Crooked Face Creamery Receives 2nd Place for Highest Milk Quality in Maine from Agri-Mark

December 15th, 2011…Very proud of Josh – he was just recognized for his outstanding achievement as a producer of high quality milk, receiving 2nd place for Highest Quality Milk in Maine by Agri-Mark. I’m one lucky cheesemaker!

Hey folks! We are now selling our Fresh Ricotta cheese online with the Western Maine Farmers’ Market. Visit the Web site to order.

Orders must be placed by 6am on Thursdays to receive your order on Friday or Saturday at your desired pick up location. Please pay with cash or check when you pick up your products. Paypal payments are also accepted.

Contact us if you have any questions!

June 3, 2011

Welcome to Crooked Face Creamery and our first blog post! It’s been a busy few years for us here on the farm building our cheese kitchen, going through the licensing process, testing recipes, and eating a lot of good cheese, and a lot of not so good cheese. We are proud to open our doors and hit the ground running with a few farmers’ markets this summer. It’s so exciting to finally have the opportunity to share our cheeses with the world, well for now, Central Maine!

There are so many people that have helped us along the way. Everyone wants to see you succeed, and the support of friends, family, and the community has been endless. Before I write about our cheese, stories of our animals and our family, I wanted our first blog post to feature a few folks who have played a very important part in launching Crooked Face Creamery into business.

First, Debbie Hight. Debbie was the friend who approached me at a Christmas party two years ago about cheese. She had taken a class with Caitlin Hunter at Appleton Creamery and was willing to give me some pointers and to show me the cheeses she learned to make. We got together on New Years and made Mozzarella, Monterey Jack, Fromage Blanc, Ricotta, etc. It was a full day of non-stop cheesemaking, and ever since, I’ve been hooked. Debbie has offered guidance and support, has helped me host cheese tastings, and donated her kitchen to cheese making research every weekend and many late weeknights over the course of an entire year. It was a wonderful place to get our start. We called it “Debbie’s Kitchen and Day Spa.” I have so many fond memories of learning the art of cheesemaking that year.

That being said, I have to thank Lou as well. Lou was fine walking in after a long day at work to the smell of warm milk and me running around his kitchen. Not only can he make Josh laugh on the roughest of all days, he was the first one down to the farm when our manure pump shit the bed (no pun intended) and he helped us shovel the gutters by hand until late in the evening.

Debbie and Lou are a few of our strongest supporters. I sometimes think where I would be in the world of cheese if it hadn’t been for them. The reality is, I may never have entered it.

Now, every creamery has to have an Engineering Department. Our leader in this area of expertise is world-renowned copper artist, Barry Norling. Barry and his family have also been huge supporters of Crooked Face Creamery. From fixing our stainless steel tables, to creating a home pasteurizer for us to start our research with, to handcrafting a Crooked Face brand for all our cheese boards and signs, Barry’s unique ideas along with his sense of humor are always much appreciated.

Another group of people we’d like to thank are the talented artists of River Roads Artisans Gallery. They have welcomed us in with open arms and have been instrumental in exposing us to a wider customer base. They are an incredible group of people and we feel very fortunate to take part in their grand openings. We hope to have many more cheese tastings at the gallery, and will keep you posted on all of their events.

Speaking of tasting cheese, it’s nice to enjoy a well-made wedge, isn’t it? However, it’s quite un-enjoyable to choke down a not so delicious chunk of what is suppose to taste like Gouda, but instead tastes like dirty socks. The first few months of cheesemaking did result in plenty of dirty socks disguised as cheese. It was our families who choked it down, (almost) always gave us positive feedback, and encouraged us to keep practicing. Despite our trials and tribulations, our families have been by our side from the beginning.

Thanks to everyone who have helped us get this far. We have a very long road ahead, and a never ending to do list. But we love farming, we love the lifestyle, and most of all, making products our family, friends and customers enjoy.