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Raindance Farm - Our Story
We are introducing our first raw milk, organic, grass fed cheese. Our cheese recipe is inspired by the Italian asiago cheese which developed over the centuries during the Alpine grazing season when Italian cows were eating a diet of clovers and grasses similar to the diet of our cows in the summer. We make our cheese only during the grazing season because we think grass-fed products are healthy for our family and yours.
The food chain on our farm is nice and simple. The shimmering green pasture plants capture solar energy to nourish our cows. The cows are the only food chain step between the grass and the milk - thus the name "Sun Cheese". The synergy between the cow and her natural diet produces what I consider a health food - milk with at least twice the concentration of a cancer preventing fatty acid called CLA and also a better ratio of omega 3 to 6 than is found in milk from typical American farms that use a lot of corn silage and grain. We use a full fat recipe so you can take it in moderation and still garner the benefits of the healthy fatty acids. Research has also shown that CLA helps people from putting on weight as fat and can help prevent diabetes. Jo Robinson cites references to this research on her web site where more information about our farm can be found. The golden color of our cheese reflects the natural beta caratenoids our cows get directly from the grass.
In pursuit of our lofty goal to be carbon negative, we have installed two arrays for heating water on the barn roof. They preheat water for washing up at the dairy. The solar heated hot water is also pumped through the outside water jacket of our cheese vat to gently heat milk for cheese making. There is a lot of synergy in making cheese only during the grass growing season because that is when the sun provides the most energy for heating water. Although oil is relatively cheap right now and our solar system was expensive, we believe some day this reliance on solar energy will make us more competitive with fossil fuel dependent factory farms. We received no subsidies or government assistance for this project because the puny incentives available to relatively small projects like ours was not worth spending hours of time writing the grant proposal for money we may not even get. As a society, it is important that we not wait for government to mandate alternative energy because our world cannot wait.
In 1997, we became certified organic with NOFA-NY and the result of this natural way of farming plus grazing has resulted in cow health we never dreamed of and a cleaner and more pleasant life for us and our cows. We have repeatedly won quality awards for our milk and in 2008 we won the Gold award for Achievement, a National Dairy Quality Award. Super high quality milk is what gives our cheese its fresh pure flavor. Sun cheese reflects the subtle essence of clovers and grasses for a pleasant, mild nutty flavor that everyone in the family will find delicious.