Extreme close-up of a goat's eye with a cobalt-blue iris and a wide horizontal pupil

Decorah, Iowa · Goat dairy & creamery

She'd like to show you around.

Cedar Run Creamery makes chevre, feta, goat cheese and yogurt from a hillside herd in northeast Iowa. Buy the cheese online, or come walk the farm — she'll lead.

Shop the cheese Book a farm tour

Scroll slowly — she's watching

A herd of dairy goats grazing on a green hillside pasture beside a long fence line in early morning light — The lane, looking up — six in the morning

01 · The pasture

She knows this hill better than the map does.

Every morning she walks it, checks the fence line, and stands exactly where the shade will be by noon. The rest of the herd follows at their own pace, which is not a fast one.

Cedar Run is a working goat dairy: a barn, a milking parlour, a long lane, and a creamery where the morning's milk becomes chevre, feta, goat cheese and yogurt. The work happens in the same rooms you'll walk through.

The gateShe leans on it while you fumble with the latch.
The laneShort for you. Endless when there's clover in it.
The hillAsk her about climbing it on a hot day. She'll decline.

02 · She sees

Four things, all day, every day.

Take her word for it. She has been staring at the same four things since she was small, and she has opinions about every one of them.

The fence

A fence is a suggestion with a gate in it. She tests it daily, for your benefit.

The pail

The pail means the parlour, which means the walk up the lane, which means breakfast. She is very clear on the order.

Hands ladling fresh white cheese curds into molds on a stainless steel table in a small creamery — 03 · The cheese room, mid-morning

The cheese room

The room her morning goes into after it leaves her. She checks on it through the window, at length.

A visitor crouching at a pasture fence while curious goats crowd in to sniff and nuzzle — 04 · A first-timer, at the fence

The visitor

You. She can spot a first-timer from the top of the hill, and she will be there before you are.

03 · The shop

The cheese is hers. The shop is yours.

Everything is made in the creamery from the herd's own milk and sent out from Decorah.

Fresh goat cheese, feta in brine and a bowl of plain yogurt arranged on a pale marble counter

Fresh chevre

Young, bright and a little lemony, with a clean finish. Spread it on anything that will hold still.

Add to basket

Feta

Salty, crumbly and kept in brine. It improves salads, watermelon and most disagreements.

Add to basket

Goat cheese

Round and mild with a little tang at the end. The one that lives in the fridge door.

Add to basket

Cultured yogurt

Thick, plain and honest. Breakfast, marinades, or straight off the spoon over the sink.

Add to basket

04 · Farm tours

The tour is also hers. You're welcome.

Walk the farm with the herd out in front of you and the creamery at the end of it. Wear boots — she'll handle the introductions. Book ahead and she'll be expecting you.

Meet at the gate

She'll find you before you find her. There is usually a small committee waiting at the fence to inspect your shoes.

The barn and the parlour

Where the milk starts its morning, and where the herd files in with more order than you'd expect.

The cheese room

Vats, curds, and the quiet point where milk stops being milk and becomes chevre, feta and yogurt.

Tasting at the table

Chevre, feta, goat cheese and yogurt, all of it from animals you have just met personally.

Book a farm tour Shop the cheese

05 · Come see

Come and see. She insists.

Cedar Run Creamery sits on a hillside outside Decorah, Iowa. Buy the cheese online, or come walk the farm and meet the reason it tastes like this.

Book a farm tour Shop the cheese

Cedar Run Creamery · Decorah, Iowa