The answer is simple.....sheep milk cheeses are my favorite. It would have been a lot easier to become a maker of cow or goat milk cheese, because there is way more milk available. There are very limited amounts of dairy sheep in the United States, yet quite common in other countries. Some of the most famous cheeses in the world are made with sheep milk: Roquefort, Feta, Manchego, Pecorino Romano just to name a few. They have many thousands of dairy sheep in countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Greece, etc. I live in California though, and when Bleating Heart began in 2009 there were only 4 licensed sheep dairies in the entire state. That's right, just FOUR. Initially, I was able to buy milk from one of those four dairies, and there were only 30 milking sheep in that flock. The other 3 dairies in CA couldn't spare a drop since they use all of their milk for their own cheese production. After my first season, my milk source became unavailable as she needed all of her milk to make her cheese going forward. So....what the heck, I started my own sheep dairy! Sheep give very little milk though, so if anyone out there wants to start a sheep dairy, please contact me because I always need more sheep milk.