My name is Hanan Sofer but everyone refer to me as “Hanan ha-Gaban,” which means, in Hebrew, Hanan the cheesemaker. Read my blog here.  I entered into the world of cheese for the first time when I encountered a recipe for a delightful cheese called Tzfat Cheese in a recipe book published by Sherry Ansky. Accompanied by my daughter Rotem who was 5 years old at the time, I drove to a nearby goat farm, purchased goat’s milk and made the cheese in accordance with that recipe. This handmade delicious Tsfat Cheese was the starting point of my journey into the magical world of cheese. My next step on this journey was to study the art of making artisan cheeses in traditional methods. Our house quickly turned into a small fromagerie where I was producing a wide variety of cheeses. On Fridays, before Shabbat, people from the surrounding areas would stop by to purchase cheeses and other fresh delicacies produced in our village. Gradually I felt that this is my destiny.  My journey continued with traveling to France and Italy to explore and study traditional methods of cheese making and eventually establishing the Hanan ha-Gaban’s boutique dairy (fromagerie) in our village of Moshav Herut located in the Sharon Valley where we produce locally and sell a wide variety of handmade cheeses such as Gouda style goat’s milk. Gouda style Cows milk.
I chose this location because it enables our customers to enjoy the cheeses and our locally made organice food products in the tranquil atmosphere of our village and dairy, where we set up large family style tabels under avocados overlooking serene views.