Featured Landowner: Poor Orphan Creamery
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Featured Landowner: Poor Orphan Creamery When Lark Gilmer bought a home in the Basque of France she learned sheep could be milked and she could use that milk to make cheese. by Jodie DeLay Extension External Relations Coordinator, Montana State University Grade school kids are her favorite; when they visit the tasting prohibitive, but that didn’t stop her. She researched state and room they “get it,” says Lark Gilmer of Poor Orphan Creamery. federal law and various funding opportunities and started Gilmer is a cheesemaker, a shepherd, a photographer, an down a path that only someone, she says, “with a border entrepreneur, a grant-writer, an innovator, an agricultural collie mentality, unwilling to let go,” would undertake. enthusiast, a mentor, and an educator. She is the founder and Montana law requires property owners to manage noxious owner of Montana’s first sheep dairy and Grade A portable weeds and applies penalties for violations (MCA 7-22-21). milking parlor. Gilmer observed that people were coming to Montana in hopes Born in Minnesota, Gilmer always had a love for sheep. Her of a country lifestyle and purchasing tracts of land that they career as a commercial photographer took her to England often didn’t have the time or knowledge to care for. Rather and France. There, she looked for opportunities to care for than buying her own land, she approached landowners and sheep, helping to lamb and learning from shepherds. In Oxford, offered to run her sheep on their land to help them meet weed she experienced cheesemaking with one of Britain’s leading management requirements for a lease agreement of one dollar. cheesemongers, Major Patrick Rance. It was when she bought Gilmer was able to secure enough leased land to care for her a home in the Basque of France that she learned sheep could flock. “Landowners get sheep on their property, to be seen as be milked and that she could use that milk to make cheese. good stewards and good community members, and to be part She had found her calling. of an awesome end product,” says Gilmer. “It is a win, win.” Gilmer came to Montana in 2003 and began thinking earnestly To make her business model pencil out, Gilmer’s flock consists about how she could turn her passion into a living. She knew of around 170 Icelandic sheep, which she owns. Per Gilmer, that the cost of land, sheep, milking and manufacturing her sheep give about 1 cup per ewe per milking compared to facilities, utilities, and round-the-clock labor could be 5-7 gallons per day for cows. In order to harvest their milk, Gilmer worked tirelessly to obtain funding for a portable Grade A milking parlor. Though common in Europe, the concept of a portable parlor without land ownership was new in Montana, and, as a result, met some resistance. “It’s been an epic and even a biblical journey to follow this through,” said Gilmer. “A lot of people are trained to say no, and you just can’t take no for an answer. Persistence leads to success. It makes people know you are serious when you don’t quit.” Gilmer eventually called then Governor Schweitzer who connected her with the Montana Milk Control Bureau. Fifty people showed up at the resulting meeting to discuss her project. Ultimately, Gilmer received two grants and a loan PHOTOS BY LARK GILMER 12 | big sky small acres from the State of Montana’s Growth Through Agriculture (GTA) After originally being turned down for a wine and beer license, program to purchase the milking parlor, as well as to pay for she was able to get one thanks to her research, persistence, construction and equipment. and rural location. All summer long she did cheese education, starting with France and then Spain and Italy. She cooked and Gilmer also worked with the United States Department of did farm to table dinners. In December they hosted a fondue Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development office for federal night and an Evening in Tuscany. grants. “Go meet them,” she says. “People told me that if you don’t have i’s dotted and t’s crossed you’ll be rejected, When tourists visit they can meet the animals. “Icelandic so I went in and introduced myself, told them I was nervous, sheep are very beautiful,“ says Gilmer. “They aren’t skittish or and asked for help.” She made several return visits and her mean and kids and others can interact with them.” On some persistence paid off. Gilmer received a USDA Value-Added occasions, kids are able to try milking, tasting the milk, making Producer grant and a Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) a quick cheese, and eating the cheese. Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Improvement grant Gilmer acknowledges that work in agriculture is hard. It is to cover costs of solar electric and solar hot water. Gilmer physically and emotionally demanding and requires the ability commends both the State and the USDA, noting they were to adjust on the fly. It can be very difficult on relationships and helpful and supportive, especially once they realized she doesn’t always have great monetary reward. As she finishes wasn’t going to go away. her third year in business, she notes that she still can’t During these years, Gilmer was also searching for the perfect pay herself, but she is paying other people. Nevertheless, location for a creamery. She discovered Laurin, a once thriving agriculture, she says, is a glorious challenge for those who mining community founded by Frenchman, Jean Baptiste are called to it and she is happy to help others get started. Laurin, and located in the Ruby Valley near Alder Gulch. Now She has a great passion for teaching, especially youth. “I can an unincorporated ghost town, it has maintained its French change the way a kid looks at food forever,” she said. “For me charm and had an old surplus store that met her needs for the that has huge value. It is the most rewarding.” creamery. And, it came with an added bonus. Her sheep, and the portable parlor, were pastured on leased land directly next door. While Montana law has only a Grade B cheese requirement, Gilmer’s operation is Grade A rated. For someone building a commercial facility, she recommends working with the state inspector from the start. “I had to jump through a few hoops to prove I was serious,” she said. “But they are very helpful, very respectful and very willing to be a part of trying to make your business successful.” The Poor Orphan Creamery, named in honor of Laurin’s history housing orphans and the generosity of its people, officially opened in May 2014. Gilmer’s facility allows her to craft fine artisan cheeses made both from her sheep milk and from cow milk that she sources from the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. In 2016, Gilmer added a tasting room. Cow milk cheeses are vastly different than sheep milk cheeses. She starts by offering a familiar cheese, like feta and goes through the stinky and the blue cheeses. She ends with sheep milk cheese and says, “There is always a pause, and then a wow. It’s just awesome. They start with a prejudice about cheese, and I get PHOTOS BY LARK GILMER to open their minds.” Spring Summer 2017 | 13.