Business

Goodale Farms cheeses win top honors at nationwide competition

BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | Goodale Farms' intern Lane White feeds baby girl Henrietta Holstein some mother's milk Tuesday morning.

Two types of cheese from Goodale Farms earned first place in their categories at the American Dairy Goat Association’s 2011 National Convention in October, just five months after the Aquebogue farm began selling dairy products.

The plain chevre and unflavored feta won first place, the first honors to be bestowed upon the farm’s dairy products, at the nationwide competition.

Goodale Farms received its license to sell dairy products in May and now sells hunks of cheese, flavored cream cheeses and fresh cow’s milk in addition to other non-dairy products like vegetables, jams and jellies.

“I like dairy and I wanted to do something that other people weren’t doing,” said farm co-owner Hal Goodale, adding that his farm is the only one on the East End to sell multiple dairy products.

The farm’s cheesemaker, Karen Danzer, made the chevre cheese in two days and aged the feta for about a week, he said.

All dairy products come from the farm’s livestock, which are fed an all-natural diet without any steroids or antibiotics, Mr. Goodale said. The way the cows and goats are raised, he said, play a large role in the outcome of the dairy products.

“The quality of the milk is a huge part of the cheese’s taste,” he said. “Hopefully this gives us a little more notoriety.”

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