Ardith Mae Farm was started in January 2006 in Northeastern Pennsylvania. In February of 2013, we decided to leave PA and moved to a farm in Columbia County, NY. After leasing for 10 years, in the fall of 2022 we were finally able to purchase our own farm, which was just a few miles away.

One of our main goals is to allow our animals to be animals. We make sure the goats are able to climb, explore and sample as many types of forage as possible. Our rotational grazing/browsing system provides the goats with their needed forage and exercise while also improving their soil and vegetation. Ardith Mae established an every-other-year breeding program which alleviates the health stress of a yearly pregnancy and increases the longevity of the herd. The goats are fed organic and Non-GMO grains, never given hormones or unnecessary antibiotics. Ardith Mae Farm has been an Animal Welfare Approved dairy for 11 years.

Here 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 chèvre that we make fresh every week. In addition to plain chèvre, we also make flavored varieties including: basil, garlic scape, roasted red hot chili pepper with roasted garlic and clover honey with 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 Valençay. 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 ageing 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 is called Doolan, this is a small button, similar to a Crottin, it’s 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.