Ripley Casdorph in Greeley, Colorado

Ripley Casdorph is a very busy man! He works full time as the webmaster for Weld County (19 years). From 2017-2019, he drove Uber and Lyft as a side gig for about 50 hours a week on top of his day job. (He told us he hardly made any cheese for those 2 years.)

Now, in addition to his full time job, every Friday night he cleans the aquarium at Scheels sporting goods in Johnstown.

When he isn’t making fabulous cheese, he’s playing hockey or rock climbing with his son.

5 years ago, we asked Ripley a few questions for an article we did about 3 Certified Home Cheese Makers. He had started making cheese the year before, and he had just graduated from Kate Johnson’s The Art of Cheese school in Greeley, Colorado. By then, he had already made over 25 different kinds of cheese!

Since then, he has taken home cheese making to the highest possible level. He has a blog (http://cheese.sunspotdesign.com/cheese/) where he writes about and lists 51 of the cheeses he has made. 11 of them link to his recipes.

How did you first get interested in making cheese?

My wife and I saw an advertisement for the Colorado Cheese Festival (2010) in a Groupon and decided it sounded like fun. We packed up the kids, headed to Denver and stayed at the hotel that had the festival, a 2 day cheese extravaganza.

Tons of cheese to taste but also some classes on 30-minute mozzarella and the supplies needed for cheesemaking. At the end of the weekend, we were pretty cheesed out and forgot all about it.

The following year we missed it all together.

By the next year, the festival had moved closer to us in Longmont, so we got tickets early. I remember thinking how much I knew about cheese.

We had a great time, it wasn’t crowded plenty of cheese and a chef from Boulder who won Top Chef (Hosea Rosenberg) was featured as a speaker. We were big fans of the show and ate up everything he said.

It wasn’t until the 2014 event that cheese really clicked for me. We met Kate from The Art of Cheese and signed up for her class in Alpine Cheeses.

The night of the class it was snowy, the roads were terrible, and we were 10 minutes late.

We settled in next to a pot of warm milk and I was hooked almost immediately. Stir the milk, cut the curd, it was amazing.

My wife was less than enthused. At the end of class, I wanted to get some rennet and some culture, she rolled her eyes.

My next free weekend, I made Jarlsberg! It took 18 hours start to finish, but I had a blast. I woke up early the next morning and did it again, a second wheel of Jarlsberg. This time I was cleaned up in only 8 hours. Making cheese was amazing, it was magic!

I soon discovered that my best cheese came from the the best milk and I started the quest to find raw milk dairies I could partner with. Along the way, I have made some great friends who have struggled to keep their raw milk dairies. I’m on my 4th.

My friends at one dairy loved my cheddar curds and gave them out to his their herd shares, so it gave me the chance to make cheddar curds week after week, for half the year.

In March, 2019, one of the dairies had slaughtered their hogs and had extra milk (30 gallons a week) and asked if I wanted it. I spent nearly every weekend making cheese in anticipation of my daughter’s wedding in September, 2019.

In July of 2019, I had open heart surgery and got a bovine aortic heart valve, so I am even part cow now(!) The fall was spent taking care of the cheese for the wedding.

By the time of the wedding I had 160 pounds of cheese which allowed me the cater the appetizers and create a cheese wedding cake for her.

In March of 2020, I started using milk from a small CSA dairy in Gill, Colorado, Living the Cream Dairy. Cheese making has saved my 2020! They have 4 cows and have become great friends! All of these experiences along the way have allowed me to make more than 50 different cheeses.

Even though I have been making cheese for quite a while, until recently, I had never made any bloomy rind cheeses and just one washed rind cheese.

Now, after ordering a few new cultures, I have been playing with several new cheeses. I have made Camembert, Brie, and Robiolini.

The Camembert was pretty close, so I made it again and it was wonderful. The jury is still out on the others, not my favorites.

I really like the idea of washed rind cheeses. The chance to take them out and watch them almost daily is intriguing. I have made Port Salut, Munster and Livarot.

This last week, I made cheddar and Provolone.

I was given a press with springs from a woman who had such bad luck making cheese she just wanted to give away her stuff.

I have also been smoking a few cheeses and really like the smoked Gouda and cheddar that I have made. Guess I have been really busy making cheese during Covid – it’s been a great distraction.

My Caves:

I used a wine fridge in the early years, but I have since added 2 full sized refrigerators. One is at normal fridge temps for storing milk and finished cheeses.

The other is my actual cheese cave. The temp is around 52F with a humidity of 85-87%. I use an Inkbird to regulate the humidity and temp.

My Goals:

Just this last week, I had my greatest disappointment when I opened a Christmas Gruyere. After all I have learned about how to care for cheese, I still have a long way to go. I made Gruyere in May of 2020 to have for a Christmas Eve fondue. The cheese had a slight swiss flavor, but really wasn’t what I wanted out of Gruyere. So for 2021, I hope to make great Gruyere for Christmas!

Goal two would be to be more consistent in my finished product. Happy accidents are great, but I want good cheese all the time!