway operates Conway Family Farms, LLC, with her husband, Shaun. Along with their daughters, Ashley and Amber, they have raised Nubian goats and Border Leicester sheep on their five acres for more than three decades.

Having built the farm from the ground up themselves, Conway Family Farm is a Grade A Dairy and a WSDA-licensed ice cream and cheese processing facility. Lorrie was asked to serve on the WSDA board defining and eliminating barriers to entry for small dairy farms in 2005. In addition, she and Shaun testified in 2006 at Washington State Legislative hearings in favor of the ability for small farmers to safely produce fluid raw milk.

Lorrie and Shaun were recognized in 2006 as Western Region SARE Patrick Madden Award finalists for Sustainable Agriculture for their efforts in sharing their love of small-scale, sustainable agriculture with the public through e-mails, farm visits and tours, phone calls, community events and speaking at conferences. In 2014, Conway Family Farm was featured in Farm & Ranch Living as “The Prettiest Place in the Country.”

Lorrie’s education is in business & management, which she combines with her lifetime experience of farming. The Conways’ farm is an ever-changing model as the family has grown and been challenged by the demands of off-farm, full-time work. Yet the “family” aspect of the farm remains paramount. Although Ashley and Amber have grown up and moved away, the farm is small enough that Lorrie and Shaun alone do the management and production of their value-added products.

Jessica Gigot owns and operates Harmony Fields in Bow, WA. The farm makes seasonal artisan sheep cheese and grows organic herbs. Harmony Fields also offers a Summer Sheep CSA and sells yarn, wool, and textiles. Jessica has served on the board of Tilth Alliance and Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland. Her academic background is in horticulture and creative writing, and in the off-season she offers classes on food sovereignty, soil biology, poetry, and sheep.

Patti Ciatto is cheesemaker at Fantello Farmstead Creamery. Her interest in making cheese came to her when she was walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Her mantra has always been, “if others are doing it, so can you” — So she arranged to take some courses, starting with the cheesemaking course offered at WSU. Then she went to France and learned under Ivan Larcher, to Vermont a couple of times to tour cheese, and took a class given by Peter Dixon. She’s been submersed in milk and books for almost 5 years now creating, experimenting and learning.

Fantello “Farmstead” means she does it all on the farm: milks their Jersey cows, helps deliver the babies, bottle feeds them, and scoops the poo. It is not so easy–but it is cool and she feels rewarded daily with the awesome things folk say about the end product.

Courtney has been a member of the Washington State cheese family since she became a cheesemonger in 2015. Prior to stepping behind the cheese counter, Courtney was on an academic track, learning and teaching at The University of Arizona and UC Berkley. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, a bachelor’s degree in German Studies, and both a master’s degree and PhD in German. It was while working at Metropolitan Market and at PCC Community Markets, that Courtney found her true calling and embraced the cheese world. She shares her considerable cheese knowledge through cheese education classes, her blog The PhCheese, and by volunteering at industry events. Courtney and her business partner, Tailor Kowis, own and run a mobile cheese shop, Street Cheese, with the goal of making local and artisanal cheese and specialty foods accessible to a broader public. Courtney is also an adjunct faculty member at Seattle Central College’s Seattle Culinary Academy, where she teaches about cheese and lacto-fermentation.

Courtney promotes local cheeses and the stories of cheesemakers daily with her customers. She is an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional (CCP) and Certified Cheese Sensory Evaluator (CCSE), and has competed three times in the Cheesemonger Invitational in San Francisco–winning second place in January 2020 and in March 2022! Courtney brings with her strong communication, writing and organizational skills, along with a deep passion for Washington cheese and an admiration for Washington cheesemakers. Courtney is thrilled to have this opportunity to serve our state’s cheesemakers, to share their stories, and to further educate the region’s and nation’s cheese lovers about the great cheeses of Washington State.