SALISBURY --  It's not every day that you find water buffalo roaming a pasture in North Carolina.

But here in Salisbury is the only farm in the state where they milk the buffalo to make cheese.

“There is only 5 places in the country that make water buffalo cheeses the way we do so it is unique,” says Dr. David DiLorento. “There is nothing that is quite as unique and different that no one else can offer.”

Dr. David DiLoreto and his wife Faythe own Fading D Farm located in Salisbury.  A few years ago, they took a family vacation to Italy and tried Water Buffalo Cheese for the first time and fell in love.

After they couldn't find it stateside, they decided to make their own.

“I didn’t realize how many hours it took,” says Faythe. “It takes 3 hours to pasteurize the cheese, which is why we have to start at 6 a.m, and we’re not ready to even start making the cheese until 9, so it’s an all all day process.”

After that it still takes a few more hours to put the cheese in molds, let it sit, and brine it. The cheese then goes into the aging room for at least two months.

The couple just started selling the cheese. “I have people come back week after week saying ‘That was great I ate it all I need more,' so that’s really nice,” says Faythe.

“It's great to have something that you can offer that no one else can and it’s great that people are always interested in it,” says David.  “They always want to talk to you about it when they are at farmer’s markets or when they come to the farm so it’s always fun to share your story with them. This is story they happily admit is a bit cheesy.

The Water Buffalo cheese is being sold at some farmer's markets in the Charlotte region, or you can go directly to Fading D Farm where they have a store open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. The address is 295 Fading D Farm Road, Salisbury, NC 28144.