Camille & John Bock
Goodgrass Farm
We get a lot of questions about where folks can find good milk for making cheese in Texas. We know it’s a big state, but here’s a farm, just north of Houston doing everything right.
The Bocks typically milk 15 cows. The cows are pasture fed, never grained and milked once/day.
Minnie
The milk is a mix of Jersey, Guernsey, and Ayrshire. You can make good cheese with the raw milk they sell.
(But call ahead- they sell out regularly.)
Milk and cream before picture
After
The couple had lived on the farm for over 25 years when they built their dairy and started milking 4 years ago.
When they first started, they were making Camembert for the Houston restaurant trade. When the restaurants closed because of the virus, they switched to selling raw milk and making cheese for retail.
Pressing raw milk gouda
Now, they make their own cheddar-style cheese, quark, feta, fromagina (culture from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co.), cottage cheese, kefir and butter. Of course, legally they have to pasteurize for the soft cheeses.
Cultured butter
Three days of the week, they bottle their milk, cream and kefir for direct retail.
Raw cream
Raw milk kefir, loaded with probiotics.
Three other days, they use their milk (about 85 gallons) for making hard cheese, with a yield of one pound of cheese for each gallon of milk.
They call their cheddar Wildcat, shown here cut and ready to wrap.
Wildkat
Pepper Jack
With the 7th day’s milk, they make feta, the soft cheeses, cottage cheese and butter.
Feta with Herbs de Provence
This picture shows the difference between their cultured butter made from pasteurized milk (on the left) and store-bought.
Feta with a blend of Herbs de Provence and Italian herbs. Cottage cheese sprinkled with olive oil and Italian herbs.
They have the capacity to make a lot more cheese than they do but that depends on how many cows the grass can support.
They need to plant 20 acres of oats & clover to get the cows through the winter. They time their calving window so that the cows come into milk about the time the oats are ready.
At first there is only enough to graze 2 hours a day. The rest of the day they have free choice of hay or balage. As the season goes on there is enough greenery to leave the hay.
Small But Mighty Local Market
John & Camille are very supportive of other small businesses in their area and they have a farmer’s market at their farm every third Sunday from 2-5. (Check their Facebook page for information about upcoming markets.)
Goodgrass Farm LLC
goodgrassfarmllc.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GoodgrassFarmLlc/
9924 Bilnoski Road
Willis, TX 77378
(936) 523-0743
dairyman@goodgrassfarmllc.com
STORE HOURS
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
or by appointment
Closed October – December to allow their cows 60 days to prepare for their next calves.
