Fresh cheese fans will love this working farm’s Island-take on a traditional goat dairy on the slopes of Haleakala. Pens near the entrance underscore its unusual name—happy kids and off-duty does climb on a playground of elevated and colorful old surfboards. In total, Surfing Goat Dairy’s 42 acres are home to more than a hundred Swiss Saanen and French alpine goats that provide milk daily, the basis for fresh cheese and all-natural goat’s milk products created onsite.
Started by German expats and supported by a crew of workers that includes a regular rotation of college-aged goat farming interns, Surfing Goat Dairy runs short daily tours of its milking operation and three room dairy. Tour-goers can feed alfalfa to baby goats and will receive a brief overview of the cheese-making process and the equipment used to pasteurize, ripen and form the cheese. Tours include tastings from a selection of their 30 goat cheese flavors such as “Rolling Green” made with garlic and chives and “Purple Rain” made with Maui lavender. In addition to their small gift shop, which also sells soaps, truffles and t-shirts featuring the farm’s happy ungulates, fans will be comforted in the fact that that hotels, shops and restaurants throughout the Islands and as far away as New York, Pennsylvania, Las Vegas and Phoenix import and feature their cheeses.