Balfour Farm is a small, diversified organic dairy farm in Pittsfield, Maine. Our unique and distinctive cheeses made in small batches are made from the milk produced by our beautiful Normande cows. The multiple awards we have won locally, regionally and nationally show the quality of our cheeses. As a farmstead creamery, we control the process from pasture to plate, taking great pride in producing a wholesome product using sustainable methods. Our farm is completely off the grid, with 85% of our power generated by solar. Unique flavors are developed by aging cheeses in an underground, passively cooled vault that provides a natural environment for microbe growth development. Milking year round gives an appreciation for the seasonal changes in milk. Flavors that develop in the cheesemaking process reflect the terroir of our farm: from grassy notes in spring and summer cheeses, to richer bolder flavors from winter feeds. Whey from our cheesemaking is fed to our pig herd which produces flavorful pork cuts and value-added products like cured salami.
My husband Doug and I have been milking cows since 2000. We started with Blackie, our backyard milker for our family in NH. We started and grew our organic dairy to 50 head in Northern New York from 2004-2010. We established Balfour Farm in Maine in 2010. We currently have 10-20 milkers, with all milk processed into aged and fresh cheeses. We diversified farm to produce organic eggs and non-gmo fed pork. We work with a local artisan meat processor to make the salami. We rely on rotational grazing on native grasses during the grazing season and farm raised forages for winter feeds. Our farm is off-the-grid and uses solar power.
I am a long-time board member of the Maine Cheese Guild and our local Town Council. I have a keen interest in farm preservation, viability and scaling technology for success on small farms.
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