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.

Kim Martin is the Cheese & Charcuterie Specialist at Metropolitan Market, a regional specialty grocery chain based in the greater Seattle area.

A native of Eastern Washington, Stacy grew up in a family of milk haulers and is a third generation milk hauler himself. He joined the U.S. Coast Guard when he turned 17, and soon found himself stationed on Lake Michigan in “America’s Dairyland”, Wisconsin! It’s here where Stacy met his future wife, Virginia, and where their first date was to a local cheese factory. Stacy and Virginia were married and continued to transfer about the country, but Stacy always had a love for the dairy industry and no matter where he was stationed, he would seek out local dairy farmers and cheesemakers to learn from.

In 2010 Stacy and Virginia bought 40 acres of raw land north of Spokane and would spend the next decade building it into a small dairy farm. When Stacy retired from the military in 2020, Clover Mountain Dairy was founded. They began selling vat pasteurized glass bottled milk, but transitioned to making cheese in 2022. They currently make cheddar, feta, monterey jack, pepper jack, and gouda. They milk a small herd of NZ Jerseys once a day seasonally and focus on high quality milk to create the best cheese.

The cows are 100% grassfed and graze rotationally during the grazing season. Calves are raised with the cows 24/7 the first six weeks, then separated in a group at night, and reunited with cows after morning milking. Calves are weaned at five months. Grazing, calf-sharing, and seasonal once a day milking allow Stacy and Virginia to have the work life balance they desire while maximizing herd health and farm profit. Other farm enterprises include beef sales and hauling milk. Cheeses are sold locally in Northeast Washington.

Always wanting to learn more and network with other cheesemakers, Stacy is proud to be a member of WASCA! 

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 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! She also competed in and won Cheesemonger Invitational: Masters in New York in 2023 and 2025, competed in the Mondial du Meilleur Fromager in Tours, France, in 2023, and will compete again in the 2025 Mondial competition. 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.