Manufacturer -
Transformer
Le Mouton Blanc companies
In 1996, Pascal-André Bisson and Rachel White bought the small disused farm which will hold more than 500 sheep fifteen years later. Being two passionates of farming, they decide to start breeding sheep for their milk. After three years of milking, it gets harder and harder to sell the milk with all the operating constraint (as for the shipping for example). To ensure the enterprise subsistence, they build a cheese factory on the farm with 400 000$ of investment. Every steps of a new company are reviewed: marketing, promotion, research and training. In 2006, the Tomme du Kamouraska has been selected to be the “Best sheep milk cheese” and has also won the remarkable prize “Grand Public” CASEUS. Four other cheeses will follow and in 2011 they open the farm store which allows to get closer to the customer and sell directly the cheese and the lamb meat of the farm. The work of Rachel is now concentrated on getting the best genetics as Pascal-André works on creating new kinds of cheese.
MILKING SHEEP
The early bird gets the worm; that’s the way it is for any agricultural company. Everyday starts at 5h30. Rachel the shepherdess works hard to make a great quality raw milk. She first starts by creating groups of twelve sheep which will be presented to the ram. The maternity lasts for 5 months, and they get usually two lambs. The most complex thing is still to manage the well-being of all those animals. The barn gets occupied by more than 150 sheeps and 300 lambs. The sheeps are milked from January to October, and about 40 sheeps will be chosen to be the milkers in the next season. They eat hay from the farm fields, and they see the sun twice a day from may to October. Therefore, the farm is eco-friendly.
MAKING CHEESE: A WORK OF ART
The cheesemonger Pascal-André Bisson’s daily work is concentrated on making cheese and maintenance in caves, hygienic monitoring and cheese selling and marketing. When the milk is put in the cistern, it is heated until 32 degrees as the bacterial flora gets in movement. After having cut the curdled cheese, it is heated a bit more and put in molds. The cheeses will then be put into a cistern of brine for 24 hours. Then the cheeses are put in the caves under the rock ( which helps saving energy and gives a nice environment to the cheese ) where they age for a minimum of 4 months. Some rounds will even be aged for a year !
Keep in touch; the favorite labor of Pascal-André consists on creating new cheeses… See you soon!
