Summer 2004
I have already put in a full day, but I am not done yet. The evening milking is the only thing that remains. The goats are hungry and their udders are full. I am tired and have to keep moving or I will stall out - momentum is precious. That is why I have learned to dive into the bushes when I see fingers pointing out of slow-moving mini vans with out-of-state plates. I can't afford to give a farm tour. I do not know how they do it, but somehow summer tourists manage to find us. They make their way up and down the hills through the rural landscape of midcoast Maine. Initially it seems unlikely that they are cruising in search of Appleton which is nothing more than an intersection and a wide sprinkling of country-dwellers. Of course, Appleton is also home to a herd of goats and award-winning goat cheeses.
As my introduction suggests, I spent the summer of 2004 doing an internship at Appleton Creamery with Caitlin Hunter. The ten week period between June eighteenth and August twenty-ninth was a time of intense learning. Together Caitlin and I made cheeses of different shapes, sizes, colors, and smells from the milk of roughly thirty-two goats. The primary outlet for the finished product is a variety of farmers' markets. The cheese is also distributed to local restaurants and natural foods stores. Appleton Creamery is a small operation inspired by Caitlin's love of goats, cheese, and rural living. The business is committed to providing the local community with a quality, hand-crafted, farmstead product that does not exist on supermarket shelves. My similar interests in food systems, the production, distribution, and consumption of food, coupled with a desire to promote tangible sustainability at the local level led me to the goats of Appleton, Maine.
The creamery itself is a small space containing anything and everything needed to make cheese: a pair of pasteurizers, sinks, counter space, cheese molds, plastic containers, a radio, and a million other appliances and tools. Before entering that room I had certainly consumed a healthy amount of cheese, but I was far from being an educated connoisseur. In fact, since living on my own I probably had not purchased a single block of cheese. Since I am from Wisconsin people often assume that I was born with an ingrained knowledge of and appreciation for cheese.
Cheese is so simple yet so complex. A bad batch may be the fault of too much or too little rennet, poorly handled milk, the wrong mold at the wrong time, higher than necessary pasteurization temperatures, or a myriad of other variables. The list is virtually endless, and Caitlin has encountered each difficulty on numerous occasions. It is a tricky magical act that requires diligence, patience, science, and a lot of energy. The challenges and successes she has met over the past ten years have made her into quite the accomplished cheese-maker. Challenges have included blue cheeses that will not turn blue and, of course, cheeses turning blue when they are not supposed to. Solutions to such challenges are reached by experimentation and deep breathing. Caitlin continues to win awards nationally and has even been sent to Italy where she attended a conference for the Slow Foods Movement.
The vast majority of Appleton Creamery's products were sold at farmers' markets in the mid-coast region of Maine. I was quickly able to answer all the questions directed towards me while at market regarding the various cheeses, what makes them different, why and when to pasteurize, nutritional qualities, Atkins, and whether or not our cheeses were appropriate for the lactose intolerant. I was surprised to find that there is a significant loyal fan base out there - those who come week after week to get the feta, yogurt, and chevre that will keep them satisfied for the next week. They know exactly what they want and come with exact change. Interacting with customers at market is absolutely one of the most interesting and gratifying experiences to be had. People who are essentially strangers tell you all about their trials and tribulations. Some even approach the table just to tell you how much they dislike goat cheese. Interestingly, these people rarely leave empty handed. Mostly the customers linger, gossip, and make a meal out of the samples before getting around to telling you what they would like to take home. The most frequently asked questions come in a predictable order: How many goats do you have? How often are they milked? How long does it take to make chevre? Is this fat-free? The general population is surprisingly interested in the art of cheese making and where their food is coming from - perhaps not so surprising at a farmers' market though. They seem to appreciate the difference in quality in the food at a farmers' market from that found at the grocery store. Seeing the customers stroll away with a paper bag containing something with so many good implications feels like an accomplishment to me. It does not matter what their motives are. They are directly interacting with the people who grew, made, or prepared the food. They have somehow made their way to the farmers' market, and that is all that matters.
One of my primary goals for the summer was understanding and appreciating animal husbandry. I quickly learned to recognize the demands and concerns inherent with animals that simply do not exist in the world of produce. I had worked with vegetables in the past and had grown comfortable with their relative predictability. Animals present an entirely different set of challenges. Tomatoes do not mind all too much if you decide to sleep in. Goats certainly do, and they will let you know how concerned they are.
