Eight softly bleeping and extraordinarily cute dairy
goats, weighing 100-120 pounds, from two to 4 years old, headed up by Sapphire,
are strutting their stuff.
They are the prime source of goat milk and cheese
for the Georges Mill Farm Artisan Cheese Company but they are on sabbatical
right now, and not producing (http://georgesmillcheese.com/
).
Molly and Sam Kroiz are in the process of obtaining
the permits from the Virginia Department of Agriculture so that they can launch
their sales to local farmer’s markets, restaurants and wineries by April
2013.
“We have the goats producing,” Molly said, “and each
goat produces about a gallon a day for up to 9 months.”
“I’m finishing up the construction for the
creamery,” Sam said, as an addition to the historic stone and timber bank barn
nearby.
“We also hope to be distributing our cheeses retail here
at the barn,” Molly said, “with the public visiting the creamery, and hopefully
after that at a nearby wood cabin.”
Approaching the goats, she warned, “They can jump a
6 foot fence so we had to make this paddock board fence higher,” Molly said.
Goat’s milk is considered similar to human milk, and
those who have a low tolerance for cow’s milk drink goat’s milk, as many more
do outside the United States.
Molly said, “We didn’t see any serious production of
goat’s milk or cheese in the region and it was one of the reasons we were
interested to do this.”
Goat cheese has been made for thousands of
years.
Molly and Sam will be making the tangy, creamy salty
Feta that many know but also a semi-soft Catoctin cheese that has an earthy,
mushroomy flavor.
Their Dutchman’s Creek Chevre is a soft, fresh
cheese named after the nearby creek.
You can learn more about making cheese from one of
Molly’s lectures – the next class is on February 20th and you can
register to attend at their web site.
Sam is Fran Wire’s grandson and he met Molly when
they were out west with Sam working on marine fisheries and Molly studying the
subject. So this is a change that they
didn’t expect.
As for what they have to offer, they said they know
for sure the cheese is good because they’ve been making it and storing it and,
best of all, “we’ve been eating it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment