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Boulder County is once again home to a cheesemaker. In this week’s Nibbles, meet the goats behind the chèvre at Dolly Mama’s creamery. Plus: sandwiches and imported butter at Le Frigo, news about “peach fraud,” Colorado’s best bakery, restaurant openings and food events. We also share a recipe for baba ghanoush, a creamy Middle Eastern dip made with locally grown eggplant.
— John Lehndorff
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In her neighborhood, Dolly is very much the GOAT.
Dolly is the resident matriarch of a herd that includes Polly, Lolly, Nicki and Audrey on a piece of property located just north of Boulder. Dolly and her friends are producing the goat milk used to craft chevre at Dolly Mama’s Farmstead Goat Cheese.
Boulder County is famously home to award-winning restaurants, brewers, distillers, bakeries, apiaries and even cracker makers. But until Dolly Mama’s opened earlier this year, there was no artisan cheese being produced locally to put on those crackers.
The enterprise is a second-career dream for Deb Britton. “I’m the owner, milker, cheesemaker and goat herder. I do it all,” she says with a grin.
Britton transforms the milk into chevre, as well as an ash-coated, bloomy-rind cheese called the Pyramid. The spreadable chevre comes in plain and several flavors: chile-fig, lemon-dill, chives and herbes de Provence.
Britton also occasionally makes a fromage highly prized by cheese passionistas. The Pyramid is an ash-coated bloomy-rind variety similar to the French Valençay cheese.
“It ripens from the outside in,” she says.
You can eat it young, but when genuinely ripe, the Pyramid softens like a good Brie or triple crème. A creamery tasting revealed it to be a liquid cheese elixir with a mild tang.
Deb Britton moved to Boulder from Boston in 1996 after meeting her husband. “I had owned a business that did audio, video and acoustics consulting. I never really had a background in agriculture nor any desire to go into agriculture or ranching or farming,” she says.
However, Britton was always in the kitchen making something from scratch. “I started making bread. I’ve been making yogurt for years, and that led to butter-making. And then I thought of cheese. We had some acreage, and finally, in 2019, we got our first goats, including Dolly,” she says.
Britton started taking cheesemaking classes from Kate Johnson of The Art of Cheese in Longmont.
“I fell in love with the whole process of making cheese,” she says. It got complicated when Britton and her husband decided to build a creamery inside a new barn facility on their property.
“The biggest lift was just getting through the process with Boulder County because a creamery is not a commercial kitchen. Dairy is super unique. There were multiple times through a multi-year journey when I wondered if I would ever get to make any cheese,” she says.
Surrounding Britton’s home are 20 acres of land where there’s plenty of room for Dolly and her friends and a few hogs, which consume whey left over from the cheesemaking process.
Keeping goats and making cheese, even on a small scale, is a seven-day-a-week, year-round job. According to Britton, it’s like looking after an unruly gaggle of children who require a lot of attention.
“They are in charge, and they each have different personalities. The goats need to get milked at the same time every day. When you have the milk, you have to make the cheese. My life is really ruled by the clock.”
Dolly Mama’s cheeses are sold at Niwot Market and Lucky’s Market and are on the menu at Jeannot’s Patisserie and at Black Cat Farmstead, which is located a few miles from the creamery.
Dolly Mama’s will host a booth at the Boulder Farmers Market on Aug. 26 and Oct. 7 and at the Longmont Farmers Market on Sept. 12 and 26, Oct. 10 and 24, and Nov. 7.
Britton says her favorite moments are converting people who dislike goat cheese into chevre lovers.
“People come up and say, ‘I don’t like chevre. It’s too goat-y.’ I just say, ‘Here, taste this cheese. I made this cheese a few miles from here. I milked the goats and they all have names.’ And they realize it is fresh, mild and creamy.”
According to Britton, the taste is based largely on the goats’ breeds.
“I’ve got mainly Nubians, and I’ve got an Alpine-LaMancha cross. Both of those breeds produce a relatively mild, not gamey milk.”
One way to tour the creamery and to say hello to Dolly and friends is to take a cheesemaking class through Longmont’s The Art of Cheese, taught by Kate Johnson.
