What does farmstead cheese mean? That a true farmstead is producing the cheese. A farm where the milk to make the farmstead cheese is derived from the land and cattle that produced it. There is less handling of the beginning product. The milk is not transported from another source to make the farmstead cheese. Less handling of the milk contributes to better quality of the farmstead cheese!
Farmsteads that produce farmstead cheese may have, however, differences in quality of the farmstead cheese that they produce based on other variable factors. Some of these factors involve environment for the cattle, feeding differences, and chemical or hormone treatment for the animals that produce the milk. Some of these treatments increase the milk production of the animals. We do not "treat" our cows with any hormones to induce higher milk production nor do we "push" the cows for high production with high concentrations of grain mixtures designed to get top production. Our cows give about 25 to 35 pounds of milk per head per day in contrast to the production achieved through the introduction of "stored" feeds resulting in 80lbs. and above of milk production per head per day. A "pushed" cow will not live as long or have a healthy, quality of life as a cow allowed to live at a natural pace!
Our goal at Colonial Classics Farmstead Cheese was to produce a quality old-fashioned product using old-fashioned style. Our cows graze on pasture all day, not just one hour or less! They are only in the milking parlor long enough to be milked.
This explains why we say time and patience is necessary in every aspect for quality farmstead cheese! We do not rush anything on our farm including the making of our farmstead cheese! Our farm philosophy is "Quality...not Quantity"! We find it worth the effort, we hope you will too!