Mary Keehn officially opened the doors of Cypress Grove in 1983, after spending years milking goats by hand and making cheese in her kitchen in Humboldt County. She was one of a number of Americans involved in the back-to-the-land movement who, in the early 1980s, began making cheese by hand for commercial sale, at a time when American-made goat cheese was virtually nonexistent. In search of inspiration, she traveled to France, where she tasted brie, camembert, morbier, and more. On the flight home, she dreamed of a new cheese accented with a thick line of ash reminiscent of the fog that blankets the Humboldt County coastline.

Four decades later, Cypress Grove operates from an 18-acre creamery in Arcata and a Certified Humane dairy in nearby Dows Prairie, home to a herd of more than 1,200 goats with pasture access and naturally lit indoor space year-round. Cypress Grove cheeses are award-winners multiple times over, with Humboldt Fog among the most recognized American artisan cheeses in the world.