Looking for a new twist in their lives, the Kafsacks decided 5 years ago to move to Hawaii and practice the art of gourmet cheese production, a far cry from their previous occupations of leading a software company or teaching high school German. While Thomas went to work on the financial planning, Eva set out to learn the craft and secrets of cheese-making from Europe's best. Working at and visiting dairies throughout Germany, Austria, and France, allowed her to develop a mental image of the type of dairy that she wanted to run and cheeses she wanted to produce. An image that the two of them made reality over the past three years.

After finding a nearly ideal plot of land on Maui, they turned 42 acres of brush land into verdant pastures

with a spacious 10 stall barn for boarding horses and a 100 square foot dairy, built completely to grade-A standards. "The dairy with its three working rooms (Milk Room, Ripening Room, Cheese Room) together with the adjacent retail shop, works perfectly for us" Eve says. "No long distances to cover and

The Kafsacks still distinctly remember the excitement and stress of getting their first goats. "We bought a herd from a dairy on an adjacent island that went out of business. We got all the goats on a truck and headed toward the harbor, but once we got to the barge we realized that the animal transport containers had neither feeders nor waterers, sending us looking for buckets in a frenzy. When all 34 dames, 11 yearlings and 3 bucks finally got to Maui unharmed, we were overwhelmed with joy. It took another couple of days until they got accustomed to the white three-rail vinyl fencing with hot wire on their new pastures, but they adapted quickly and a long and lasting friendship between us and the goats began."

salads, stuffed inside ravioli, or simply making an appearance on a dessert cheese platter.
At first the Kafsacks found that milking their goats only once a day was more than adequate to cover the demand for their cheese, but as word spread it became apparent that after the next dry period they will have to switch to milking their does at night, as well as in the morning. They are also looking to expand the number of milking does by about fifty percent over the next couple of years. Their herd currently consists of a conglomeration of Saanens and Alpines with the odd Nubian and Toggenburg thrown in. The majority of their kids are sired by two alpine bucks, though they also occasionally employ their young Saanen buck. After finding that half their does were infected with caprine arthritis encephalitis, they implemented a stringent CAE prevention program with biannual testing and bottle rearing of all doe-kids.
With things finally settling in and increasing demand on and off the island, the Kafsacks feel their Dairy is surfing its way to a bright future, all four hooves on the nose.