November 17, 2009 by Debra.

Ever wonder where the dairy products you’re buying were processed? It’s easy to find out by checking out the Moo Milk (Maine’s Own Organic Milk) website. They have posted an explanation of how to decode the numbers stamped on commercial cartons of milk, and figure out the state and specific plant that it’s been processed at — it’s 23 for Maine and 33 for New Hampshire:

Some dairies print the name and location of the processing plant on their label. But many dairies, and almost all “store” brands of dairy products, use the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) system.



To find the FIPS number, look at the area where the sell-by date is stamped on your carton. Depending on the brand, there may be different sequences of numbers, but part of the sequence will have a two-digit number followed by a hyphen and then another number, which could be two to four digits. The two-digit number before the hyphen tells you the state where the processing plant is located. The number after the hyphen identifies the particular processing plant.



Dairy processing plants located in Maine have number 23. So if you want to purchase products that are processed in Maine, remember “It’s 23 for ME.”

The state number is then followed by the plant information for Maine processing plants. These numbers are assigned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to all interstate milk shippers. This site enables you to locate any plant in Maine and New Hampshire. For example, these are the assigned plant numbers from the January 2009 report (up-to-date information available online):

Company	Plant Location	Plant #
Oakhurst Dairy	Portland	1
H.P. Hood	Portland	3
Houlton Farms Dairy	Houlton	20
Garelick Farms of Maine	Bangor	26
Kate’s Butter	Old Orchard Beach	30
Smiling Hill Farm Dairy	Westbrook	31

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October 17, 2009 by Debra.

A recent article in the Bangor Daily News describes a new collaboration — MOOMilk or Maine’s Own Organic Milk Co. — that should benefit regional dairy farmers as well as consumers, and expand the options for home cheesemakers:

Last February, a group of Maine organic dairy farmers thought that their businesses as they knew them had come to an end. Citing a soft organic market, a depressed economy and the great distances to serve organic milk producers in far-flung Washington and Aroostook counties, 10 farms were given their pink slips by H.P. Hood Inc.

The farmers were flabbergasted. Each had a contract, and all said they had made substantial investments in their farms to convert to organic.

 But this is rural Maine, and with true Yankee ingenuity, the 10 farmers banded together to find a solution. Through a cooperative agreement among the farmers, private investors, Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, Oakhurst Dairy in Portland, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, the Maine Farm Bureau and the Maine Department of Agriculture, a new company has been launched: MOOMilkCo., short for Maine’s Own Organic Milk Co.

“We have created a company using all the different parts already existing in the state,” MOOMilk’s general manager, Bill Eldridge, said this week. “This is a real Maine story. I have been totally astounded as to the level of cooperation and partnership in this state.”

Milk should start appearing in stores in early November, taking only 96 hours to get from the cow to the shelf….

“This is a terrific example of what can happen when all members of the Maine agricultural family pull together,” said David Bright, a member of MOOMilk’s board of directors. “Beyond that, the support from the industry and the public has been outstanding.”

 

Every study done on the buying-local market, in Maine and nationally, has overwhelmingly revealed that when consumers can find local products, they will buy them to support local agriculture.

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October 3, 2009 by Debra.

Our friends at Silvery Moon Creamery will be participating once again at this year’s Open Creamery Day. A trip to Westbrook could also include stops at The Edible Rind, a new cheesemaking company in Scarborough making soft and semi-soft edible rind cheeses, and Liberty Fields Farm, specializing in award-winning cheeses made from their herd of Nubian goats in Saco. Selling cheese, wine and specialty foods, The Cheese Iron is also in Scarborough. Their on-site cheese cave and commitment to affinage, the craft of maturing and aging cheeses, would make them worth a visit on any day.

Learn to Make Cheese at Pineland Farms!

When: Saturday, October 10, 2009 and Sunday, October 11, 2009

Cost: $275 per person

Pineland Farms is now offering the unique experience of learning to make cheese with our Head Cheesemaker, Mark Whitney. Come stay with us for the weekend, and in one of our six beautiful countryside Guest Houses, while you learn the art of cheese making.

 

On Saturday, students will learn the history and steps of basic cheese making. Each student will have supplies to create their own batch of three types of cheeses, as well as butter. Cheeses will include: ricotta, farmers cheese, and fresh mozzarella. After the workshop on Saturday, the group will head to one of our gorgeous Guest Houses* to partake in a wine and cheese tasting with Mark Whitney. We will be serving a selection of hors d’oeuvres inspired by our cheeses and other farm provisions.

 

On Sunday, you will become an apprentice in Pineland Farms’ own Creamery, working side-by-side with our experts through every stage of the process. Experience the hard work, science, and sensitivities that go into each pound of cheese. The cost of $275.00 per person includes: 

• • Saturday’s workshop with lunch from our Market, beginning at noon.
  • Saturday evening’s wine and cheese tasting.
  • Recipes for all the menu items at the wine and cheese tasting.
  • Sunday’s apprenticeship at The Creamery (start time 8:00 am) with lunch from our Market.
  • The three cheeses and butter prepared during the workshop.
  • A 2-pound wheel that each student will make during Creamery production. The wheel will be shipped to participants after 2 months of aging.
  • A Pineland Farms baseball hat.

 

Mark Whitney, Head Cheesemaker and Creamery ManagerMark has 13 years of cheesemaking experience. Mark designed and operates a visitor compatible cheese production facility at Pineland Farms where he crafts small-batch award-winning cheeses. He is a five-time American Cheese Society award winner.

 

*Guest Houses are billed separately, but can be booked at the time of registration based on availability. Please contact Emily Marczak at emarczak@pinelandfarms.org or (207) 688-4691 for registration and questions.

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October 2, 2009 by Lenore.

Welcome to the first installment of “Cheese Chicks!”  The actual “cheese chicks” would be Debra (who already writes wonderful blogs here on how to cook all your fabulous, locally produced food) and myself, Lenore.  We are both home cheesemakers and want to share our experiences, experiments, and recipes with others who love cheese just as much as we do.  You don’t have to want to make cheese to enjoy our installments, but you do have to like eating cheese!  We will also be writing about local, fabulous cheese finds as we eat our way through the region.  Someone has to do it, so let us save you the calories!

Debra and I met several years ago during one of Northwest Earth Institute’s sustainability workshops, called “Menu For the Future.”  During the last session, the group comes together to celebrate the experience, and I decided my contribution would be a homemade mozzarella cheese braid.  Now, I knew that Debra was a professional chef, so I was pretty nervous about bringing food in, but it turns out that she, and the entire class, loved it!  I learned that she had tried cheesemaking as well, and so our friendship began.  We have since shared many cheese successes, failures, and discoveries and we even began teaching cheesemaking together through the Kittery and Exeter Adult Education programs.  The classes sell out, they’re a blast to teach, and we’ve loved watching our students see the “magic” of turning milk into cheese.  We hope our students, and you the public, enjoy the upcoming installments of “Cheese Chicks!” as we continue to learn and discover all that is cheese.

Posted in Cheese Chicks, author: Lenore | Print | 1 Comment »