Around New England

When Milk Business Got Too Hard, This Farm Turned To Blue Cheese

May 27, 2018

As a kid Tim Stone fell in love with his grandfather’s dairy farm in Marion on the South Coast of Massachusetts, so in the late 1980s he decided to try to make a go of it.

But when the price of milk kept falling, he had to get out, so he disbanded the dairy operation in 1995. But he didn’t give up on Great Hill Farm.

He talked to chefs and store keepers, and found that while they had an abundance of cheddar, they didn’t have enough blue cheese — partly because blue cheese is so hard to make.

So Stone decided to give it a try.

Today, his farm is shipping 150,000 pounds of blue cheese a year, and is winning awards at major competitions.

The farm’s cheesemaker, Brian Petitpas, says the personal touch contributes to the taste.

“Everything is in small batches here and everything is done by hand. It’s old ways by hand. There’s really nothing mechanical about it,” he said, according to The New Bedford Standard-Times. “… Everyone has so much pride in the product. We try to make it come out perfect. I think’s it’s won awards because everyone cares so much about it.”