Cool, dark place: Warwick farmers build special 'cave' for cheese

[ Originally published on: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 ]

WARWICK -- Mark and Jeannette Fellows have been known to move a lot of cheese at Chase Hill Farm.

After all, Jeannette figures, she made 10,000 pounds of cheese last year, and as much the year before that, from the organic milk from the farm's 26 Normande cows. And the six varieties of organic cheese has gained enough of a reputation to sell heavily at the Greenfield and Amherst farmers markets, at co-ops in Greenfield, Northampton, and Brattleboro, Vt., Whole Foods in Hadley and at restaurants from the People's Pint to Tabella in Amherst.

But Chase Hill Farm cheese was on a roll Monday, with help from about a dozen students from The Farm School in Athol. In all, about 450 8-inch wheels of cheese had to be moved into the farm's new cheese 'cave,' which the couple finished building last week between their house and barn.

The 'cave' -- a 20-by-8-foot subterranean concrete vault built into the hill with help from local contractors -- holds the handmade wooden shelving that's been in the aging and storage area the Fellowses created when they began cheesemaking eight years ago -- a walk-in cooler in what was once the two-car garage attached to their home.

The new cave that replaces it is intended to give them more space, curb electricity costs and remedy some of the moisture problems that have developed in the attached garage.

Chase Hill, which won Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture's 2005 Local Hero Farmer Award, sells raw-milk cheeses, which have to be aged 60 days or more, said cheesemaker Jeannette: a 'farmstead' colby cheese, cheddar, a gouda-like Dutch Gold, garlic, feta and Italian Grace, named after the 1,617-foot tall mountain in town.

Monday's great cheese transfer was just a few hundred feet, with black-waxed cheddar, red-waxed Dutch Gold and yellow-waxed farmstead cheeses carried into the brightly-lit cave with washable walls.

A few wheels of natural-rind Italian Grace and a half-dozen or more recycled 50-pound tubs of feta were also hauled into the underground space, where a temperature of 40 to 45 degrees won't require running a compressor constantly and there will be 30 to 50 percent more shelf space.

That doesn't mean Chase Hill plans to expand at all, emphasized Fellows, who said she's busy enough just making 10,000 pounds of cheese. Come July and August, she said, the four sets of shelves will be pretty much filled.

'This is just more efficient,' she said, pointing to the cheesemaking room that's much closer now, and to the cave's entranceway, where she plans to prepare the cheeses for market. 'It's just a little more space to move around in.'

The couple also sells veal, beef and pork, as well as organic raw milk. But its cheeses have been selling well enough that it's been five years since they've shipped milk to Our Family Farms -- although they are members of that marketing cooperative. They've also cut way back on selling raw milk to buying clubs, which have trekked two hours out to Warwick each week for raw, organic milk.

The couple figures the new cave, complete with a rubber membrane around the poured concrete and a drainage system to keep out excess moisture, will cost under $20,000. Fellows said she doesn't know how much they'll save in energy costs with the naturally cooled room, but she thinks it will be considerable.

Meanwhile, the farm hopes to launch its new informational Web site this week as well: www.ChaseHillFarm.com

You can reach Richie Davis at: rdavis@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 269

 

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