By Shara Bohach, Photo by Beth Segal
On July 22, 2013, Cleveland Dames and guests met at Mackenzie Creamery for a tour, tasting, and chapter meeting. The evening began with a meeting in Dame Jean Mackenzie's beautiful farmstead home. While enjoying the fresh buffet of appetizers and wine that members brought, we were treated to some history of how Jean found the property, added to the home while maintaining the wonderful farmhouse architecture and design, and started her creamery business.
We then visited the creamery, amid the beautiful, expansive country setting. We donned the requisite hairnets and booties, and camped it up for photos taken by Dame Beth Segal. Jean shared the history, challenges, successes, and future of Mackenzie Creamery with us. We saw the equipment, the packaging area, and the already-spoken-for product ready to ship from the cooler. Having tried several cheeses on the appetizer buffet, including the delightful Apricot-Ginger, we tried some fresh Ricotta in the creamery, which had so much more flavor than the regular Ricotta you find in stores. Delish!
Next, it was on to visit the goats. Four goats live at Mackenzie Creamery, but they are moreso Jean's pets than goats that provide the milk for the cheese. Actually, they proudly purchase their milk from two local goat dairies.
We had planned a hayride for the end of the evening, but the rain had other plans. So we called it an evening after visiting with the goats. It really was another great evening with good friends, great food and wine, and a wonderful education on goat cheese. Thank you Dame Jean!
To see more photos, please visit our facebook page.
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