About Jackrabbit Ranch

D.J. grew up in a small town in New Hampshire and moved to Los Angeles at age 19.  Suellen grew up in Venice Beach, California, and spent ten years in the Midwest.  When we met in Los Angeles, we both knew we didn’t want to spend our lives in the city.  So in 2004, we bought a 20-acre ranch in the Parowan Valley of southern Utah.  Our land grows sagebrush and grease wood.  It’s not much good for farming, but goats love it.

There are three things you can do with goats: meat, milk, and fiber (wool).  We love our goats and don’t want to eat them, and the heavy clay mud on our land would make fiber goats very difficult to keep clean.  So we opted for dairy goats, and began to make cheese.  In 2009, after two years of learning and experimenting, we got our cheesemaking license.  Now we sell cheese at farmers markets in the area.  We hope to expand to nearby cities, and eventually internet.  But we don’t believe in flying food across the country, so we’ll focus on those areas to which we can ship cheese by ground.

We believe strongly in local food.  It tastes better, it’s better for the environment, and it helps our local economy.  We keep a garden, we “buy local” whenever we can, and we avoid foods flown in from far away.  We have to eat– we love to eat– and we try to do it as responsibly as we can.

On our site you’ll find ideas & resources for buying local.  You’ll also find recipes resources, and information for making your own cheese.  We love cheese, and hope you do, too!

This site is dedicated to Wind, our second goat.  A mix of Alpine and Nigerian, she was squat and strong.  She died in 2009 following a difficult pregnancy.  (See The Long Night I & II, and The Long Night Has Ended.)  Wind was a good friend & mother, and we miss her.