Farm and Creamery Public Visits Are Making a Steady & Welcome Comeback
If you’ve always wanted to visit the farm or creamery of one of your favorite cheesemakers, you might again be able to do so soon. Cheesemakers say they are moving cautiously toward a new normal following two summers when nothing was normal. We reached out to producers around the country to find out how they are opening back up again.
Green Dirt Farm
Sarah Hoffmann of Green Dirt Farm, who we featured earlier this year in a story about her sheep’s milk operation says farm visits are on again at her farm and creamery near Weston, Mo. “Our customers have been amazingly supportive and seem genuinely thrilled to be coming back to our events now that we can host them again,” says Hoffmann. She operates the Animal-Welfare Certified farm with an all-women team that includes her daughter Eliza Spertus.
Traffic at the farm’s store and café in Weston is not as strong as it was pre-pandemic, but both are open again. Green Dirt’s award-winning sheep and mixed milk cheeses with names like Dirt Lover and Wooly Rind are available at the shop, online, and at retailers coast to coast.
Cheese Professor contributor Sheana Davis, of The Epicurean Connection in Sonoma, Calif., says there has been a cheese spring at her educational organization. “We are now hosting live in-person classes, although keeping the classes small,” Davis says. “Cheese dinners and cheese tastings have resumed, and we are going to host cheese/wine, cheese/beer, cheese/cider, and cheese/NA (non-alcohol) classes.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major disruption since the spring of 2020, interactions between farmstead cheese operations and their end customers have always been a mix of challenges and opportunities. Visitors can inadvertently spread animal diseases, and any contact with the environments where cheese is made and aged requires measures to minimize the risks of contamination. We last checked in on Jasper Hill Creamery and the Cellars at Jasper Hill, Greensboro, Vt., to learn about their caves, new equipment, and cheeses. They offer very little in the way of farm visits other than with industry partners and by special arrangement, says Katie Losito, vice president of sales and marketing. However, as part of a recent creamery expansion, the company included a space for a dedicated retail shop. “We definitely understand the value of allowing consumers to interact directly with our farm by visiting, tasting, and purchasing cheese right on site,” Losito says. “So we hope to be able to do that in the next 2-3 years.”
Rogue farm visit photo credit Audrey Stange
Field trips and farm tours are already in full swing at Rogue Creamery in Southern Oregon, and there is more to come says Audrey Stange, Rogue’s farm-stand manager. “Once our beer/wine license gets approved, we can finally do some farm tasting events this season,” Stange says. We’re sure the public will share our desire to learn more about some of their blue cheeses in person. Some of their cheeses we’ve featured include Rogue River Blue and most recently Flora Nelle.
Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse in Milford, N.J. is in the midst of moving from a leased site to a newly-purchased 185-acre farm site also in the Delaware River Valley. Summer concerts at the farm have continued with some precautions.
“We managed to do our outdoor farm-to-picnic concerts right through the pandemic,” says co-founder Jonathan White. “We limited the number of tickets, painted 10x10 checkerboard squares on the lawn, and stage-managed the whole thing for social distancing. We have three concerts/picnics scheduled for this summer as well.”
At Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery, Champaign, Ill., visitors are once again welcome on weekends, but activities are still limited, says co-founder Leslie Cooperband. “We are taking a pause on farm-to-table farm dinners and significant farm events this year,” Cooperband says. “Partly, it's due to uncertainties around the pandemic, partly staff shortages, and partly because we wanted to focus more on the dairy-creamery enterprise. We do have weekend open hours in our farm store, and we are participating in our local farmers’ markets here in Urbana.”
One of the biggest challenges currently facing the goat-cheese maker is finding qualified personnel, Cooperband says, including experienced cheesemakers.
Farm dinners at Pt Reyes photo credit Vivian Chen
Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese in Point Reyes Station, Calif. is back to hosting 90-minute cheese tasting events in the outside seating area of its restaurant, Fork. These Friday and Saturday tastings include seven of the creamery’s cheeses and accouterments, and guests can order additional food from the restaurant. Reservations are available a month out, and the tastings are expected to continue through October. The creamery’s shop offers samples and items for purchase Monday through Friday and no reservation is needed to visit. Restaurant dinners and brunches are back too after 2 years, but only on the patio.
Be sure to check before making any plans to visit dairies or creameries as circumstances are likely to change over time.