Behold, the power of cheese

Stone sells her cheese at Whole Foods and other local markets. | Jon Goering

Harpersville woman finds farm life sweet after operating a spa

Story by Christine Boatwright and photos by Jon Goering

Deborah Stone gently pressed cracked pepper and garlic blossoms into creamy white goat cheese as she explained how she moved from being a successful spa owner to running a farm in Harpersville.

Stone grew up in Argo, and after attending Trussville High, she went to cosmetology school.

Deborah Stone experiments with different flavor combinations in her goat cheese.

“That’s when I became passionate about what skin should look like,” Stone said. “In 1989, I opened one of the first spas in the country (in Birmingham). Birmingham was so good to us.”

In 1999, Stone sold the spa and bought land in Harpersville for her future farm, Stone Hollow Farmstead. The land off of Dead Hollow Road was wooded and covered with trees. Stone had the land cleared, planted grass and built paddocks and a barn for her family’s horses.

By selling the spa, Stone left some dreams unrealized. She said she had always wanted to make a skincare line, so she planted an herb garden and began researching.

“It’s a hobby, and I wanted to figure it out on my own,” Stone said. “It took two years for me to make a body cream that takes five minutes now.”

Stone makes sugar scrubs, infused oils and facial products such as a cleanser, toner and moisturizer set.

The Stone Hollow Farmstead goat cheese product line began with Stone’s dream of owning a self-sustaining farm

“After all, we wanted to have a place we could go and grow our own vegetables without being dependent on a grocery store,” she said. “To do that, we would need milk and meat.”

Stone purchased a few goats and learned how to milk them with her two daughters and grandbabies. She said she began to “Google like a maniac” to learn about how to make goat cheese and where to get cultures.

She contacted a woman in New Mexico who makes cheese in a jar, and explained she was interested in the cheese-making process. She then offered to pay the woman a consulting fee.

“She was real sweet,” Stone said. “She said, ‘Pull out your pen,’ so I pulled off the road and wrote in a journal. I found out it’s not that simple. It took us a while, and we didn’t get it right the first time.”

She figured out how to make cheese — gallon of milk for a pound of cheese — and give it away as a gift. Soon, the compliments began to flow.

After purchasing the Harpersville acreage, Stone had the land cleared for her future barn and paddocks.

After she realized she had more milk and cheese than her family and friends could manage, she began selling her products in local stores. Evans Meats Inc., a Birmingham-based distribution company, began carrying her cheeses to Western grocery stores, Whole Foods and other local entities.

Stone Hollow Farmstead goat cheeses are GMO-free (genetically-modified organisms).

“What makes (the cheese) so special is that it’s made hands-on in a true farmstead. We raise the goats and are in control of what they eat and browse on,” Stone said.

Stone’s cheeses come in a variety of flavors, including blackberry and red wine. Stone and her family use wild blackberries they harvest from their property. Other flavors feature honey, muscadines, figs and rose petals. Her “stinking rose” cheese features garlic blossoms, and the spicy nut flavor is made of chipotle, honey, rosemary and nuts.

“All flavors sell equally. The unique ones intrigue people,” she said. “We grow everything we use and outsource when we can’t make enough.

“We did a wild violet syrup two years ago, and my daughter and I went and harvested violets and replanted them in boxes,” Stone added.

Stone said her cheeses are wonderful spread on crackers, sprinkled on pizza, stuffed into peppers and crumbled onto salads. The jarred cheeses will last at least a year, while the airtight, packaged cheese will last about three months.

When asked about the change from the spa world to her farming life, Stone, who was raised on a farm, replied, “The stretch was from the farm to the spa, not from the spa to the farm.”

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