Creamery in California, Rockhill Creamery
in Utah, and Vermont's Blue Ledge Farm.
An active Instagram account and a weekly
email newsletter keep customers informed.
Catering helps to supplement Smallgoods'
farmers market sales, which range from 60 to
100 pounds of cheese a week.
San Diego County alone hosts about
30 markets a week, providing potential ven-
ues for growth. "That's the beauty of this
business model," says Mike. "We find the
markets that we think our products will do
well in, but if they don't, we move to another
one. You can't pick up a store and move it."
Cheese Wheels
Laura Conrow's Wedge on Wheels is also
eminently moveable, a mobile cheese shop
inspired by vendors at farmers markets in
France and Italy. For five years, Conrow
operated a brick-and-mortar cheese shop in
Reno, Nevada, shuttering it a couple of years
ago in the face of a rent increase and other
challenges. Her new enterprise, launched in
June 2018, is a customized 16-foot trailer
with two 6-foot windows that she hauls
to farmers markets and weekly food-truck
events. Conrow outfitted the trailer with
counters, a 6-foot deli case, a slicer, and other
equipment from her former shop and opened
with an investment of less than $50,000.
"I carry the same things I had in the
shop but about half the selection," Conrow
says. Typically, customers can choose from
40 different cheeses and 15 charcuterie
PHOTO:
WEDGE
ON
WHEELS
Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 1327
WINTER 2019 55
cheese focus
