Cheese lovers have a good reason to be happy.

Particularly those who love Christian Cheese.

Sitting vacant for the past few years, the little building just off of Airport Road and North 13th Street which housed the Christian Cheese factory will soon be back up in production.

Founded in approximately 2001 by George and LaWanna Christian, the factory produced and distributed a plethora of cheddar cheese varieties and other products not only to Kingfisher County residents, but throughout the nation and even internationally.

At one time, the Christians farmed 1,500 acres of wheat, rye, barley, mullet, alfalfa and haygrazer, ran hundreds of stocker cattle, maintained a herd of Simmental breeding stock and ran a dairy of up to 150 Holstein cows which required milking twice a day.

When milk prices fell, they launched Christian Cheese, selling their products onsite, at farmers markets and grocery stores, as well as through their online business.

According to a 2006 article in The Oklahoman, the Christians’ herd of 40 dairy cows produced 500 pounds of prime cheddar each week, which was sold and shipped to all 50 states and some foreign countries.

At that time the Christians produced 22 kinds of yellow and white cheddar cheese infused with various spices and other ingredients to create many flavors.

George passed away in 2022 and, with LaWanna’s health declining, family members made the decision to close the business, leaving everything just as it was.

It remained that way until a few months ago when a familiar face re-entered the picture.

Having grown up in Fort Worth, Texas, Autumn Christian once spent summers helping her grandparents develop and sell their products.

Later at the age of 20, she also returned to assist with not only the day-to-day duties of the business, but began utilizing her literary creative talents to market their products.

An aspiring writer, Autumn created a WordPress blog where she created short stories about a Mexican vampire horse, a bull purported to be the reincarnation of Elvis, a fire chicken, a mysterious ape man and others to draw interest and help sell cheese.

“I started a blog for my grandparents’ cheese and dairy in an attempt to give them a larger internet presence,” Autumn said in a 2010 Kingfisher Times and Free Press article.

“I knew I would quickly run out of material if I only posted about new cheeses or sales, so I created the blog with the idea to combine faux journalism with product placement in a fun, simple format that would be entertaining and easily read.”

She also completed her first novel during that time - “The Crooked God Machine” - a dystopian horror story about a broken family and a broken world set on the Black Planet.

Autumn has since had a total of four books published, including “We Are Wormwood,” “Ecstatic Inferno” and “Girl Like a Bomb” and has several of her short stories included in anthologies with Steven King and Clive Barker.

About two years ago, Autumn, her husband, Robert Freeling, and their young daughter Samantha were living in Austin when the couple made the decision to return to Kingfisher.

Autumn said initially they just wanted to be closer to family, but after settling in Kingfisher, the couple came up with an idea.

“My husband has a lot of business experience and we had the idea of ‘how about we just start this up again?,’” Autumn said.

So the journey began. The past three months have been a process of restoring storm damage to the roof, cleaning equipment and working on the administrative and financial aspects of the business, Robert said.

As a joint venture with her father, Mike Christian, and her aunt, Gina Pratt, Autumn said they are primarily assisting with the financial aspect and the dairy herd, while she and Robert manage the cheese production and business.

Once the couple get the factory in good working order, Robert said their plan is to get into the process of learning how everything works and begin making test batches of cheese.

“In a few weeks we hope to be making our first batches internally to make sure it’s all good,” Robert said.

“We want to make sure we have good quality cheese.”

Although the restoration of the business is still in its infancy and an opening date hasn’t been determined, Autumn said they plan to bring back many of the popular flavors that her grandparents sold including the Cowboy Cheddar variety.

“We’re going to start out basically with the same recipes that my grandpa did,” Autumn said.

“One thing that I really liked about the way he ran his business was that he was always trying out new flavors and talking to people to find out what was going to be popular.

“So we’re going to follow in his spirit and try out different things and experiment.”

On top of making cheese, Autumn said she will continue her passion of writing books, with her newest novel already in the hands of her agent.

Reflecting on the continuation of her grandparents’ legacy, Autumn said “it feels like you rarely have an opportunity presented to be able to do something like this.

“I know my whole family wanted to keep it going, but they have their own jobs and projects.

“I think it is nice to be able to be in a space where we have the ability to do this right now.”

During her grandparents’ lifetime, Autumn said it was always their dream to have their children involved in the family dairy and cheese-making business.

“Now we’re all doing this together, so it’s nice that they (George and LaWanna) are basically getting what they wanted in the end,” Autumn added.

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George and LaWanna Christian at their dairy. [Photos provided]