Heber Valley Milk & Artisan Cheese — Local services in Interlaken

WARNING TRIGGERS AND SAFETY ISSUES: there's pink mold on the walls in the milking room and be prepared for heartbreak and loose dogs running around, otherwise the dairy farm tour is educational. I made the mistake of thinking the milk came from organic out-to-pasture multi-ethnic cows. Nope, just fairly typical holsteins in a classic barn set-up. It's a great lesson in marketing tactics to teach children to be aware of.

WHY THEY GOT SOME STARS: they are honest that they are in it for the money. For being just a normal dairy they did try to make some ethical decisions to be a little better than most and its not too bad, first, there's the self-milking machines (made in Germany which makes quality stuff--and it cleans their udders too) and other than the molasses they do feed the cows real cow food (with a lot of Utah hay). They are out to pasture as teens and while pregnant. They also let a calf with recessive traits live despite having less milk potential. The cows looked gross in their feces, but not sick (I don't want to hear anybody claiming human milk is yucky after that). I imagined the cows came in from the field when their calves couldn't do a good enough job: nope, they have to wait in line, but they have more room to move around than other places. They get credit for trying--they don't get to be one of the last dairies in the area by not being cutthroat in maximizing their profits, so don't be surprised that they are using artificial insemination (maybe it's insurance against a careless bull hurting them, but be prepared to be a little bummed).

NOW FOR MORE CONCERNS: They do get put on antibiotics, but they dump the milk. Most people who want antibiotic-free milk because they want to make sure the cow is living in a way where they're rarely sick, not because they're scared of milk with less bacteria (it gets pasteurized anyway). Now I know it's a sales tactic. Taking away calves is done to prevent their untimely deaths, but it's wild that the cows are allegedly only affected for "two minutes"--a neighbor of mine separated a calf after it was weaned or near to, yet, the cow cried for a week keeping me up at night--maybe it's different with an earlier split, but I'm not convinced. The calves did get private shady houses, but they're chained to them. They told us not to walk on the hay to avoid contamination, but then a person walked up right on the hay to take a photo in front of the tour guide. They have a couple loose dogs, what's to prevent them from coming in the barn and trampling on the hay? I also saw them cross the street to enter the neighbors' yard, and the city is okay with this? Maybe they should have put their wireless tracking technology on them too like the cows. I was underwhelmed with the dirty windows that were hard to see through and what I saw was boring--cows they got in fights for entertainment and some of the cows had horns (albiet rounded).

I'm not going to buy their raw cheese anymore, I only will buy raw from pasture-raised cows as a precaution, but that smoked jalapeno cheddar sample: yum! To see the newborns there's one window and you have to crane your head to see them, the hay ride doesn't go around the farm, it takes you from the store to the highway and then parks in front of the barn, and I'm disappointed that there's no more cheese factory tour.

SUGGESTIONS TO COMPANY: bring that back, have the hay ride be more extensive, add a cow car wash and hose the place down frequently, clean up the mold, give them some more things to do (calves too), put a skylight in part of the barn if they so desire to bask in it, have them out to pasture when their babies are little and they can provide the pasture-raised raw milk, and then they can graduate to the barn for the cheaper milk. Then end the tour with a private cheese tasting in a nice place we can wash our hands in (the restroom lines at the store are long and there's no plate or table to enjoy the samples!). P.S. don't let your dogs wander without adequate supervision or legitimate...

I love this place and go here all the time for snacks and grilled cheeses when I’m in the area which they are great for. Although, my friend and I recently did one of their cheese making classes and sadly were disappointed in the cost vs value in it. The class was $50 and we went into it expecting to leave with a regular sized cheese or at least a kit to make it at home and all that we got out of the class was a golf ball sized portion of cheese and $5 off their kits for taking the class. While the class was fun and educational and I understand why there wouldn’t have been enough time and supplies to have everyone leave with their own regular sized portion, I’ve never done a cooking class where you didn’t leave with at least a decent portion of food or some supplies to try and do it at home. So at $50 per person with a class size of 15+ people, the least they could have done was give us a kit to make some at home instead of a really small discount off of a kit and not enough cheese to really do anything with. I wouldn’t necessarily deter anyone from taking the classes and I’m happy to give that money up to support a local business, but I do wish I would have known that the $50 was really just for instruction because I definitely wouldn’t have taken the class for that cost if...

The food and the store were great but the dairy tour was disturbing. There needs to be an effort to more ethically treat cows in the dairy industry and this farm! Calves are removed from their mothers after three days and chained to plastic structures in the heat, the ground is covered in poop and pee as are the calves, no fresh hay in sight, flies everywhere. One calf had obvious pressure wounds from lying around so much and the wounds were covered in feces. It was awful. And then the milking barn is not much better except that it is covered to protect the cows from the heat, but excrement is everywhere on the floors, on the walls, adjacent to the milkers. I was certainly enlightened but not in the way I expected. I will never again partake of mass produced dairy products And instead choose dairy products from ethically verified farms, regardless of cost if it means animals are treated humanely. This was disgusting and horrific. Honestly instead of giving tours you should focus on providing a better existence for the calves and sanitizing the barn facilities in a better way. You should participate in the FARM program or Certified Humane Program. ...