Enterprising dairy farmers looking for a new niche are turning to dairy products made on-farm in small batches. They are finding consumers, chefs and artisan connoisseurs are very appreciative and excited about their products.
These artisanal operations are turning cow, goat or sheep milk into simple, straightforward foods like crème fraîche, butter, buttermilk, ice cream, puddings, custards, yogurt, yogurt-based sauces and yogurt drinks. Many of these dairies also sell unhomogenized, and in a few cases even unpasteurized, milk with an old-fashioned farmhouse flavor.
The movement is, in some ways, an offshoot of the American cheesemaking revival that began 15 to 20 years ago, and some of the creameries make fresh cheeses like mascarpone, mozzarella and ricotta that let the quality of the milk speak for itself.
Chalk it up to a lucky confluence of events. Most small dairy farmers cannot keep afloat selling milk to large processors at commodity prices, so those who are trying to survive are looking for alternatives. At the same time there is an increasingly sophisticated public that appreciates the difference between mass-produced dumbed-down food and the handiwork of a small dairy that has learned to produce exceptional butter or yogurt or ice cream by doing it the way it was done before World War II, when there was a creamery in every town.
The comeback is taking place across the country. States like Wisconsin, Vermont and New York are helping other small farmers get these businesses going. In 2004, Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin, pushed through one of those infamous earmarks for $2.4 million for just such a project.