I started a blog called Pacific Northwest Cheese Project in 2004 as a creative outlet, and quickly became immersed in the rapidly expanding artisan cheese movement during that period. My ongoing cheese (and goat!) adventures have taken me to cheesemakers and goat farms around the region and the country, from Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin to Vermont and Maine. I was thrilled to serve as a judge in both the American Cheese Society and American Dairy Goat Association cheese competitions. I was also president of the Oregon Cheese Guild from 2009-11. My writing has appeared in a number of publications including The Oregonian, Edible Portland, and Willamette Week. I've also  published three books, Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest (2009), Pacific Northwest Cheese: A History (2013), and most recently, Goats in America: A Cultural History (2025).