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Doug Jones/Staff Photographer
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Doug Jones/Staff Photographer
OPEN CREAMERY DAY –
PARTICIPATING FARMS AND CHEESE MAKERS
Here's a list of the Maine creameries that will be open to the public on Sunday. Unless otherwise noted, farms will be open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Appleton Creamery, 780 Gurney Town Road, Appleton, Caitlin Hunter, owner: Appleton Creamery is a small-scale family farm. Small batches of award-winning cheese are hand-crafted daily using traditional methods and milk from Alpine dairy goats. It creates a wide variety of fresh and aged cheeses, marketed primarily at farmers' markets. Limited wholesale. In 2004, it added a limited production of sheep-milk cheeses.
Blue Yonder Creamery, 300 Eight Rod Road, Waterville (692-0381; carolag@roadrunner.com), Carol Godfrey, owner: Small batches of feta made with organic cow's milk from a neighboring dairy farm. Newly licensed in 2008.
Fern Hill Farm, 150 Wiley Road, Naples (693-4320; info@fernhillfarm.com), Robert and Amy Jensen, owners: Fresh goat's milk chevre, plain and with herbs. Cheese is available wholesale and locally at natural and gourmet food shops.
Garden Lore, 40 Blueberry Lane, Mariaville (537-5673 or 537-3365; gardenlore@rivah.net), Lore Lipkvich, owner/farmer: Garden Lore is located on the banks of Tannery Brook in Mariaville. Visitors will see farm animals, including goats ranging in age from 4 months to 7 years.The farm also has ducks, chickens and a rabbit. Farmstead cheeses include several flavored chevres, feta and ricotta. Many chevres are flavored with herbs grown on the farm.
Harmony Mill Farm, 133 Mill Lane, Waltham (584-2035; harmill@mymailstation.com), Deb Dik, distribution: Organic Jersey dairy with fresh glass bottled milk and farmstead cheese. Note: Open creamery hours are 1 to 3 p.m.
The Kennebec Cheesery, 795 Pond Road, Sidney (547-4171; kennebeccheesery@gmail.com), Jean and Peter Koons, owners: Newly licensed in 2008. Makes semi-soft and hard cheeses using certified organic milk from neighbor's grass-fed Jersey cows.
Liberty Fields Farm, 238 Flag Pond Road, Saco (282-0967, libertyfields@maine.rr.com), Anne and Joel Tripp, owners: Liberty Fields Farm premiered its goat cheese in 2005 in a new state-licensed facility on its 10-acre, family-operated farm. Small batches of cheese from a herd of 18 Nubian goats are produced daily and include various flavors of fresh chevre as well as feta, marinated buttons, and Saco Bay Dusk and Saco Bay Mist, a bloomy rind with or without an ash coating.
Little Falls Farm, 250 Walker Mills Road, Harrison (583-6047; lffarm@megalink.net), John and Mary Belding, cheese makers: Makes artisanal, MOFGA-certified organic goat cheese with farmstead raw milk from a hand-milked herd.
Longfellow's Creamery at Second Chance Farm, Phillips (639-2074 or 639-2119; kht@adelphia.net), Kathy Trodden, owner/cheese maker: Farmstead raw milk gouda, cheddar and camembert, plus fresh mozzarella, feta and yogurt. Taste some cheese and visit the cows and calves.
Olde Oak Farm, 222 Forest Ave., Orono (866-7719; oldoakfarm@gmail.com), Scott Belanger and Jennifer Macverde, managing partners: Goat, sheep and organic cow cheeses. Olde Oak has about 30 Nubian goats and produces cheese for farmers' markets. Uses organic cow milk and occasionally buys sheep milk for specialty batches. Unique to its cheese making is that it all takes place in a 12- by 32-foot cheese plant that is completely mobile.
Painted Pepper Farm, 55 Goods Point Road, Steuben (546-9777; ppfarm@downeast.net), Lisa Reilich, co-owner: Saltwater family farm nestled in a Down East coastal woodland produces goat's milk yogurt year-round exclusively from its organically managed herd of Nigerian dairy goats. Other dairy delights – fudge, ice cream and chevre – are available seasonally.
Pineland Farms Creamery, 92 Creamery Lane, New Gloucester (688-6400 or 688-6411; mwhitney@pinelandfarms.org), Mark Whitney, creamery manager: Tour the creamery and taste a wide array of samples.
Seal Cove Farm, 202 Partridge Cove Road, Lamoine (667-7127; sealcove farm@midmaine.com), Barbara Brooks, owner: Fresh and aged goat cheese. Has a high-producing herd of 125 goats and has been making and selling cheese since 1980. Produces highest quality milk, an element in superior cheeses.
Silvery Moon Creamery, 781 County Road, Westbrook (775-4818, Ext. 124; Jennifer@silverymooncheese.com), Jennifer Betancourt, cheese maker/co-owner: See fresh mozzarella being stretched and cheddar being bandaged in cloth, and enjoy a cup of cider. Chat with the folks who make the cheese, and sample cheese of different ages and methods of affinage. Pick up some cheese for a picnic overlooking the cows at Smiling Hill Farm.
