Here’s a list of Maine creameries participating in Open Creamery Day on Oct. 13. All events will take place between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., unless otherwise noted:
APPLETON CREAMERY
Additional Photos
780 Gurney Town Road, Appleton 04862
info@appletoncreamery.com
Visit the goats and sample the award-winning cheese at Appleton Creamery. Owner Caitlin Hunter says she’ll be doing milking demonstrations as well as teaching mozzarella stretching for pizza that she’ll bake in the creamery’s own pizza oven. Tours and tastings will be offered all day. Hunter suggests guests include visits to local wineries in their plans, including Sweetgrass Farm and Savage Oakes in nearby Union and Breakwater Vineyards in Owls Head.
BALFOUR FARM
461 Webb Road, Pittsfield 04967
213-3159
Balfour Farm is a MOFGA-certified organic dairy farm that bottles award-winning milk from its Normande and Jersey herd right on the farm. In 2011, the farm began offering fresh cheeses and dairy products: Bevre (a cows’ milk version of chevre), ricotta, mozzarella, cultured butter and buttermilk, Greek-style yogurt, traditional yogurt, and a variety of hard cheeses: tomme, Gouda, Cotswold and others.
FLYING GOAT FARM
413 Mann Road, Acton 04001
636-7321; 776-1846
facebook.com/flyinggoatfarm
Meet the goats and the farmers, Cara Sammons and Devin Shepard, at Flying Goat Farm. You’ll be able to sample some of the farm’s signature cheeses, including Scapegoat and Chevre Noir. Cheeses and yogurts will be available for sale, as well as whey-fed, pasture-raised pork.
KENNEBEC CHEESERY
795 Pond Road, Sidney 04330
547-4171
kennebeccheesery@gmail.com
Owners Jean and Peter Koons will offer tours of their cheesery, which has new solar panels, as well as tastings of the small batches of cheese they make from Alpine and Saanen goats and organic Jersey cows’ milk. The goats are raised on pasture and GMO-free grain. They also have a flock of Katahdin sheep. Bring a picnic lunch if the weather is good, and ride the farm’s smoothie-making bike.
LAKIN’S GORGES CHEESE
461 Commercial St., Rockport 04856
230-4318
gorgescheese@gmail.com
Allison Lakin makes fresh and aged cheeses using organic cow’s milk from a single source. Here’s how she describes her cheeses: Try the fresh, basket-molded ricotta, which is unsalted to highlight the full-fat flavor of the milk. Prix de Diane is a soft-ripened cheese that is creamy and buttery. Medallion is a small cheese with a big flavor of citrus and fresh mushrooms. Opus 42 is an aged, mold-ripened semi-firm cheese that is sharp and nutty. Morgan is a hard cheese that is salty and grassy with a long finish. Come in and try them all, and receive ricotta recipes. The cheese is made with milk from Tide Mill Organic Farm.
SEAL COVE FARM
202 Partridge Cove Road, Lamoine 04605
667-7127
sales@mainegoatcheese.com
Owner Barbara Brooks produces fresh and aged goat cheese from her high-producing herd of 125 goats. Try some pizza from the farm’s own wood-fired oven, then have some gelato.
SILVERY MOON CREAMERY AT SMILING HILL FARM
781 County Road (Route 22), Westbrook 04092
699-3170
info@silverymooncheese.com
Meet the Smiling Hill Farm cows, then sample a variety of fresh and aged cheeses made from their milk, including the provolone that just won a second-place award at the American Cheese Society competition in Wisconsin. Talk to the cheesemakers, and watch them make queso Oaxaca, also known as Mexican mozzarella or Mexican string cheese. All events will take place at the Smiling Hill Farm store.
SPRING DAY CREAMERY
42 Day Road, Durham 04222
353-8289
springdaycreamery@me.com
Visit Spring Day’s tiny cheese room to see where Sarah Spring makes fresh, mold-ripened and aged national award-winning cheeses from locally produced goat and cow’s milk.
STATE OF MAINE CHEESE CO.
Cathe Morrill, owner
461 Commercial St., Rockport 04556
236-8895; 800-762-8895
admin@cheese-me.com
State of Maine handcrafts natural and certified organic cheeses, including cheddars, Monterey Jack (plain and spiced), Caerphilly, Gouda and fresh mozzarella. The company’s conventional cows’ milk comes from Springdale Farm in Waldo, and its certified organic cow’s milk comes from Haskell Farm in Palermo. Tours of the creamery will be offered every half hour, and there will be plenty of samples.
SUNFLOWER FARM CREAMERY
12 Harmon Way, Cumberland 04021
829-8347
facebook.com/sunflowerfarmcreamery
Chris and Hope Hall are high school teachers and small farmers. Their teen daughters led them towards Nigerian Dwarf goats years ago, and since then the passion for these mini-dairy goats has become a family affair. They process a small volume of milk each day into chevre, feta and cajeta. Sample these cheeses, and tour the cheese kitchen and milking room. Sunflower has also invited local women who have goats or use goat milk in their products to participate. Local chef Deb Kratzenberg will sell a lunch treat featuring chevre; Blue Tin Farm on Barters Island will sell goat milk soaps and lotions; and Judi Brewer of Martha Moon Chocolates will be sell her chocolates, including one made with goat milk caramel.
WINTER HILL FARM
35 Hill Farm Road, Freeport 04032
869-5122
winterhillfarmer@gmail.com
Set atop a hill surrounded by woods and rolling pasture in the beautiful southern midcoast region of Maine, this is a small, family-run farm. Steve Burger and Sarah Wiederkehr manage a herd of very rare Randall cattle, along with a few Jerseys, and operate a small farmstead creamery producing raw milk, yogurt and artisanal cheeses. They make fresh cheeses (ricotta, fromage blanc and feta) as well as an aged raw milk tomme, several bloomy rind cheeses and a washed rind cheese. They also raise Berkshire pigs, laying hens and seasonal vegetables for markets and a CSA.
– Compiled by Meredith Goad
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