The Big Cheese
(Left) Farmhouse Blue, (Right) Aztec Cheddar
Meet Dane Huebner, head cheese maker and culinary artist at Flat Creek Lodge, located in Statesboro, Georgia. Recruited by the Department of Agriculture from Wisconsin last September, Dane has won numerous awards with his cheese making skills. After less than a year of opening, the Lodge won 12th place in the World Cheese Championship Contest under Huebner’s direction.
The Flat Creek Lodge Dairy is one of only two licensed artisan cheese producers in the state. The Lodge’s twenty-seven, grass and grain fed registered Jersey cows are the single source for their cheese, producing about 450lbs of milk per day, and about 300lbs of cheese per week. What makes their cheese any different than what you get in the local grocery store? Huebner and staff use unpasteurized, raw milk. Each batch is hand-made, and no other cheese will taste like their cheese. Unlike larger factories, when lots of different cows milk is combined, the taste is much more dynamic when only coming from a single herd of cows. Flat Creek Lodge uses no artificial ingredients.
Some cheeses produced in the dairy include: Pepper Feta, Leiden (a traditionally Dutch cheese), Thai Chili Cheddar, Aztec Cheddar (a personal favorite), and many more. The most popular cheese is the Farmhouse Blue. Their cheeses are sold to only a few local restaurants, including Thrive and Cha Bella. Want to taste these delectable dairy delights for yourself? You can purchase them at the Wednesday evening farmer’s market (held in the parking lot of the Pirate House from 4pm-7pm) or online here.
