Mesman Farm & Samish Bay Cheese

June 26, 2023

#GSVMemberMonday Features – Mesman Farm & Samish Bay Cheese

With June and #NationalDairyMonth ending soon, we just couldn’t end the month without introducing you to our friends at Mesman Farm and Samish Bay Cheese.

Mesman Farm

Mesman Farm is a family owned and operated farm located just outside LaConner, Washington. The farm consists of over 300 acres in the maritime, subtidal agricultural lowlands where grass, peas and oats, barley and alfalfa are grown. The Mesmans have been farming for five generations and have been an organic dairy for 15 years. The dairy is currently owned and operated by Alan, his son Ben and daughter-in-law Chelsy Mesman. Ben and Chelsy currently live on the farm with their three children. Alan and his wife Anita raise Katahdin sheep and cage-free chickens down the road. Everyone works together to get the farm chores done. While Ben stays busy in the fields, Alan takes care of and feeds the calves as well as deliver milk to Samish Bay Cheese weekly, Chelsy runs the farm store at the same time of being a full time mom.

Ben and Chelsy Mesman help to operate Mesman Farm in La Conner with Ben’s father Alan. The Mesmans have been farming for five generations and have been an organic dairy for 15 years. Ben and Chelsy are pictured with their three children. Photo by Cedarbrook Studio, 2023

There are many different breeds of cattle on the farm; from Holstein, to Norwegian Red, to Jersey, to Normande. The cows are milked in two state of the art DeLaval VMS milking systems that were installed on the farm in November of 2013. Mesman Farm is the first dairy in Skagit County to use robotics to milk their cows. The upgrade has completely changed the dynamic of the farm, because cows now choose to be milked on their own schedule, rather than being moved around by the farmers to be milked on theirs.

The Mesman family believes in providing their customers with truly local food, providing educational guided farm tours for schools on a real, working organic dairy farm. In addition to the dairy, they offer high quality pasture-raised pork, lamb and beef that are USDA inspected and locally processed. Their meats are available at their farmstore as well as through local farmstands including Boldly Grown Farm, Hedlin’s Family Farm and Waxwing Farm. Weekly meal boxes and gift certificates are also available at their farmstand and online through their website.

Mesman Farm just outside of La Conner. Photo by Cedarbrook Studio, 2023

Late last fall, the farm joined a partnership with Samish Bay cheese to deliver organic milk to the creamery for use in their award winning cheeses. “This partnership is a really exciting opportunity for us to keep our milk local and be made into the best cheese and products in the area! It’s great to keep the long relationship we have with Samish Bay Cheese going into the future.” said Chelsy. More information about this great partnership can be found in our Samish Bay Cheese article below.

We recently caught up with Ben and Chelsy to find out what their favorite Skagit grown fruit and/or vegetable is. Ben says his favorite Skagit Grown crops are “strawberries and ‘taters!” Chelsy says hers are definitely the strawberries, “because they are so delicious from the valley!”

Samish Bay Cheese

Founding GSV Members Samish Bay Cheese in Bow feature award-winning organic farmstead cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products. Owners Roger and Suzanne Wechsler originally bought the 54 acre Bow farm in 1999. Before they learned to make cheese, Roger and Suzanne Wechsler were organic vegetable farmers. They decided it was time to try something new, so they began experimenting with making their own cheeses at home in 1998 and then purchased the farm from the previous family, who began Samish Bay Cheese as an organic dairy farm in 1996. Roger and Suzanne started with only 13 cows, using all of their produced milk to create their delectable organic cheeses.

Today they have grown their dairy herd to over 40 milking Shorthorns and as mentioned above, have recently joined forces with GSV member Mesman Farm exclusively to fulfill growing demand for their artisan and award winning cheeses. The recent collaboration between the two Genuine Skagit Valley farming families brings “local” full circle here in the Skagit Valley. You can hear more about this exciting partnership in this video below courtesy of Samish Bay Cheese:

Samish Bay Cheese in Bow features award-winning organic farmstead cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products for sale at their well-stocked farmstore in Bow. The farmstore is open Mon-Thurs 12-4; Fri-Sunday 10-5

From the humble beginnings that Suzanne and Roger Wechsler took over in 1999, not only has the farm grown in facilities, product line, distribution and employees (now nearly 20), but now farms nearly 200 acres. Today Samish Bay Cheese not only produces fresh and aged cheeses, including several proprietary, award winners, but also yogurt, labneh, kefir, beef, veal, lamb and pork are offered.

Their fresh cheeses, including their signature (and VERY delicious) Ladysmith, have a strong following of loyal customers from near and far. In January 2021, Samish Bay Cheese’s Vache was one of four Washington cheeses to win a prestigious Good Food Award. What is Vache? Vache is a soft, fresh cow’s milk cheese that is creamy and rich with a slight tanginess. It’s great to smear on your favorite cheese vehicle (crackers, vegetables, etc.) and enjoy on its own, but it also goes wonderfully with fruit preserves (we especially love it with Bow Hill Blueberry’s organic blueberry confiture!) or fresh herbs. You can cook with it as well.

You can find their cheese well-stocked locally as well as find other artisan foods, beer, wine and other beverages at their destination Farm Store in Bow which is open Mon-Thurs 12-4; Fri-Sunday 10-5. Other retailers that carry a line of Samish Bay’s products include Hedlin’s Family Farm, The Skagit Valley Food Coop, Haggen and for wholesale partners through the Puget Sound Food Hub. Samish Bay Cheese can also be found at several local farmers markets including Ballard Farmers Market, Bellingham Farmers Market, Redmond Farmers Market, and The Skagit Valley Farmers Market.

Rather than ask what Roger and Suzanne’s favorite Skagit Grown fruit and/or vegetable was, we recently asked Roger what his favorite new Skagit Valley product was, and Roger excitedly sent us this photograph and said, “Here’s our Dilly Dillie Chive Ladysmith!” Roger says the dill and chives are from The Crows Farm as well as herbs grown on their own farm. Yum! We’re definitely looking forward to trying this one, Roger and Suzanne!

Samish Bay Cheese’s new ‘Dilly Dillie Chive Ladysmith’. Now available at the farmstand in Bow or inquire for orders. We can’t wait to try it too!

We’re so grateful to have both Mesman Farm and Samish Bay Cheese as part of the Genuine Skagit Valley family and hope you will visit both during our Farmstand Fresh program that starts in July. What a delicious way to end #NationalDairyMonth.