What People Are Saying

TV5 WEWS News Story with Lee Jordan
July 2010

Local Roots Blog
Let Them Eat Cake!
August 17, 2009

The Wilderness Center held a "Savor the Flavor" fundraiser Friday night at Quailcrest Farm, and they invited Local Roots to participate and show off some of those delicious local foods from local farmers and producers.
How could we resist?

If you were there, you met our treasurer, Marlene Barkheimer (pictured here) and her daughter Jessica (our intrepid photographer) dishing up slices of a luscious carrot cake made by steering committee member Betsy Anderson.
Jessica reports that the cake was so popular, it disappeared by 7:15 PM, and even then, people wanted to lick up the remaining frosting!

A sign at the table listed all the local food producers who contributed to the ingredients of the cake – and special thanks go to Monica Bongue of Muddy Fork Farm (another steering committee member) for the lovely carrots on top of the cake as well as inside!

The turnout for the event was impressive, which just goes to show you that eating locally really resonates with us here in the heartland– not just with the gourmet foodies on the East and West Coasts. (We've always known that truly good food is grown by local folks!) And if you missed it, the Daily Record covered the event on the front page this morning.

Back to top

Cleveland Magazine Blog
The Big Cheese
By: Laura Taxel | May 28, 2008

Winners walk among us. Big winners when it comes to culinary creds. Lake Erie Artisan Creamery, a mom-and-pop goat cheese-making operation on Cleveland’s West Side, brought home top honors from the Gallo Family Vineyards 2008 Gold Medal Awards. The three-year-old competition, sponsored by the famed Sonoma winery, recognizes quality and craftsmanship by selecting the best American artisanal food producers. This time around judges sampled more than 270 products from around the country. Only one entry from each of seven categories was chosen. The blomma from Lake Erie Creamery nabbed the prize for Outstanding Dairy.

It’s truly something wonderful: creamy, tangy, earthy and all oozy in the center. The little white rinded round resembles a petit wheel of brie. Mariann Janosko, who makes the blomma (along with the Creamery’s chevre, feta and fromage blanc), says it’s closer to the traditional farmstead version of brie than anything found in supermarkets here. Mold ripened and aged, her cheese has a piquant, complex flavor that deepens with time.

Mariann and her husband and business partner, Jerry Onken, also came home with the contest’s All Artisan Award. It means they were selected as the best of the best. While they’re quick to share credit with the Portage County goats that supply the milk they use, I think the couple deserves a loud cheer and a round of applause. Part of the prize is an all-expense paid trip to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, June 13-15 where their cheeses will be showcased. I predict that chefs and consumers are going to be lining up to get their hands on Lake Erie Creamery’s stuff. Luckily us locals can just go to the cheese “shop” inside the Baricelli Inn to buy some.

Read what Marilou Suszko wrote about Mariann and Jerry in the Spring / Summer 2007 issue of Feast! And click here for a wonderful goat cheese ravioli recipe.

Another Ohioan also did well in the Gallo contest. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream of Columbus won in the Outstanding Fruit or Vegetable division with her Sour Cherry Lambic Sorbet. Happily, Jonathan Sawyer is a big fan of Jeni’s so he always has a few of her fine flavors in his cooler, and right now the line up at Bar Cento on West 25th Street includes her gold medal sorbet. I went last week for a taste and was knocked out by how good it is — intensely fruity and perfectly balanced between sweet and tart.

Back to top

Our Ohio
Making Goats' Milk Cheese in Downtown Cleveland
By: Marilou Suszko | November / December 2007

Every day for five years, husband and wife Gerald Onken and Mariann Janosko got up before the sun to prepare for making goat cheese. In all that time, they never once milked a goat or sold an ounce of cheese. Instead they delivered the morning edition of the local newspaper to earn seed money to launch Lake Erie Creamery, a small and quite literally “mom and pop” plant tucked in a corner of a renovated factory on Fulton Road in Cleveland, an urban stretch of road bordering downtown and 40 miles away from the nearest goat.

Making chèvre (which is French for “goat”) is a second career for the tireless couple, he, a retired telecommunications engineer and she, a former educator. It began simply enough with Janosko’s personal penchant for the creamy, tangy fresh cheese. She honed her hobbyist skills for making cheese to an artisan level under the tutelage of Peter Dixon, a highly regarded Vermont cheesemaker. Meanwhile, Onken designed and engineered the modest, pristine 700 square foot creamery to meet Ohio Dairy Association standards as well as Janosko’s. Within two years, everything they needed for making cheese was in place, including the most important component: a steady supply of rich Ohio goats’ milk and a good working relationship with dairy goat farmers.

