OakMoon Creamery and Farm

On a lovely ridge near Bakersville, NC, is a small goat dairy named OakMoon Farm. Cynthia Sharpe and Dwain Swing share OakMoon Farm with 60+ French Alpine, Oberhasli, Saanen and Nigerian Dwarf goats with a smattering of Nubian and LaMancha thrown in for good measure. Flock guardian dogs, chickens, and assorted family pets as well as grown children visiting from time to time round out the ranks of inhabitants! It's a good place to be and we feel blessed to be here. At the farm we practice gentle, humane treatment of our animals---they really think we are Mom and Dad! We use no hormones ever, extremely limited antibiotic and parasite treatments and try to treat our animals as we would want to be treated. OakMoon Creamery is a dream thought lost and then found again. For many years, we have struggled to complete the creamery and become licensed, and recently achieved that worthy goal. Our farmstead cheese production follows the rhythms of the seasons. The goats "freshen" or give birth to their kids from late February to early April, providing spring milk for the cheesemaking to begin. Bouncy baby goats provide the perfect illustration of Springs renewal of life! Through the spring and summer, the does graze on natural mountain pastures supplemented with grain and hay cut from windswept mountain hayfields. The milk is flowery-sweet and plentiful, as is the cheese. With the cool nights of fall, the breeding season begins. Autumn makes the forage dry and rich, and the milk becomes richer as well, making even better cheese. The does are bred to their "prince charmings" and are dried up to rest from milking from December until kidding again the next spring, when we begin again.