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Thornberry Gatwick
Field Trip to Clover Top Creamery!
Today I crashed our cheese department's field trip to Clover Top Creamery, a brand-new goat dairy and creamery in Albemarle County. We met Hillary (owner & cheesemaker) and Sasha (Farm Manager) and, as it turns out, I discovered Madison (another one of the owners/cheesemakers) used to work with Stephen! We had a tour of the farm and creamery, a taste of their awesome chevre, and OF COURSE, a baby goat cuddle or two!
Today I crashed our cheese department's field trip to Clover Top Creamery, a brand-new goat dairy and creamery in Albemarle County. We met Hillary (owner & cheesemaker) and Sasha (Farm Manager) and, as it turns out, I discovered Madison (another one of the owners/cheesemakers) used to work with Stephen! We had a tour of the farm and creamery, a taste of their awesome chevre, and OF COURSE, a baby goat cuddle or two!
Clover Top
This is the main barn, which used to house horses. Now it's full of baby goats and the Clover Top Creamery Farm Store!
My New BFF
I was quickly adopted by this sweet doe - we're BFFs for life now. Isn't her beard fantastic?!?
The Milking Parlor
This is a view from the post-milked holding pen into the milking parlor. I love how open it is - perfect for warm weather! They can feed 6 does at a time while milking them in 3s. The milk is then pumped into...
The Milk Holding Area
The milk comes here from the parlor to be held until...
The Make Room
This is where the magic happens! Hillary is telling us all about how to actually make the cheese. The thing that stands out most to me about this photo? Everything is SO CLEAN!
The Payoff
The Payoff
After our tour, they had this wonderful spread ready for us in the Farm Store! The lemon blueberry basil was almost like a gorgeous dessert, but not too sweet at all, perfect on a little cracker. The plain was divine on a gold rush apple slice with a couple of dried cherries and a marcona almond chaser. The herbed cheese was surprisingly good on sugar snap peas, and ultimately, the one I ended up buying to take home. All of the cheeses had a lovely, light texture reminiscent of whipped cream cheese. 11/10 would eat again!
BABIES!!!!
Clover Top Creamery has about 45 adult goats, but who are we kidding? I came to snuggle babies!! They've got 12 littles ranging in age from 1-3 months and of course, I was smitten. I warned Hillary to do a head count before my car left the property ;-)
Twinsies!
I don't know about you, but I was smitten by how this little doeling looks so much like our own Ruthie!
The Crew
All-in-all, I had a wonderful time visiting Clover Top Creamery with my Weggos Fam and can't wait to go back with Stephen (and to get more cheese!) If you're in the area, check them out! They're also on Facebook and Instagram!
~J
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