Spring Day Creamery, 42 Day Road, Durham (353-8289; springdaycreamery@me.com), Sarah Spring, owner: Fresh, mold-ripened and aged cheese from locally produced goat and cow's milk, hand-crafted in a galley-sized cheese room. Newly licensed in 2008.
State of Maine Cheese Co., 461 Commercial St., Rockport (236-8895 or 800-762-8895; admin@cheese-me.com), Cathe Morrill, owner: Makes hand-crafted natural and organic cheeses – cheddars, Monterey Jack (plain and spiced), Caerphilly, Colby and Derby.
Sunset Acres Farm, 769 Bagaduce Road, Brooksville (326-4741; cheesewhiz@wildmoo.net), Anne Bossi and Bob Bowen, owners: Using milk from its herd of 65 dairy goats, Sunset Acres makes many different kinds of fresh and aged cheeses. It also sells raw and pasteurized bottled milk.
Tourmaline Hill Farm, 21 Kennedy Lane, Greenwood (527-2527): Makes goat cheese, including untraditional feta. Note: Please call for Open Creamery hours.
Townhouse Farm, 35 Townhouse Road, Whitefield (549-5670; ewegurt@gmail.com), Beth Whitman, owner: Makes sheep's milk yogurt ("Ewegurt"), plain and maple; yogurt made from organic Jersey cows ("Moogurt"), plain and maple; feta cheese; Halloumi (Cypriot frying cheese); and Ballstown 1790 (a mild aged cheese).
Winter Hill Farm, 35 Hill Farm Road, Freeport (865-4813), Jim Stampone and Kate Le Royer, owners: Makes all-natural raw milk, yogurt and cheese from very rare Randall Lineback cattle. Note: Please call for open creamery hours.
Anne Tripp had a hard time explaining to her family and friends why it was such a big deal that her Saco Bay Dusk, a bloomy rind cheese, won a gold medal at this year's American Cheese Society competition in Chicago.
Tripp's goat cheese is made in four-gallon batches in her little cheese room at Liberty Fields Farm in Saco. It beat a goat cheese from California's Cypress Grove Chevre, one of the premiere artisanal goat-cheese operations in the country.
"I got first, and they got second," Tripp said. "I was just on cloud nine when I found that out. I can't give my friends and relatives enough of an example, so I'm like, 'It's like winning the Emmy,' or 'It's like getting picked for the Olympic team.'"
Artisanal cheese making is thriving in Maine, and the rest of the world is beginning to take notice. Last year, Maine cheeses won 17 awards at the national competition. This year, there were fewer Maine entries, but local cheese makers still took home seven awards.
On Sunday, the public will get a chance to peek behind the curtain at 20 Maine farms where artisanal cheese is made. Members of the Maine Cheese Guild are opening their cheese houses from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the second annual Open Creamery Day.
The hosts range from folks such as Caitlin Hunter, who has been making cheese at Appleton Creamery for years, to Spring Day Creamery in Durham, where owner Sarah Spring has just turned her hobby into a licensed cheese-making operation.
There will be demonstrations of cheese making at many of the farms and sampling of a wide range of cheese, including fetas, bleus, cheddars and mozarellas. A variety of cheese will also be for sale.
About 400 people came through Silvery Moon Creamery at Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook last year to watch cheese makers at work. Silvery Moon just moved into a new cheese room, and on Sunday, Amanda DesRoberts will be stretching the mozzarella that's made from the milk of the 45 Holstein cows at the farm. Visitors will be able to taste a bit of the warm mozzarella before moving on to watch the bandaging of the creamery's cheddar in cloth for aging.
"There's nothing like mozzarella before it's been refrigerated," said Jennifer Betancourt, president of the Maine Cheese Guild and co-owner of Silvery Moon Creamery. "It's just got a spring to the bite."
Cheese lovers are kind of like a cult, Betancourt said. "If you love it, you really love it, and you can't get enough of it, and you want to learn everything you can about it."
If you've ever wondered what it would be like to milk a herd of goats and make your own chevre, here's your chance to pick the brains of those who have gone before you.
Tripp, who has a herd of 18 goats (mostly Nubians), said she's found that an open farm day like this one "does bring out people who are thinking of starting some kind of venture like this."
A couple who visited her farm last year on Open Creamery Day are now members of the Maine Cheese Guild and are in the process of becoming licensed.
Why all the recent interest in artisanal cheeses? Tripp, who sells her cheeses mostly at the Kennebunk and Saco farmers' markets, thinks it's tied heavily to the "eat local" movement.
"I'll have people at the farmers' market come up, and they might prefer organic, but that's not their main goal," she said. "Their main goal is to support the local economy, local farmers, and know that their food hasn't traveled hundreds of miles to get there."
There is also, of course, the taste. Artisanal cheeses can vary from batch to batch, even cheeses made from the same recipe.
"That's the amazing thing about cheese," Tripp said. "You can make the recipe all you want, but as you start working with your milk in your environment and what your goats are eating and where they live, it takes on absolutely its own taste. It's called terroir."
This Sunday, taste the terroir. Your tastebuds will thank you.
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
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