Farm Closing Creamery Putting End to Some of Best Cheese in CNY

Some of the best cheese in Central New York will soon be no more. One farm will stop processing in the next few months so you may want to stock up.

The creamery and farm store is closing at Grassy Cow Dairy in Remsen. After 9 years of creating some of the most delicious cheese in Central New York, Angela and Leon Atwell have decided to call it quits. "Over the years we have accomplished so much, learned so many new things, and met so many wonderful people. We are grateful for all of it."

End to Cheese & Bottled Milk

Lean and Angela plan to continue grazing cows and operating the dairy farm, however, they won't be producing cheese products or bottling milk.

There is truly no single reason for our decision and no big secret or clear explanation. We have been working very hard throughout the years to keep the ball rolling to bring you all our cheese, milk, beef, and pork products. Long hours 7 days a week, increasing costs of labor and materials, marginal profits, and our aging bodies all contribute to our decision.

It takes 13 hours to make one batch of cheese curd, which usually starts at 1 AM. The Atwell's have been making curd once a week every year, and often twice a week in the summer. That's a lot of long days, on top of caring for the herd.

Grassy Cow Future Plans

Who knows what the future holds at the Grassy Cow Dairy? Leon and Anglea are not ruling out the possibility of pivoting the farm business into another area of agriculture. "We will see what our imaginations and future hold as we make our way into the next phase."

The end of the cheese phase is right around the corner. The farm store will be closed by Thanksgiving.

We would like to genuinely thank our family, our helpers, our vendors, and our customers who have all made our dream a successful reality. It has been a wonderful experience to supply you with our products; we couldn’t have done it without you! We certainly don’t regret it, and we will never forget it.

Can you freeze cheese curd? If so, I'll be stocking up!