When Karen Lindsay introduced two goats to the farm she shares with husband Ross, a banana farmer, at Wamuran 15 years ago, she likely couldn't have guessed that she would catch the cheesemaking bug and end up as a supplier to numerous restaurants.
Mrs Lindsay runs Little White Goat Cheese and her products are rapidly gaining a strong local following, most recently culminating with a phone call while Masterchef Australia was filming in Queensland, asking to use some of her cheese.
"I didn't think it was real at first," she said. "I'm still not sure how they found us but it's very exciting."
It's the latest achievement for the expanding business, which supplies several Sunshine Coast restaurants, including celebrity chef Matt Golinski's Noosa restaurant.
On the Lindsays' 80 hectare block there are about 80 goats with the herd made up of Saanens, Toggenburgs and British Alpines.
"I'm hoping this year we'll put maybe about 40 goats into kid and they usually have twins so we'll see how the numbers grow," Mrs Lindsay said. "My daughter and I got the first two goats... I started making soaps and creams and then we decided let's go and do a cheese course and we were hooked."
Mrs Lindsay was still working as a teacher at the time and had initially considered having the goats and using their milk as a weekend project, but it soon grew.
While the hot weather has meant milk production has dropped, during good conditions Mrs Lindsay gets about 300 litres a week.
Mrs Lindsay also uses buffalo milk and camel milk from fellow Sunshine Coast producers Maleny Buffalo and QCamel to make cheese. Also on the cards is a potential partnership with Towri Sheep Cheeses at Allenview to create a sheep and buffalo blue cheese.
Mrs Lindsay is currently taking part in a three-month long Sunshine Coast food innovation accelerator program called Grow Coastal, something she hopes will help make 2019 a big growth year for the business.
"The people that have come out of that program has just flown," she said.
