SUTTONS BAY, MI -- In this week's Made with Michigan Hands report, we feature two artisan cheese makers in Leelanau county.

John and Anne Hoyt, owners of Leelanau Cheese Company have been making award winning cheeses for 16 years.

Anne says, "We have been making cheese in Leelanau county since 1995.  We started in Omena, a little bit north of Suttons Bay, and we've been here at Black Star Farms since the year 2000."

John is a Detroit native, but he learned the art of cheese making in Europe.

John says, "While living in this little town called Sierra in the valley region of Switzerland where raclette is from, I met a bunch of cheese makers that would go up into the Alpine farms and that sounded real interesting to me, so I made that an endeavor of mine."

The Hoyts have perfected their recipe.

Anne says, "Our signature cheese is called raclette."

John says, "When I actually first had the raclette dish and I said my gosh, why don't we have this in America here, you know?  We've won best cheese in America in 2007 and a couple of first runner up in the country and we certainly have a customer list that loves us."

...and what better place than Northern Michigan to set up shop.

Anne says, "This is a perfect marriage with the wine industry."

But they say it's their customers that make it all worth while.

John says, "We just got a long, long lasting line of true customers behind us. That's what really keeps us happy."