Janet Fletcher at the San Francisco Chronicle tastes mixed milk Mona, a cheese from the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative, and marvels at the growing availability of sheep's milk cheeses in the US:

The growing availability of sheep's milk and American-made sheep's milk cheese is one of the most exciting trends in the domestic cheese world. Until recent times, America's sheep ranchers raised primarily breeds prized for their wool or their meat. Dairy breeds like East Friesian and Lacaune hardly existed here.

But that's changing. Slowly but steadily, small farms in Wisconsin, California, Minnesota and elsewhere are building up flocks of dairy breeds, so more sheep cheese is certainly in America's future.

One of the pioneers on this front is the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative, established in the mid-1990s and now counting 14 member farms.

Read the full article by Janet Fletcher here