Featured Vendor - Little White Goat Dairy

Rachel and Bruce Scherer, of Little White Goat Dairy, bind their love and respect for each other with love and respect for their land.  In 2004, Rachel began making her cheeses, learning in the home kitchen. Rachel's first career was in science, so comfort with experimentation let her fool around, make mistakes, and learn from them. In 2013 The Little White Goat Dairy became a licensed creamery. The cheeses, yogurt, and kefir are made on the farm with the milk of their very spoiled LaMancha dairy goats. Bruce manages the pastures and the infrastructure. He also raises the hogs, broilers and laying hens. They designed, constructed and outfitted the 100% solar-powered barns and dairy themselves. The farm joyfully includes second and third generations of the family living and working together.  The land for the farm, in Orange, MA, was 100% wooded 40 years ago. The many stone walls reveal there once were pastures, and they have been re-creating them using livestock as an integral part of the process. They cut the trees, then run hogs on newly cut areas. The next year we let the goats forage on the stump sprouts in spring, then seed cover crops, and let them graze again in fall before seeding pasture grasses. Once established, the goats are rotated through the forage stands so that they graze ‘belly-to-knee’ – they are never eating down to the ground. The system builds healthy soil and healthy animals.

The Amherst Farmer's Market is the first and best market for us!  We are especially appreciative of the incredible support the market community, vendor, staff, and customers, have shown this year with the many necessary changes due to COVID-19 and unprecedented times.  We work with the belief that growing, preparing, serving and sharing food is a truly vital form of love and nurturing.  As a community we can share the bounty of local farms, and eat in good health.

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