The Heritage Cheese House, started in 1994 under Amish ownership as a place for the local community to sell its milk, closed its doors this week, causing more than 65 Amish dairy farmers to loose their market for milk. Now Agri-Mark cooperative which also owns Cabot and McCadam Cheese, is helping to build temporary storage and cooling stations, called community milk houses for these dairymen. The facilities will allow Amish milk to meet Grade A standards and open their dairy to a larger market.
“We are trying to help get a market for the Amish and make sure the state requirements are met,” said Doug J. DiMento, spokesman for Agri-Mark. To meet Grade A requirements, milk must be cooled within two hours of being harvested. The Amish are prohibited from owning the machinery to accomplish this because of religious restrictions.
The Amish producers will put the milk in stainless steel bottles and carry the containers to the milk houses. The milk house will hold bulk tanks that can cool 100 to 300 gallons of milk. The number of bulk tanks in the milk house will depend on the supply of the community.
The milk houses are being constructed by both Amish and Agri-Mark efforts. The Amish are providing the labor while Agri-Mark deals with everything that does not comply with the Amish religion, such as electricity.
The Heritage Cheese House was the only dairy plant in the area to accept Amish milk, but with these new facilities the milk could be shipped across the state. The Amish will rent the bulk tanks, which will be purchased by Agri-Mark, and some of the milk will be purchased by the co-op.