A36-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 10, 2003
Small Creameries: The Wave Of The Future?
KEESEVILLE, N.Y. Some
folks decry the decline of small
“family farms.” Some folks also
try to do something about it. Sam
and Denise Hendren are trying to
do something about it.
Sam grew up on a small family
dairy farm in Ohio. The family
farm, owned and operated by
Sam’s cousins, milks about 1,100
cows and has 4,000 acres of
crops. Sam has always wanted to
farm and could have stayed and
worked on that farm, but that’s
not the type of farming he want
ed.
Like many farm kids, he was
told that farming did not offer
him a good future, and that he
should go away, get an educa
tion, and go into business. He did
that, but found himself driving
around on lunch hour looking at
cornfields.
Finally, Sam and Denise sold
their business. Sam got the farm
he wanted and Denise got the
store she wanted, Moon Tree De
signs in Lake Placid. Sam says
they have less money but a lot
more fun.
He wanted a farm style that
provides a pleasant lifestyle for a
couple or family, that supports
the local economy and re-ener
gizes rural communities, and that
could be attained by people with
out huge financial resources and
the business acumen to manage
those large investments well. The
Farmstead Creamery at Clover
Mead Farm, northeast of Keese
ville, N.Y., is his attempt to de
velop and model such a farm.
This is a rebirth of sorts for the
farm. Milk was bottled and sold
here when it was known as the
Signor Farm during the first half
of the last century.
Sam likes the idea of a small
farmstead creamery because it
Sam Hendren of the Farmstead Creamery at Clover
Mead Farm stirs the cheese starter culture into milk in
his cheese vat. Certified organic Cheddar cheese and
cheese curd are produced at this farm in the Town of
Chesterfield in Essex County. Photos by Beth Spaugh.
‘Small Farm Boosters’ Are On Rise In Extension
ONEONTA, N.Y. For dec
ades, the conventional wisdom
handed down to farmers from
government, lenders, agribusiness
and many farm advisers was
more or less along the lines of
“get big or get out.”
But the tremendous ingenuity,
creativity, and sheer persistence
of small-scale farmers has be
come apparent, especially in the
last couple of decades, and we’re
beginning to realize that there are
lots of ways farmers can “stay
small and stay in.”
And there are lots of ways be
ginning farmers can “go small
doesn’t take a huge financial in
vestment and is flexible. Sam
knew there would be a learning
curve, but the investment in the
cows and cheese-making equip
ment was such that they could
survive for a year without selling
any product if need be. His start
up investment was less than
$5,000 for the milking system,
$9,000 for certified organic cows,
and $35,000 for the cheese room
expansion and equipment. He
bought good quality used equip
ment for the cheese plant and
could have gotten started for less
money.
The farmstead creamery con
cept is very flexible. Sam is milk
ing cows and making cheese.
Instead, he could buy milk and
not milk cows. He could raise
heifers and beef animals instead
of milking. If milk prices got high
enough, he could add more cows
and sell milk rather than make
cheese. He could make other
types of cheese, make yogurt, cot
tage cheese, or butter, or sell milk
and cream. Vegetables can
supplement the cheese sales. He
could switch to goats or sheep for
those special cheeses. The invest
ment in the small milking setup
and cheese equipment does not
lock him into one particular pro
duction mode.
Sam started milking his small
herd of Jersey cows (now six
cows) and making cheddar
cheese in June. His farm and the
cheese produced there are “certi
fied organic.” The cows have lots
of pasture, and are milked from
April through December to take
advantage of the pasture season
and the nutritional values associ
ated with milk from cows on
fresh pasture.
Sam participates in the NYS
CHAP program to protect his
herd’s health and provide high
and get in.” Small farms are here
to stay.
Small farms have always been
an important part of Cornell Co
operative Extension (CCE’s) au
dience. In many counties, virtual
ly all farms are small. Sometimes
small farms feel they’re not get
ting the attention and support
they deserve from extension.
But increasingly, CCE educat
ors are seeing the state’s smaller
farms as a “growth area” for
local agriculture and extension
programming, as well as an excit
ing and rewarding audience to
work with.
Clover Mead Farm’s milking cows nibble their grain before going out to pasture for
the day. The Farmstead Creamery is in the background. The farm and the cheese pro
duced are certified organic.
quality milk as the foundation for
his cheese. He focuses on “pas
sive sanitation” to keep his facili
ty exceptionally clean and pre
vent problems and to minimize
the need for harsh sanitizers. For
instance, he has boots that are
used only in the cheese room, and
other boots for the milking par
lor, and other boots that are used
in the barnyard and fields. By
maintaining a very calm environ
ment for the cows, he keeps the
milking parlor area clean. The
cows haven’t manured in the par
lor in at least two and a half
months.
