Evergreen Creamery is a small-batch, artisan creamery located in Trout Lake, Washington at the base of Mount Adams. It’s the product of local food enthusiast, cheesemaker and forest preservationist Lucas King, who’s doing some really amazing things in and around his community. Lucas has lived in the Trout Lake area since the age of three and cherishes the sleepy little mountain valley known for its bright green pastures, thick Ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests and awe-inspiring views of the towering Mount Adams.
Lucas is a product of his community and is as wholesome as the land he grew up on. With bright-eyes and a broad welcoming smile, he shares his business ideas, vision and future aspirations eagerly and honestly. To put it simply, Lucas strives for a purposeful and impactful existence. One that helps to preserve the Trout Lake area community while providing greater health and prosperity for the land and its people.
Evergreen Creamery, it turns out, is aptly named given Lucas’ vision. Forever green, or ever-green is Lucas’ mantra. He strives to produce cheeses that are good for the environment and his community. He uses local, organic raw milk that comes from a dairy less than two miles from his creamery. His footprint is small and he is supporting his local dairy as well. Additionally, Lucas strives for a no-waste operation. All of the whey left over from the cheese-making process is fed to the pigs that he raises with his girlfriend on his 10-acre plot of land.
Lucas also works for the Mt. Adams Resource Stewards (MARS), leading a seasonal field crew that implements a variety of forest management and restoration projects in the area. Working for MARS helps to support the creamery and provides Lucas with an opportunity to preserve and restore healthy and functional forest ecosystems, a landscape that is intrinsically tied to the Trout Lake community.
At Evergreen Creamery, Lucas makes cheeses that resemble those of the semi-hard to hard cheeses found in the Alps. However, the Evergreen Cheeses are unique in that they take on the terroir (taste of place) that can only be found in the Trout Lake area. Depending on the time of year, these cheeses can range from buttery and fatty to dry and tangy. It’s all the same milk and same cheese-making process, but as the grass, water, rainfall and weather conditions change, so do the flavor profiles of the cheese. This seasonality is what makes these small-batch cheeses so delicious and special. Lucas ages his cheeses well over the minimum 60-day timeframe to allow the cheeses to develop complex flavors. His Mount Adams Reserve (my favorite!) is aged from 1-2 years. The batch that I have recently been enjoying is grassy, buttery and salty with slight herbal notes. It’s beautiful on its own or paired with fig jam and crackers.
Evergreen Creamery cheeses can be purchased online at https://www.evergreencreamery.com/. Currently you can pick up an Aged Goat Cheddar, a Flavored Goat Gouda and the flagship Mount Adams Gold. You can also purchase Evergreen Creamery cheeses at Treebird Market in Hood River, Oregon. You are always welcome to visit the microcreamery as well. Reservations are required. The trip is highly recommended and a great excuse to try some wonderful cheeses while seeking respite and relaxation, a hike in the woods, or a cross country ski trip with friends and family.
Watch for many more great things to come from Lucas in the future. He has big ideas, an expansion in mind, and a bright future ahead of him. This Trout Lake kid is going places and I will happily continue to follow, given what I’ve seen to date.
