Sugar House Creamery: Running a Dairy Farm in the Adirondacks

Sugar House Creamery is a raw milk dairy and farmstead creamery tucked away in the high peaks of New York State’s Adirondack Park. Small by design, we dedicate ourselves to the preservation of milk and the production of a food worthy of it ingredients.

      This is the little message that appears on Sugar House Creamery's website, which is as charming as the farm itself, located in Upper Jay, NY. Among the mountains of the northeastern Adirondacks, Sugar House Creamery is made up of a couple classic white buildings including the big white barn. Beautiful Brown Swiss cows wander around the rolling hills that surround the farmstead, shaded by evergreens and a couple ancient twisted apple trees. A little farm store welcomes visitors, luring them in with promises of incredible cheeses and the freshest milk one could hope for. It's a pastoral daydream.

     Sugar House Creamery is beautiful example of a small farm making its way in the wild, wild Adirondacks. I've been lucky enough to have been to Sugar House Creamery and chatted with the owners on several occasions over the last couple years, and can't help but stop by now every time I'm in the area. Margot and Alex, who celebrated the third anniversary of the farm in August, are lovely human-beings and tough enough to be running this dairy farm together. Whenever I visit they're often no-where to be found, off in some of the adjoining hills with checking on the cows, entombed in the cheese caves, or tending to some other task throughout the farmstead. The couple have made an incredible operation from nothing, and have made themselves a part of the surrounding community, providing fresh milk for customers daily. I've been to the farm shop several times in late morning to find all the milk already gone, hidden away in happy locals' fridges. 

      The farm store, as mentioned earlier, for me shows personality of the farm. It's a wee shop, decorated with cheery colors and fresh flowers, that runs on the honors system, with a basket for cash and paper forms if you want to pay with a credit card. The place makes me want to live down the road to them so I can walk into that store for my milk every couple of days. A ginger and white striped cat is often there to help you fill out your order forms by stepping all over your pencil and paper to get the utmost attention from the customers. 

The cheeses that are always available in the store are the Creamery's three masterpieces: Dutch Knuckle (see below, right), Pound Cake, and Little Dickens (below, left). I can assure you that each of these cheeses are amazing. They make all the cheese on the farmstead, in rooms in and under the big white barn. It's incredibly clean in the cheese making rooms of course, though it's apparently very hard to keep everything up to health standards, needing a lot of work. Cows are messy, messy animals. To see a series of photos about the cheese making process, click here! I for one, am woefully ignorant about how it actually works, though I have seen the rooms where they work, and know that the differences in the cheeses have something to do with different bacteria cultures used in the making of said cheese. I also know that the cheese cave is a chilly place, but so fascinating! Racks and racks of cheeses, in big wheels and small cakes, and eventually, they will all end up in someone's stomach, preferably mine.

      It is well known that farming in the Adirondacks is a difficult task, geologically and mentally, but this couple has really made a life for themselves as farmers. There is plenty of healthy grass for the cows to eat, plenty of rain and sun, and a wonderful community of other farmers to hang out with. A wonderful event that Sugar House Creamery hosts with the neighboring Mace Chasm Farm is their "Supper Jay" gathering, a dinner open to the public. They also offer housing at the farm through Air BnB, wonderful, comfortable lodging for anyone simply needing a bed or wishing to hear the lowing of cows in the morning. I most certainly recommend stopping by if you're ever in Upper Jay, NY. Even if Alex isn't in the workshop to say hello, or even if Margot is buried in cheese-making, the land is still beautiful, and the cheeses are still delicious. 

      I hopefully will be writing more about this beautiful place in a couple weeks, as there is so much more to say, but I wish to get some facts and stories right from the farmers themselves, so stay posted!

Photos by P. B. Elfstöm