Sam makes cheese three days a
week. When I got there for my
tour, the milk was in the
pasteurizer/che'ese vat so we
donned hair nets, lab coats, and
cheese room boots, then stepped
on a sanitizing mat as we en
tered. The cheese curd is made
from pasteurized milk, but the
cheddar, feta, and Appenzellar
are raw milk cheeses. The
pasteurizer/cheese vat is a double
duty piece of equipment. It was
in use as a cheese vat for making
English-style cheddar cheese
Tuesday when I was there.
To start the cheddar cheese,
the milk in the cheese vat is
heated to 86 degrees Fahrenheit
(F). He inoculates the milk with a
bacterial starter culture that
looks like bread yeast granules
and lets it set for an hour. Then
he adds rennet that makes the
milk turn the consistency of thick
yogurt as the bacteria consume
the lactose in the milk, now
called “curd.”
Cheese “harps,” frames strung
with what looked like monofila-
For example, 53 different ex
tension projects have been
funded in the last three years by
the CCE Grants Program for In
novative Small Farms Education,
for a total of $131,610.
Recently a group of Cornell
Cooperative Extension “Small
Farms Boosters” met at Hart
wick College in Oneonta, N.Y., to
share ideas about how to
strengthen their educational pro
gramming for smaller farms.
Sponsored by Cornell’s Small
Farms Task Group, the meeting
featured a presentation and dis
cussion with Dr. John Ikerd, pro
ment fishing line, are used to
slice the curd into peanut sized
cubes. This curd is then slowly
heated to 100 degrees F and held
there for half an hour while it is
stirred constantly. Whey is ex
pelled from the curds during this
process and protein is concentrat
ed in the curds. The whey is then
drained off and the curds are
stacked into clumps to further
drain and compress, a process
called “cheddaring.”
The curds are then salted and
put into press molds for about 36
hours. The wheels of cheese are
taken out of the molds and allow
ed to dry for 24 hours. Then the
wheels are coated with a clear
wax sealant and put in the cooler
to age. Sam is also making
cheeses with different types of
rinds, including cloth.
That’s how the cheese is made,
but dairy farmers may wonder
what the profitability and eco
nomics looks like. Sam makes
about 200 pounds of cheese in 2
and IS pound wheels each week.
Commercial scale (as opposed to
artisanal or small farmstead) or
ganic Cheddar cheese is selling
for $8 per pound. Although his
cheese certainly is “artisanal,”
Sam retails his Cheddar cheese
for $8 per pound, and wholesales
it for $5 per pound so it will be
affordable for the general public.
This is about equivalent to a
farmer getting $6O per CWT for
his milk, rather than the $lO per
CWT dairy farmers are getting.
Sam sells his fresh cheese curd,
mild English-style cheddar, and
feta and applewood smoked feta.
His Appenzellar cheese needs to
age longer before the first batch
fessor emeritus of agricultural
economics at the University of
Missouri.
Ikerd has written extensively
about small farms and sustain
able agriculture, arguing that
small farms, not large industrial
ized farms, are the ftiture for ag
riculture in most rural commu
nities. The paper he presented at
the CCE retreat can be viewed at
www.smallfarms.cornell.edu.
Click on “About Small Farms”
and then click on “Contributions
of Small Farms.”
“Our purpose was to gather a
small group of highly dedicated
extension educators people
will be available.
There is $ll billion of cheese
sold in the U.S. each year. Cer
tainly there is room for some
small cheesemakers, particularly
to replace some of the cheese im
ported from overseas. There are
at least 30 farmstead cheesemak
ers in Vermont. It’s nice to think
that Essex and Clinton counties
of New York could be dotted
with small farmstead cheese
plants.
Sam is committed to trying to
revitalize family farms and the
communities that depended on
them. He is active in the Adiron
dack Harvest efforts to link local
farmers with consumers and help
consumers identify local farm
products to buy. He is also will
ing to help others interested in
starting a small farmstead
creamery. He would love to see a
farmstead creamery, with its own
distinctive products and charac
teristics, in every town in Clinton
and Essex counties.
To find out where to purchase
The Farmstead Creamery’s
cheese or to get information
about starting your own farm
stead creamery, call Sam Hen
dren at (518) 834-7306 or e-mail
him at hendren@northnet.org.
An organic food home delivery
service near New York City is
carrying their cheese. They have
also joined the Campaign for
Real Milk and will be listed on
the Website at www.real
milk.com and are starting a local
chapter.
For information on a variety of
small farm topics, visit Cornell’s
Small Farms Web Site at
www.smallfarms.comell.edu.
who are enthusiastic about small
farms and have a lot of experi
ence working with them,” said
Joanna Green, extension associ
ate with Cornell’s Small Farms
Program. “The discussion was
part of our ongoing effort to
strengthen Cornell’s support for
small farms.”
The Cornell Small Farms Task
Group has developed a set of
suggestions for extension pro
gram planning for small farms.
To view the recommendations, go
to www.smallfarms.comell.edu.
Click on “Working With Small
Farms,” then click on “Educa
tional Programming.”