Author Archives: President

Meeting: June 18 at Kennebec Cheesery

Posted on by

Our June meeting took place on Monday, June 18th at the Kennebec Cheesery hosted by Jean Koons while her husband continued getting their hay in during a promised stretch of sun. We toured her cheese room, which continues to improve in space and efficiency, as well as her changing milk room, which will add a pipeline milking system very soon. We had an excellent turnout including many apprentices, and we tasted quite a spread of workshop cheeses including a Gorgonzola that was over a year-old from the Peter Dixon workshop in 2011. It was mighty good, just coming into its own.

We primarily discussed the next steps the Guild should take in a brochure, our last version having been printed over five years ago. Karen Trenholm worked with the graphic designer Nancy Montgomery (who had designed our poster and show display) on a proposal for a “Maine Cheese Trail” map and listing that could be used for Open Creamery Day as well as year-round. But the group ended up approving a reprint of an updated version of the existing, less specific, brochure and then designing an insert that could be printed on two sides of an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper to be used for mapping/listings or other updatable info, plus could be downloaded and printed by any member as needed. Robin, at Three Level Farm, will be heading that project.

Guild ACS Opportunities For 2012

Posted on by

–Once again the Guild will pay for your FIRST ACS competition entry ($60 per entry — you need to be an ACS member to enter)
—the deadline for on-time competition entries is May 18th, so if you haven’t already submitted your entry forms, do so soon, and then send Mark Whitney your receipt for reimbursement.

–Once again the Guild will help pay for shipping your entries — up to $50 per participating Guild member. Once you have notified the Guild that you will be sending entries, we will attempt to coordinate a best and most cost-effective means of transport.

–This year the Guild will reimburse ONE Guild cheese maker for an ACS Level 1 Professional membership (a $199 value).
—To qualify to be chosen to receive this free membership for 2012 please respond to this email me your name and say “Add Me For A Free Membership” in the body of the email BEFORE Sunday, May 13th and your name will go into a hat. The randomly chosen member will be notified, and once they get receipt for joining the ACS the Guild will reimburse them.

–Once again The Guild wants to send up to FOUR Guild members to the ACS Conference for the full conference experience. The Guild will offer scholarships of at least $900 in expenses toward attending, which will cover the Conference fee of $465 plus some of the travel and lodging expenses.
—To obtain a scholarship email me your name and write “Add Me For A Conference Scholarship” in the body of the email BEFORE Sunday, May 13th and your name will pass on to all non-entered board members who will vote for the four Guild scholarship winners. If fewer than four Guild members apply for the scholarships, the total scholarship money will divided among the attending Guild winners up to but not exceeding their total expenses. The scholarship winners will each be responsible for at least one newsletter article about their conference experience, and for bringing as much of the information they’ve gathered back to future Guild meetings.
–The scholarship winners will be notified on Monday, May 14th so that they can register for the conference BEFORE the early bird deadline of May 23rd.

The results are in:

The Guild subsidized ACS membership goes to: Heather Donahue of Balfour Farm.

The four partial scholarships to attend the ACS Conference were awarded to:
  —Jessie Dowling, Fuzzy Udder Creamery
  —Heather Donahue, Balfour Farm
  —Eric Rector, Monroe Cheese Studio
  —Jamien Shields, Turner Farm Creamery

On behalf of the Guild, congratulations.

Meeting: Fuzzy Udder Creamery in Unity May 7

Posted on by

We had a very productive meeting held at the Fuzzy Udder Creamery in Unity on Monday, May 7th, including a tour of Jessie’s newly inspected and licensed creamery which is impressive in it’s simplicity and efficient design. We also heard from Barbara Skapa about several marketing opportunities for cheese makers interested in teaming up with Maine distributors, as well as a question about how the Guild should best market itself. That lead to a effort that Karen Trenholm will explore to put together a printed brochure with a cheese map inside that could be distributed state wide for summer visitors to use, as well as for Open Creamery Day. We hope to see a proposal for making this happen at the next Guild meeting in June.

We also had a spirited discussion about the efforts being made to exempt dairy licensing from small commercial dairy producers, which is something this Guild had often argued against. There will be more about that in another post that will include the crux of their argument.