Janosko and Onken met Ohio Farm Bureau members, Eldon and Teddy West from Cherry Lane, through mutual farming friends. Their 80-acre Portage County farm, named for the rows of cherry trees that once flanked the drive, is home to their herd of 300 Saanen breed registered dairy goats that are milked twice a day, every day of the year. As the largest goats’ milk producer in the state, the Wests collect more than 25,000 pounds of milk each month, the majority of which is brokered to companies that produce goat cheese and related products in neighboring states. But the Wests reserve a precious 50 gallons or more each week for the creamery. Precious indeed, because Lake Erie Creamery is one of a small handful of licensed goat cheese producers in Ohio.

“This is a marriage made in heaven,” said Janosko who prefers making the cheese to raising and milking goats. Teddy West thinks conversely. She would rather farm. “You won’t see a lot of people doing what we’re doing together,” said Teddy of the relationship between the farm and creamery. “It’s hard to do it all,” she said of tending and milking the herd, then making and marketing the cheese. So between the two, they put their skills and labor into what they each do best.

Got goat milk?
While the finished goat cheese is what gets the public’s attention, it all begins with the milk. “We’re fortunate to be so close to a good milk source,” Janosko said, adding, “ the best goats’ milk within 500 miles.”

Most of the Cherry Lane Farm operation is dedicated to the dairy herd and the sale of young stock. The Wests partner with their oldest son, Michael and his wife, Sandy, who grow the hay and small grain, corn and soybeans used exclusively to feed the herd. It’s the bulk of a ration that Teddy has finely tuned nutritionally over the years and credits for the “distinctively” sweet taste and consistent quality in the milk. Their youngest son, Matthew, helps with the operation part-time and his wife, Shannon, is a valued and reliable hand to Teddy during the daily milking routine.

Each week begins with the milk pickup. Onken, a certified hauler, arrives at the farm in the morning and loads the stainless steel milk cans filled with fresh goats’ milk in his new Ford F150, a welcome replacement to the compact station wagon that once served as his “rig.” When the milk arrives back at the creamery, the couple transfers it by bucketfuls into the batch pasteurizer where it is pasteurized, at a lower, gentler heat for a longer period of time, as opposed to flash pasteurizing, which uses higher heat for a shorter time. “We attempt to keep the milk as close to its natural state as possible so the cheese will maintain its natural tang,” Janosko said.

After the milk is pasteurized, Janosko adds the culture. The next day, after the curds have formed, she’ll drain and mix the cheese to create a smooth texture. A portion is salted to make savory chèvre, which is mild and creamy. Another portion will be left unsalted for the creamery’s fromage blanc, a sweeter, silkier version that doesn’t have the depth of flavor as chèvre and is often served as a dessert course. Janosko will also mold some of the fresh cheese into 4-ounce rounds and age them for just over three weeks for a stronger, “goatier” flavor. She calls it “blooma,” which is Swedish for flower and a tribute to the “bloomy rind” it develops.

Friday is delivery day and every ounce of the cheese is destined for more than 24 restaurants or retail locations throughout northeast Ohio. The demand for the snowy white cheese is growing, with a few restaurants in the Columbus area ready to jump on the customer list. So are the customers’ accolades for the quality and taste of the cheese.

“My customers are always asking about the creamery’s goat cheese,” said Annemarie Geffert, owner of Annemarie’s Dairy at Cleveland’s West Side Market who tries to feature local, organic and natural dairy products at her stand. “They may balk at the price the first time they buy it, but never again after they taste it.”

Light Bistro in Cleveland features the chèvre on only one menu item, the goat cheese and arugula flatbread. “And we serve every bit of it,” said executive chef and co-owner, Matthew Mathlage. “The taste has so much character and is amazingly fresh and was recommended to us by other chefs,” he described. “It has the farm fresh taste we look for.”

When the Wests, Janosko and Onken end their working day, they know the cheese they’ve worked together to make is all Ohio in every respect: the labor, the ingredients and the flavor. For “local-vores,” consumers and chefs who buy and eat foods grown, raised or produced closer to home, it’s simply another delicious victory.

Back to top

Cleveland Magazine
It's a Goat Thing : Treat your taste buds to a burst of new flavors from local purveyors of the finer things in life.
By: Marilou Suszko | Summer 2007

To fulfill their dream of making fresh chèvre (goat cheese), Gerald Onken and Mariann Janosko got up before the sun for five years. But they weren’t milking the herd. The husband and wife were delivering the morning paper to earn seed money for Lake Erie Creamery, Ohio’s only licensed goat-cheese producer. Located in a funky renovated factory on Fulton Road, it seems an unlikely place to churn out fabulous goat cheese, but the couple is committed to living and working in the city limits to save on travel time and environmental resources.

Each week they make more than 80 pounds of artisan-style cheese. Goats from Cherry Lane Farm in Mantua supply the milk that Onken picks up every Monday. Then they pasteurize, drain, salt and mix the cheese to a creamy, smooth texture. By Friday, it’s packaged and delivered to restaurants including Blue Point Grille, Fahrenheit, Lola and Sergio’s in University Circle.

