A Letter From Our Founder

A Few Words From Our Founder, Judy Schad

2026 marks Capriole‘s 38th anniversary.

And unlike so many small creameries that began the same experiment in the '80s, surviving with the same goals and vision feels like a major achievement.

We began as a farm with our own small herd that grew gradually over the years until 2012 when our bodies gave out and we had to sell our goats and find another source of milk. The animals gave us a perspective that brought us closer to the land, 80 acres of woodland and pasture, a circle that held us close to our vision as stewards of all the natural life around us. We live and gather here as family, make cheese and still move to those rhythms. What a privilege. What a responsibility.

At 83 I no longer work in the creamery. Grandson Sam who I carried on my hip to play with the goats, hunted for mushrooms on bright spring days, and loved my favorite stinky cheese at age 3, has found his passion here as well, first in the office where he stepped in 7 years ago as part-time bookkeeper while working on his MBA. This was during his grandfather’s battle with cancer. He saved Capriole, and me.

It’s not easy to work with a big, messy family—three of whom live and work here, and a grandmother who believes all customers are a mirror of herself. Sam navigates the noise and brings new life and purpose to Capriole’s legacy, making it both more sustainable and approachable. In a constantly changing market landscape, where the delicate, signature cheeses we’ve built a reputation on require people behind the counter to sell and care for them, finding the ‘sweet spot’ in this market is difficult, a balance between ‘fun’ cheeses like Tea Rose and more serious and traditional ones like Sofia and Wabash Cannonball. With the goal of keeping Capriole on the farm where it began, Sam makes the limited size and space of our facility work for us, keeping us making the small batch cheeses we love and respecting the farm that sustains us.

Most exciting for us in this new year is the relationship he’s built with the Hedrick family of Quality Dairy Co-Op in Wisconsin. The Hedrick’s commitment to the freshest, locally sourced milk from animals fed a healthy diet of grains and forage is reflected in their own award winning cheeses. Cheesemakers working together to create the best artisanal cheeses is not new to us. Sharing knowledge and resources was essential to our beginnings almost 40 years ago and is just as important today. Living here and making cheese sustainably on land that was part of our family 175 years ago is personal privilege and our commitment to the future.

We wish all of you the hope and strength to make 2026 a meaningful year.

— Judy Schad

January 2026