Fluffy Bottom Farms
YOU PROBABLY WOULDN’T EXPECT ELEANOR ROOSEVELT OR AMELIA EARHART TO GREET YOU ON A COUNTRY ROAD IN CHELSEA.
Well, maybe you would if you considered they are part of a small herd of sheep and a pair of Jersey cows, including “Gertie” Stein, the brand mascot of Fluffy Bottom Farms.
The barn-like building alongside their small pasture houses the creamery where founder and owner Kelli Conlin is hard at work culturing a 60-gallon batch of feta cheese, one of her best sellers. She jokes about her “very sophisticated” methods, but Fluffy Bottom is all about being artisanal, made from heritage rainbow herds.
“I want people to be able to taste the milk our great-grandparents did,” explains Conlin. “At one point of our history, Michigan was just as much a dairy state as Wisconsin. I hope to be part of the vanguard to put our state on the map again as cheesemakers.”
In addition to feta, Conlin regularly makes Camembert, a Manchego-style cheese, and a French-style table fromage with garlic and peppercorn, plus mozzarella and ricotta (seasonally) and Fluffy Bottom’s popular “It’s All Gouda.”
“When it’s aged right, gouda will sing to you,” says Conlin, who makes about 50 gallons a week. “I learned to make it from someone from the Netherlands.”
Conlin’s first foray in cheesemaking happened 20 years ago when she was – as she describes – a Brooklyn, N.Y., cheesemaker groupie. At the time she worked in the healthcare industry, but began inching toward a change, including a return to the mitten state. In 2011, she and her partner moved with their two young children back to Michigan, settling across the street from the 200-year-old fieldstone farmhouse where Conlin grew up.
“My first job was selling eggs to my mom’s friends,” says Conlin.
“I knew what living on a farm was all about so I invested in this little dream.”
She continued training and taking cheesemaking classes, even as far as Europe, and apprenticed with Sally Hutchinson at Greystone Creamery, a cheesemaker down the road. In 2015 Conlin bought that business and relocated it to a carefully renovated outbuilding next to her house.
“I feel so privileged to be able to do what I love. It’s part really intense science – with math and equations – but there’s also a whole art to it, the affinage: when to brine it, salt it, wax it. There’s so much creativity to crafting the taste.”
One aspect of the business Conlin is happy to leave to others is the farming. The only jobs of her eight sheep, two cows, and sole llama are to be happy pets. Conlin hooks up her bulk transport tank to buy milk from from small heritage farms with grass fed pasture-raised animals in or near Chelsea, Irish Hills or Manchester.
“The little farms can’t compete with 10,000-20,000 commercial ventures,” she says. “It’s heartbreaking to see our family farms — part of our heritage — struggle so much.”
The small dairies supply the milk that goes into her cheeses and yogurt, which so far is available in French and Greek plain versions, plus vanilla, strawberry and blueberry (both of which are made with Michigan fruits), and her savory Buddhist’s Breakfast yogurt with miso, pickled ginger and dried kale.
“I love the tanginess of a French culture,” says Conlin, who gets it from Quebec, but she prefers the milder, thicker Greek style to go atop the preserves in the fruit yogurts. She credits the premium flavor of Nielsen-Massey vanilla for helping her yogurt avoid becoming overly sweet, a common pitfall.
“When you use the higher quality ingredients, then you don’t have to depend on added sugar,” says Conlin, who looks to provide flavors that surpass what people usually get to taste: “It’s not my goal to be Chobani.”
Introducing people to that higher standard milk and milk products can be a challenge, Conlin says.
“A great feta should be a balance of butteriness and brininess. Oftentimes it’s a one-note cheese. When you use premium milk you get that butteriness.”
That’s something that chefs understand, says Conlin, adding that chefs appreciate a local premium product. About half of her business is with Michigan restaurants that incorporate Fluffy Bottom cheese and yogurt into their dishes.
The magic also comes with how Conlin aims to operate. A door off the creamery looks like it might lead to an office or supply closet, but instead opens to Conlin’s meditation room.
“I believe when you make things mindfully it affects everything you do and I think it affects the quality of everything you make,” says Conlin, who’s actively involved in Ann Arbor’s Zen Buddhist Temple. “It’s part of our philosophy: I want to live a purer life that benefits the people of Michigan and makes them proud. I want to do my part.”
She’s quick to point out that she’s not alone. Markets like Ann Arbor’s Argus Farm Stop have helped immensely, says Conlin, whose gratitude is never far from the surface.
“We have so many people who support local things. As we grow, we haven’t forgotten our roots in Chelsea and Ann Arbor,” she says. “I think without Argus I couldn’t have made it. They’re just so committed to local farms.”
The feeling is mutual.
“I can tell you that in 2014 we had no yogurt locally made – none in the area. That’s pretty remarkable, isn’t it?” says Kathy Sample, Argus co-founder, explaining how Conlin met the challenge. “She got up and running faster than we ever thought. She was our first yogurt supplier! She also is inventive and always thinking about new things she can offer.”
Learn more about Fluffy Bottom Farms at fluffybottomfarms.com
