Initially set up by Damien, the family property has been farmed since 1993 and has been operating as a goat dairy since 2001. Today the farm is still family run.
Our farm is around 45 Ha (115 Acres) and we aim to farm it as sustainably as possible. We have planted over 5000 indigenous plants (endemic to our area) in shelter belts to link remnant bushland and creeks that have all been fenced to exclude stock. The farm enjoys ‘Land for Wildlife’ status, and our family are members of the local landcare group. As a result Damien and Bess won the Peninsula VFF Landcare Award in 1988.
Main Ridge Dairy is the only Farmhouse Cheesery and Dairy located on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula. We pride ourselves on producing the best quality goats milk daily, then crafting it by hand into delicious award-winning cheeses right here on the farm our family calls home.
Our ‘girls’ are milked twice a day every day on the farm just behind the factory. The clean rich pastures growing from the fertile red volcanic soils outside the factory are converted into sweet fresh milk that is the source of our inspiration.
The milk’s flavour and attributes are determined by many things including the animal’s genetics, health, stage of lactation and diet including pasture species, stage of growth, the soil type and health. These flavours are concentrated in the cheeses and lead to the unique character of a particular farmhouse cheese.
Our plant has been designed very carefully to be gentle on the milk so to retain the fragile goodness. Being gentle on the milk often requires slower processes but we think it’s worth the wait.
By definition ‘Farmhouse Cheese’ is cheese produced only from the milk collected on the farm where the cheese is made. Unlike ‘artisan’ cheese where milk can be sourced from multiple farms from far and wide, Farmhouse cheesemakers only use milk from the animals they raise. The result is that Farmhouse cheeses offer consistently unique flavours owing to the farm’s local terroir.