Look for Lake Erie Creamery’s fromage blanc on the dessert menus as well. Janosko has perfected the sweeter, silkier version of chèvre just in time for berry season. On a few select menus, you’ll also find Blomma (Swedish for “flower”), the Creamery’s new bloomy rind cheese.

Michael Fiala, executive chef at the Inn at Turner’s Mill, in Hudson, likes the freshness. “It’s creamy and has just enough acidity to keep things nicely balanced,” he says. He uses it as a counterpoint to fattier foods and rich, spicy dishes such as his Goat Cheese Ravioli with Chorizo and Kale.

Originally, the couple didn’t intend to offer their cheese retail, but they caved in to growing demand. You can find it at Annemarie’s Dairy at the West Side Market, Duet in Rocky River, Rego’s Lake Road Market, Great Lakes Baking Co. in Hudson and The Baricelli Inn. Currently, the cheesemakers do not allow on-site sales or creamery visits.

Back to top

Free Times
Blessed Are The Cheesemakers : Retired Couple's Goat Cheese Business Booming Thanks To Local Chefs
By: Douglas Trattner | June 13, 2007

These were supposed to be their Golden Years. At 65 and 68 years, respectively, Mariann Janosko and Gerald Onken have every right to be kicking back with cold drinks and warm slippers. Instead, they are working 12-hour days, seven days a week, running their upstart Lake Erie Creamery, Ohio's only licensed goat cheese producer.

Of course, this isn't exactly how they envisioned things.

"Originally, we had planned to do this as a hobby in our spare time - maybe supplement our Social Security income," Onken manages to squeeze in between phone calls. But demand for Lake Erie's artisinal goat cheese has grown so quickly, it is all the couple can do just to keep up.

When the pair grew bored with previous entrepreneurial pursuits, Janosko suggested starting a creamery. She had for years dabbled with small, stove-top batches of cheese. A brief three-day cheese-making course filled in the gaps. To earn start-up money, the couple - no joke - started a paper route.

"Making goat cheese is not hard," explains Janosko, her hair in a net, her feet in lime-green Crocs. "What matters are your ingredients, and that you treat the milk with respect."

To score great ingredients, Onken hits the road at 5:30 in the morning for the 50-mile drive to Mantua, in Portage County, where a friend manages a herd of happy dairy goats. There, he fills 10-gallon stainless steel cans with fresh goat's milk before heading back, his truck sagging beneath the weight.

If Onken is Deliveries, Mariann is Production. In a cramped 700-square-foot space in a converted Cleveland warehouse, Janosko coaxes the milk into cheese. By law, the milk must first be pasteurized by heating it to 145 degrees for 30 minutes, which kills off any bacteria. Then cultures and coagulants are added to the milky broth to kick-start the metamorphosis.

"The whole idea with making cheese is separating the curds from the whey," explains Janosko, whose job it is to scoop out the flaccid curds and place them in muslin bags to drain. A farmer picks up the watery whey to feed to his lucky hogs.

To make her signature product, chevre, Janosko places the day-old curds, now the consistency of cream cheese, into a mixer with a touch of sea salt and gives it a brief go-around. The result is a creamy, fresh goat cheese with none of the characteristic chalkiness or strong goat flavors. Lake Erie Creamery also produces a bolder flavored product, Blomma, by inoculating cheese rounds with penicillin mold and allowing them to age in the cooler for three weeks.

When Lake Erie Creamery began just 12 months ago, Janosko and Onken struggled to move 50 pounds of cheese per week. Then Mike Fiala, chef at Inn at Turner's Mill, suggested they take their product to other chefs around town. Word spread like butter on warm toast and today Lake Erie's cheese is on the menus at Lola, Fahrenheit, Light Bistro, Fire, Blue Point and others. These days, 160 pounds of goat cheese barely satisfies a week's worth of orders.

Granted, at first, Onken's sales technique left a little to be desired.

"I'll never forget," says Ryan Alabaugh, chef at Sergio's in University Circle. "This big guy walks in the back door of our restaurant right in the middle of service. He hands off a tub of goat cheese and leaves." Alabaugh says he was too busy to taste the cheese until the next day, but as soon as he did, he placed it on his menu. "I love the cheese's subtleness, sweetness and creaminess," notes the chef. "It is an absolutely stellar cheese."

"Cleveland chefs are big-time supporters of local products," says Onken. "They like us because we are local, but also because this is the freshest goat cheese they can get their hands on."

As far as stepping up production to meet increased demand, Onken shrugs off the idea. "Until God comes up with a 48-hour day," he says, "we can't do much more than we're already doing."

Back to top