Gillian Gifford is a Northwest born and bred farmer and culinarian. She is a graduate of Seattle Culinary Academy and has worked with some outstanding chefs in both Seattle and Portland. While working at Lark in Seattle she had the opportunity to explore her interests in cheese-making and curing meats at Kurtwood Farm, famous for it’s farmstead cheese among other things.
Her time on the Farm led her away from the kitchen and off to the Iberian Peninsula in search of traditional cheese-making and charcuterie. She settled in a small town in central Portugal with a hardworking family on a self-sustaining, off the grid homestead. For two years she lived on the farm; milking goats, raising pigs, harvesting olives, grinding corn and making ferments, cheese and charcuterie.
Upon returning to The United States she wanted to further her cheese-making education and took an internship at River’s Edge Chevre in Logsden, Oregon. Following that she interned with Willow Witt Ranch in Ashland, Oregon and set-up and ran the Herdshare milk program.
Currently, she farms in the beautiful Applegate Valley in Jacksonville, Oregon. She also teaches cheese, charcuterie and cooking classes privately and at the Ashland Food Co-op. You can also find her curing meat for Crushpad Charcuterie at Wooldridge Creek Winery or foraging with her partner, Evan, and two dogs in the Siskiyous and Cascades.
Her time on the Farm led her away from the kitchen and off to the Iberian Peninsula in search of traditional cheese-making and charcuterie. She settled in a small town in central Portugal with a hardworking family on a self-sustaining, off the grid homestead. For two years she lived on the farm; milking goats, raising pigs, harvesting olives, grinding corn and making ferments, cheese and charcuterie.
Upon returning to The United States she wanted to further her cheese-making education and took an internship at River’s Edge Chevre in Logsden, Oregon. Following that she interned with Willow Witt Ranch in Ashland, Oregon and set-up and ran the Herdshare milk program.
Currently, she farms in the beautiful Applegate Valley in Jacksonville, Oregon. She also teaches cheese, charcuterie and cooking classes privately and at the Ashland Food Co-op. You can also find her curing meat for Crushpad Charcuterie at Wooldridge Creek Winery or foraging with her partner, Evan, and two dogs in the Siskiyous and Cascades.
