Mornington Peninsula's only farmhouse cheesery was once a beef property

Their Main Ridge Dairy produces milk and a variety of cheeses, although the closure of restaurants, due to the coronavirus pandemic, has hit sales hard. The Noxon's have had to close their shop, cafe and tours of the goat dairy.

Main Ridge Dairy was set up in 2001, on the family farm, in the heart of the Peninsula.

"Before that I used to run cattle, I used to breed Angus - it was a bit of fun, but it wasn't going to cut it, as an enterprise," Mr Noxon said.

Mr Noxon said there was a market for goats milk, for cheese manufacturing so introduced goats to the 45-hectare property.

"I had a love of goats cheese, and could see the size of land i was runing, was advantageous for running a goat dairy."

After several courses, at the University of Melbourne and Regency TAFE, South Australia, and cheese making with other companies, he set out on his own.

By definition 'Farmhouse Cheese' is produced only from the milk collected on the farm where it is made.

Unlike 'artisan' cheese where milk can be sourced from multiple farms, farmhouse cheesemakers only use milk from the animals they raise.

"The result is that farmhouse cheeses offer consistently unique flavours owing to the farm's local terroir,' the Main Ridge Dairy website says.

Asked what he liked about cheese making, Mr Noxon replied:

'Everything - there is something very satisfying about turning milk into various flavours and textures," Mr Noxon said.

He, and wife Bess, also decided to set up their own cheesery and now produce a range of hard and soft goat's cheeses.

"That was something we really wanted to do, we wanted to have the whole enterprise here, so we had complete control over the quality of the milk,' Mr Noxon said.

'"That, of course,starts in the paddock, with excellent soils and the best pastures, so we can have the best quality milk," he said.

The red volcanic soil pastures at Main Ridge are sown down to annual and perennial ryegrass, clovers and herbs "to sweeten them up a little."

Main Ridge was a dairy region, many years ago, and Mr Noxon said the soil had to be rebalanced, with lime and gypsum, to unlock nutrients.

"The goats are partly in a shed, these days, the 'lounging shed'," he said.

'We have to look after our girls, they hate the wet, so we feed a lot of silage and hay we cut in spring."

Main Ridge also runs tours of the farm and dairy, but they have been suspended, due to the pandemic.

Ms Noxon, who is the sales manager and events coordinator, said Mornington Peninsula farm gate stores, such as Torello, Dromana, and Hawkes, Boneo, had been critical in keeping the business up and running.

"Without them and JobKeeper we would have had to stop production altogether, and I don't think we would have been able to come back from it,' Ms Noxon said.

"With the closure of our cafe/sales outlet and the loss of restaurants we are over 80 per cent down in sales.

"As a result we had to dry half our herd up, we just couldn't sell, or use the milk, which was a very difficult decision.

The farm needed to keep going, as milk "just can't be turned back on so we can have some supply when the restaurants open back up.

"Farmhouse cheese producers are are few and far between these days so we want to keep going if we can."

Mr Noxon said he and Bess didn't want to sell their products in mainstream supermarkets.

'We like the fact we are boutique, and the farmgate outlets allow us to sell our cheese and milk," he said.

"We are farm based enterprise, a farmhouse cheesmaker."

He said he was hopeful the market for goat's cheese would continue to grow, once the pandemic was over.

"I think the Australian palate is more adventurous than it used to be" he said.

"We are finding while a lot of people might not have had the exposure to goat's cheese, most love it when they do try it."