ENTERTAINING 202 3 culturecheesemag.com 45
"From the beginning we were
committed to creating jobs," Koch says.
"If we could create a large value-added
network for milk, we could help keep
farmers in business. The other aspect
was creating head-of-household, wage-
earning jobs in Appalachia, which are
not that common."
Today, you can buy FireFly Farms'
goat cheeses at a co-op grocery store
in North Carolina, at an independent
cheese shop in New York, or at a
supermarket in Northern California.
Their chèvre garnishes salads at
Sweetgreen stores in the Mid-Atlantic,
and you can order the company's
cheese online from just about
anywhere in the United States.
Their sought-after wheels might
be easy to find, but the creamery
itself is off the beaten path. Firefly is
headquartered in the western tip of
Maryland, less than 30 minutes on hilly
rural highways from the West Virginia
state line. If your idea of the Old Line
State is based on blue crabs and what
you can see from I-95, this thin sliver of
forests, fields, and mountains feels like
somewhere else completely.
BUSINESS AND LIFE PARTNERS
It's a place Koch and Argentine-born
Solanet, a chef, fell in love with early
in their relationship—another success
story that's shaped and paralleled
the creamery's. The couple has been
together since 1995, when they met
on the dancefloor at a gay bar. "I
was shirtless in red jeans and he was
shirtless in leather suspenders," Koch
"From the beginning
we were committed to
creating jobs. If we
could create a large
value-added network for
milk, we could help keep
farmers in business."
The original goat
barn on Koch and
Solanet's property
Sign from their Accident,
Maryland, make facility
