CLEVELAND, Wis. – In a testament to 15 years of innovation and determination, the dairy families of Saxon Homestead Creamery have launched a new line of raw milk farm cheeses they proudly market as "flavor, by nature."

Creamery manager and co-owner Gerald Heimerl, along with brothers-in-law Karl and Robert Klessig, who manage the family's nearby grass-based Saxon Homestead Dairy Farm, began production of unique, handcrafted, small-batch cheeses in August. This month, two of those carefully-aged cheeses debut at specialty cheese shops in Wisconsin, with plans for national distribution of additional cheeses taking shape in 2008.

 "We're making some world class cheese from world class milk and sending it to market dressed in style," Heimerl said. "This project is a dream 15 years in the making, and it's finally come true with a lot of hard work and help from our families, our partners and the industry."

This month, Saxon Homestead Creamery is launching two signature cheeses bearing a unique look with embossed leaf designs on the sides and the Saxon logo on top of each wheel. Cheeses include:

• Green Fields, an earthy, elegant table cheese featuring a washed rind wrapped in special breathable paper.
• Big Eds, named for family patriarch Ed Klessig, described as an "enthusiastic cheese that hugs you back." It is a young, mild cheese with a buttery flavor.

Saxon Creamery is also crafting several additional cheeses, each distinct in its own right. Varieties in development include: Saxony, featuring a subtle nutty flavor that is expected to debut in March; and Pastures, a sweet but complex cheese expected to launch in June. Saxon Creamery Cheesemakers Neville McNaughton, Raffaele Mascolo and Rambr Emrich are working on creating a limited edition aged goat cheese from a nearby goat dairy that will debut in July.

"Saxon's story is the true American success story of hard work, innovation and determination," said Jim Gage, manager of the Dairy Business Innovation Center, which partnered with many industry organizations to assist Saxon Creamery in the development process. "Congratulations to the Klessigs and Heimerls for adding value to their own dairy operation, as well as to their local community and the entire Wisconsin dairy industry."

The cheese aging rooms at Saxon Homestead Creamery are full, and Heimerl says plans are underway for another building project in Cleveland that will add needed inventory space. The creamery itself is a former beer warehouse that sat empty. Today, the space has been transformed into a state-of-the-art creamery designed by McNaughton, featuring socks and side jets to diffuse the flow of air, stabilizing temperature, which is critical to cheesemaking.

The creamery's milk is produced at Saxon Homestead Dairy farm, where the Klessigs and Heimerls converted their conventional dairy to a rotational grazing operation in 1989. That experience became the family's "a-ha moment" as they turned their herd of Holstein cows out of the barn onto pasture for the first time and witnessed pure pleasure on the faces of the cows. Today, Saxon Creamery, like the farm, is installing an Environmental Management System (EMS) and applying to be Green Tier certified by the State of Wisconsin.

For more information about Saxon Homestead Creamery, visit www.saxoncreamery.com or call Dan Strongin, director of marketing, at 510-224-0493.