I fell in love with the goats. I entered the summer with a very narrow understanding of them, but I quickly learned that they are crazy, quirky animals with strikingly unique personalities. Some of them are sweet, curious, and passive, while others are bossy and aggressive. One stand-out goat was a doe named Barbaresco whose sole purpose in life was to win human hearts. She was always first at the gate, ready for any affection that might come her way. There were others like Coral, Narcissus, and Opal who wanted absolutely nothing to do with you. Sometimes the goats would file into the milking parlor in a calm, organized manner and seem grateful for your care. Other times you could not imagine having ever thought they were agreeable, loveable creatures. Animals need your attention and demand patience. To neglect them is to make your own life worse. Keeping up with barn maintenance, hoof trimming, water changing, and manure shoveling proved to be a unexpectedly daunting task. These duties and responsibilities could easy constitute a full time job. Spending only ten weeks with the goats was not a sufficient amount of time to learn all the aspects of herd management. At some point in the future I hope to experience breeding and kidding, as well as learn how to properly maintain healthy, pregnant does. These are among the things that require year-round involvement.
I feel confident in assuming that every market-producer has days when they just want to give up and throw in the towel. It is stressful, exhausting, and overwhelming for many reasons. When the source of your income and livelihood is less than a stone's throw away from your home, separating work and leisure can be nearly impossible and requires an extreme amount of self-discipline. A majority of the farmers that I know are forced to seek work elsewhere to support their families. Few would guess that Caitlin, cheese-maker extraordinaire, is also a computer technician for the local school system. There are never enough hours in a day. It seems that you are constantly fighting the clock, resentful of time's insistence to race along. Sometimes you can not meet the demands of the consumer. Customers are not always nice and forgiving. However, Caitlin maintains that the best business strategy is to treat them like they are always right. Compromise and sacrifice with yourself, the customer and the business is unavoidable. Appleton Creamery is not organic. The price of organic grain, which is nearly twice as much as the grain Caitlin presently purchases for the goats, is a huge investment. This is just one of the variables that makes the organic hurdle insurmountable for many people. In addition, much of the public is not ready to pay the price for organics. People struggle with honest prices. When the cost of food truly reflects the time and energy that goes into its production, consumers tend to feel like someone is taking advantage of them. It is difficult hearing a customer complain about your prices when you toil day in and day out putting everything you have into getting that product there.
I have made these topics the focus of my academic course work at College of the Atlantic and have spent much of my time at COA exploring these issues through illuminating courses such as Food Systems, Marketing Artisanal Foods, Environmental Issues in Developing Countries, and Creative Destruction. Because of what I have learned, I am committed to figuring out how to change this country’s priorities and save small-scale producers from the large corporate takeovers that are destroying family farms and small businesses. Some potential ideas include working as a liaison between local producers and local businesses, helping to make the goods produced more accessible to public. I am also interested in raising public awareness regarding why the food of today demands our consideration and how sustainable food systems may hold some of the answers. It remains unclear to me how my convictions will play themselves out in my life. After tasting the cheese, my brother is convinced that I ought to start a similar business. I do see goats in my future, but the extent to which they dominate my life remains unclear.
There is an inevitable and undeniable dependence on one another and the earth for our sustenance. We rely on the earth and our neighbors to grow our food, the insects to pollinate, and the grass to feed our animals. The current state of the world reinforces the need for these relationships more than ever before. Life's basic essentials have become meaningless commodities and objects that are used to represent status. Eclipsed by large industrial farms, small farms that once covered the countryside are being forced out of business. Agrarian relationships that were responsible for holding a community together are quickly withering. People often agree on the need for conservation and preservation of biodiversity but fail to apply these ideas beyond charismatic mega-fauna and national parks. Agriculture is quickly being monopolized by business people who do not care about heirloom apples, sheep milk yogurt, or pasture-raised meat. Options are disappearing. We are losing our rights to choose what maintains and supports us. There is a great degree of alienation inherent with the perfectly unblemished produce and highly processed goods that fill the cupboards and refrigerators of this country. The people who work the hardest are not the ones who reap the benefits. There is little acknowledgement of the time and energy put into the goods that ultimately necessitate life because the farmers are faceless, nameless strangers from distant lands. The money generated from the production of food gets divided up between producers, distributors, and sellers, leaving everyone with nothing.
I believe that quality foods produced locally may be part of the answer to the world's present-day ills. When emphasis is placed on supporting local goods, money stays within the community and strengthens the local economy. Face to face interactions allow producer and consumer to know one another and establish a relationship. The pride that comes with knowing, seeing, and speaking with the consumer inevitably leads to quality. I believe food is the foundation of our existence and is largely responsible for how we interact with the world in a physical, social, economic, and political sense. Recognizing and appreciating the efforts of people like Caitlin Hunter is a step in the right direction - so long as people can avoid doing so at milking time.
@Copyright 2004 LClark