"Cheese making is at least fifty percent cleanliness," said Laura Haverland, tucking her hair into a net and going through her second shoe change, from blue Crocs to white boots, while transitioning from outside at Sweet and Salty Farm in Little Compton to inside their production facility.

She's not exaggerating. Much more so than many food production operations, making cheese is a tightly controlled application of biotechnology. And though man has been making cheese for hundreds of years, making cheese for sale in the U.S. in 2019 requires a biochemist's knowledge of the rules and regulations governing this process, which uses bacteria, enzymes, and naturally forming acids to solidify milk proteins and fat into the cheese we know and love.

The magic happens in a space that does not resemble a kitchen so much as a scientific laboratory, bright white and shiny stainless, where Laura's husband Andrew Morely, is keeping a very close eye on a massive pasteurizing vat full of hundreds of gallons farm-fresh milk mid-transformation to cheese. He, along with head cheese maker Glenn Sherman and assistant cheese maker Kate Lanou, is alternately stirring, cutting, and checking the pH of samples taken from the vat.

Time and temperature are key to the process, the byproduct of which makes for a very hot and humid environment in the cheese making room, which can be altered as the needs of the cheese dictates. Eventually, the curds will be pressed into molds — 1 gallon of milk, weighing about 8 pounds, will yield a little more than a pound of cheese. Depending on the cheese being produced, the wheels will be allowed to age for weeks or months. Today, they are producing Peach Fizz, a firm and dense cheese, aged 2-3 months, featuring a rind washed three times a week with Westport River Vineyards' Farmer’s Fizz sparkling wine.

The entire process for producing Peach Fizz will take from dawn, when they milk their more than 20 grass-fed dairy cows, to dusk, when they place the wheels on racks in the room where they will age.

Sweet and Salty's herd is comprised of Jerseys, which produce slightly less milk than a typical American dairy breed like a Holstein, but the milk they do produce is richer and has a higher protein content, making it perfect for producing cheese and yogurt.

The cows graze just steps whom where the cheese is made, on a small waterfront farm on Shaw Road in Little Compton. But Andrew and Laura's dream was born many miles away in Manhattan where Andrew worked in finance and Laura worked for a food marketing company. A Rhode Island native who grew up in Providence and Little Compton, Laura knew where she wanted to be when they had finally done their time and were ready to launch Sweet and Salty Farm — and take on the significant start up costs involved in establishing a commercial cheese making business.

In addition to Peach Fizz, Sweet and Salty manufactures several other varieties of cheese, the recipes for which are a collaboration between Andrew and Glenn, who learned her craft on the job in Connecticut and Vermont. They include: Little Something, a soft and buttery bloomy rind cheese; Little Pepper, a young and very mild cheese enhanced with fresh cracked pepper; Little Doughnut, a young bloomy rind cheese with a thin layer of ash just below the surface; Little Mermaid, aged an additional two weeks before it is sprinkled with organic Maine kelp; Pretty Penny, a washed-rind cheese, very soft, with a beautiful light orange rind and a strong aroma; Beach Stone, a smooth textured natural rind cheese, aged for three months, with a mild grassy and nutty flavor; and Aged Farmhouse, a firm, crumbly cheese with a mild flavor, aged about 8 months to 1 year.

Sweet and salty also produces yogurt every week, in a process that is simpler and speedier than cheese making, but given its seasonal popularity, they have to produce a lot to meet demand. Their yogurt is available from spring through early winter, in order to maximize the pasture season. In the summer, the beta carotene in the grass will give the yogurt a golden appearance, while the hay that makes up the cows' diet in the winter will produce a whiter yogurt.

Sweet and Salty yogurt is available at stores including Clements, The Green Grocer, Lee's Market, Dave's, Whole Foods, and East Side Market. Their cheeses are sold direct only — they attend the Hope St. Farmer's Market in Providence, and their farm stand is open from May 25 through Labor Day, Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 68 Shaw Road in Little Compton. For more information on product availability, please visit their website at http://sweetandsaltyfarm.com or email sweetandsaltyfarm@gmail.com.