After an intense year introducing Dolly Mama’s to the world, Britton looks forward to the change of season.
“Goats are naturally seasonal milkers and breeders. Their milk production naturally starts to taper off in October. I’m looking forward to November so I can start my vacation,” she says.
If the goats happen to produce some extra milk, Britton may experiment with making a firm, gratable goat cheese that can age over the winter.
A boss sandwich and a bevy of butters at Le Frigo
Le Frigo is one of my favorite Boulder sandwich stops. The shop has few seats, so the line moves quickly for cold, ready-made, paper-wrapped sandwiches on baguettes. Recently, I grabbed The Brooklyn, a satisfying hot sandwich on a pretzel bun filled with top-shelf pastrami, pickles, Swiss cheese and dressing.
While I was waiting, I checked out the European grocery items. I hadn’t noticed the separate walk-in refrigerator before and was wowed by one of the best selections I’ve seen of serious imported butter in Boulder, as well as French cheeses. After all, as one of the folks behind the counter pointed out, “Le Frigo” does mean “refrigerator” in French.
Fighting ‘peach fraud’ and finding Colorado’s top bakery
From now on, you can believe the signs when they advertise “Palisade peaches,” “Olathe corn,” “Rocky Ford melons” and “Pueblo chiles.” Selling out-of-state produce labeled as Colorado-grown, commonly called “peach fraud,” is now illegal in Colorado following the passage of bipartisan House Bill 26-1031.
Colorado’s entry in Food Republic’s list of the best bakery in each state is Moxie Bread Co., with locations in Boulder, Louisville, Lyons and Longmont:
“Moxie Bread Co. operates its own flour mill, and its singular breads and pastries are a testament to its commitment to local sustainability.”
Casa Juani has been named one of Bon Appétit’s 19 Best New Restaurants in America in 2026. Opened in February by chefs Eduardo Valle Lobo and Kelly Jeun, Casa Juani focuses on Spanish regional cuisine.
Openings
Ichigo Matcha, a Japanese-style matcha tea and soft-serve ice cream shop, is open at 1313 College Ave.
After a brief demise, the Boulder location of Doug’s Day Diner at 2574 Baseline Road has been reopened by the restaurant’s original owners.
Two notable tasting events and a pie-baking contest
The Grand Tasting on Aug. 29 at the Denver Food & Wine Festival is Colorado’s premier tasting event. Food from dozens of top eateries, including Cart-Driver, Chicken Riot, Ginger Pig, MAKfam, Somebody People, Summit at The Broadmoor and Welton Street Cafe, will be featured.
Besides being a cool athletic display and cultural gathering, the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, Aug. 29-30 at Sloan’s Lake Park, is also one of the coolest, most diverse culinary showcases of the year in Colorado, featuring food from across Asia.
Calling all serious pie bakers! It’s time to enter your masterpiece in the annual Louisville Fall Festival Pie Contest on Sept. 7. Sign up here.
Market Meals: 21 recipes using Boulder farm ingredients
This season, Boulder Reporting Lab and the Boulder County Farmers Markets have teamed up to share 21 weekly recipes using local produce and farm foods.
Find other recipes for tomato pie, broccoli slaw, Niçoise salad, sorrel soup, zucchini fritters, rhubarb cake and more on BRL’s website.
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?’” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.
— From “The House at Pooh Corner” by A. A. Milne
Want more Boulder bites?
New Boulder restaurant Casa Juani brings Spanish seafood and tapas from Frasca alumni chefs
Frasca alumni chefs Eduardo Valle Lobo and Kelly Jeun open their first solo restaurant on Pearl Street in downtown Boulder. Continue reading…
34 Boulder County farm stands worth a summer road trip
Where to find fresh produce, eggs, flowers, meat, honey and other locally made goods, often straight from the people who produced them. Continue reading…
Check out recent editions of Nibbles:
🍝 Meet the family behind 25 years of Il Pastaio in Boulder
🥣 Inside Boulder’s bone broth boom + new bagels and tomato pie
🥟 The remarkable journey behind Susan’s Samosas
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