Ardith Mae Farmstead Goat Cheese

Ardith Mae Farm is a small Animal Welfare Approved goat dairy located in Stuyvesant, NY. Ardith Mae Farm was started in January 2006 in Pennsylvania. In February of 2013, we decide to leave PA and move to a farm in Columbia County, NY. With the help of Columbia Land Conservancy Trust, I found the perfect home for me and my crew of goats . In the middle of winter, with the help of some very loving and incredible friends we packed up and moved the herd of 60 goats, 4 dogs, and 2 cats to Stuyvesant, NY.

On the new farm, there was an empty barn and big, beautiful pastures just screaming for some animals. Once we were all settled, we rebuilt the cheese facility and in August of 2013, we were up and running again.

We milk a herd of 60 goofy and rambunctious Saanen, LaMancha, and Alpine goats. With their lovely milk, we make a variety of French style cheeses that are carefully hand crafted from beginning to end.

The fresh cheeses include:

Fresh chevre that we make fresh every week. In addition to plain chevre, we also make flavored varieties including: basil, garlic scape, and honey lavender

Feta that is soft, crumbly, and creamy all the same time, packed in brine so it will last in your fridge for a few months.

The soft-ripened cheeses include:

The Mammuth - Our Camembert style cheese. Elegant, unique, and complex enough for a cheese plate but delicate and well balanced enough for breakfast with jam and crusty French baguette.

The Bigelo - Vegetable ash coated pyramid, similar to a classic French style Valencay. Tangy and well-balanced when young; gooey and more potent as it ages. Excellent for a cheese plate.

Green Peppercorn - A larger pyramid with Green Peppercorns velvety and creamy, the peppercorns become soft and provide a mild peppery bite after it's 3-4 week aging process. Beautiful on a cheese plate or atop a burger.

Silhouette - Dense and creamy with a delicate layer of vegetable ash, this goat cheese is perfect for spreading on a thin, crispy cracker with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of walnuts.

Mixed goat and cow's milk cheeses that are soft and creamy, and which we make plain as well as with veins of either peppercorn, or smoked paprika

My favorite, a cheese called Doolan. This cheese is a small button, similar to a Crottin. This cheese is everything I love in a piece of cheese: a perfect balance of sweet and salty; the flavor profile is complex and yet, somehow simple. It's dense and creamy and absolutely adorable - a perfect little snack. This lovely little cheese is actually named after Kristen Doolan, the master cheese maker and fearless goat farmer that that taught me everything I know about cheese making, farming and raising goats organically. I must also say a thank you to George van Vlaanderlen, her hilarious husband and superhero farmer. George also taught me so much about farming and that darn electric fencing that I struggled with while interning on their incredibly beautiful farm, Does Leap Farm, in Northern Vermont.