We raise mostly dairy goats and sheep on our 21 acres of pasture. Our breeds are mostly Nubian and Alpine goats, along with Katahdin and East Fresian sheep. We move them to fresh pasture sometimes every day. We also raise grass-fed and grass-finished cattle, whey-fed pastured pigs, and pastured chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese. Not to mention the hard working guard dogs.
We know our animals by name; most of them were born right here. We know what they eat, we know how healthy they are, and we know how great their milk is. And we name our cheeses after our animals.
Calypso — is feisty and must be free; our beer-washed, hops-infused cheese is named after her.
Bianca — is beautiful and white, just like our Bianca chevre style cheese.
Sonnet — is the direct descendant of our first goat, we named our first bloomy rind after her.
Rheba — is a movie star; we named our award winning Rheba after her.
Venus — is a goddess, and we named out hard cider washed rind after her.
Black Pearl — is beautiful and black, perfect for our ash coated bloomy rind.
Velvet — has the smooth as silk coat; our cheese velvet is smooth from the pear brandy wash.
Phoebe — is a kind and loving animal, we named our classic feta after her.
Ember — is the new kid on the block, isn’t she colorful? We named our washed rind semi soft with a layer of ash after her.
““WE PASTURE OUR ANIMALS, MOVING THEM TO FRESH, YUMMY GREENS CONSTANTLY””
Unlike large-scale commercial creameries and even most farmstead creameries, we use moveable fences to rotate the herd so the animals are on fresh pasture every three days. It’s more work than simply keeping animals in a pen and tossing them some feed, but it’s better for the soil, it’s better for the animals, and it’s better for the milk. And when you taste the cheese, we’re confident you’ll agree that it’s better for the cheese!
We believe in diversity, it is a requirement for healthy soil. We raise many different animals that all have a job in supporting the soil for grass growing and the health of all the animals. The dairy animals get the best bites, but the cattle are right behind them and when things are nice and ripe, the poultry eat the bugs and rototill as they go. The lucky piggies not only create pasture, but they consume the whey from the cheese making process!
