By Kristine Hansen | Photography by Hillary Schave
“It is very important for this former farm girl to help people realize where their food comes from. It doesn’t come from a store. It comes from the sweat and tears of people growing and crafting it, and those people deserve recognition,” says Jeanne Carpenter, co-owner of Firefly Coffeehouse with her husband, Uriah Carpenter.
Their Oregon coffeehouse features a cheese case stocked with Carpenter’s favorites. Sandwiches and wraps fold in local artisan cheese and feature seasonal ingredients, like Hook’s one-year cheddar and Meachkins Farms tomato jam in a breakfast wrap. So do bakery items, such as strawberry pop-tarts and caramel-apple scones.
Telling dairy farmers’ and cheesemakers’ stories has always been her mission — first as a communications specialist at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and then as an independent consultant assisting Wisconsin artisan cheese brands with marketing and branding. She was also Metcalfe’s Market’s specialty cheese buyer for four years.
From 2006 to 2019, she also ran her own blog called Cheese Underground, where she waxed poetic about artisan cheeses. (While no longer updated, the content is still online at cheeseunderground.com.)
“I started my blog because I was finding so many awesome stories that needed to be told,” she says.
When Carpenter bought Firefly Coffeehouse in 2017 from friends, she implemented changes that aligned with her values.
“The first thing we changed was the ingredients — buying from local cheesemakers and purveyors,” she says. “Uriah and I spend 20 hours a week, mostly in the evenings, running around picking up seasonal and local ingredients.”
This sustainability mantra has allowed the business to grow.
“We have 28 employees, which sounds like a lot, but we also have 400 orders a day and between 800-1,000 customers a day,” Carpenter says. “I like being my own boss. Every day I have a new vision and I get to execute it. There’s no one to tell us, ‘Oh, that won’t work.’”
She’s cultivated an environment she would have thrived in.
“I listen to my team and the ideas they bring to the table. The public loves change. You can’t make the same things day after day, year after year. I’m always picking the brains of the people who work for me,” she says.
What’s your favorite cheese?
“Dunbarton Blue from Chris Roelli at Roelli Cheese. It is a dry, crumbly white cheddar with blue veins and a natural rind. Whenever I taste it, it still blows my mind.”
