I enjoy looking up dairy farmers (cheeeeeese) and breweries in local areas when I travel. When I was in Maui, I was really excited to stumble across Surfing Goat Dairy, which is in the area of Kula that is nearby the famous Haleakala Crater. If you are visiting Maui, there is a pretty good chance you will hear about how spectacular the sunrises are up here at the summit of Haleakala Crater, and that you must go. And, you are told to do this early in the vacation, because with the several hour drive if you are staying in the Lahaina/west part of the island, you may be leaving at 3 am.

I love sunrises, but I also love sunsets, so we decided to visit Surfing Goat Dairy, and then go for sunset at Haleakala instead. This netted me an extra bonus that as we were driving up, instead of being in the complete dark, we were able to drive up to the clouds, building up the excitement for the view that seems like we are angels in the sky at the top. Driving down was also very easy since I had already been on the road at light. But, if you decide to do the sunrise instead, consider lingering at various stops (or do the bike downhill tours) so that you can visit Surfing Goat Dairy when it opens in the late morning.

Surfing Goat Dairy Farm is a national award winning dairy producing about 30 varieties of goat cheese on its 42 acre farm with some 200 goats! The dairy is owned by a former German Software company expat. You can sample many cheeses, including cheese flights. Some of their cheeses include

• Ivory Coast chevre with fresh cracked black pepper
• Rolling Green chevre with fresh garlic chives
• Ole chevre with jalapenos, artichokes, cilantro, and lime juice
• O Sole Mio chevre with sun dried tomatoes
• Purple Rain chevre with lavender
• Men’s Challenge chevre with horseradish and cayenne pepper
• Mandalay chevre with apple bananas and Madras curry
• A Canada (!) chevre with cranberries, cinnamon, honey, and pomegranate
• Swedish Heart aged cheese with caraway seeds
• Feta 5 month aged cheese with olive oil and rosemary and ripened in olive oil in a glass jar
• French Dream aged cheese with herbs de Provence
• Broken Hearts aged 3 month cheese with olive oil, basil, and garlic and ripened in olive oil in a glass jar
• Mac Goat Nut, a cheese smoked and then in macadamia nut oil with nuts and ripened in olive oil in a glass jar
• Diabolic aged cheese with olive oil, peppercorns, garlic, hot Thai Dragon chilies, fingers of Buddha Hand Citron

YUM right? They also have a few snacks if you want a little more. I was drawn to the “Cheese on the Shirt” that includes includes 4 Ping Pong Balls (drained chevre in olive oil with garlic) of goat cheese on Mango Chutney

Finish up with ordering some of the truffles they also offer, such as this one we had, a chocolate truffle with apple banana curry powder with goat milk. For an extra $1 for a hay bag, you can also feed their silly kids. The goat kind, not human. They also offer tours where you can see the cheese making process and even milk a goat, but we came too late in the day to participate. Something to definitely keep in mind for a change in pace of beach activity while visiting Maui!

And here’s some picks of the pics of sunset that we took:

    

Have you ever visited a dairy? Would you have done sunset like us or toughed it out to watch sunrise?