The Peru Gazette

Evans Mills, NY – Country Cousins Farm in Evans Mills will be showcased among 51 farms opening their barn doors on October 13 from 11am to 2pm for the 2013 Open Farm Sunday across New England and New York state.

This is the third such event to introduce the public to some of the more than 1200 farm families who produce the milk that is made into McCadam and Cabot cheeses.

Country Cousins Farm in Evans Mills is owned by the Stanley Horning family. Stan, his wife Sharon, and two of their four children, sons Ryan and Derek, manage a herd of nearly 60 Holsteins and 270 acres of grazing and cropland. In May of 2012 they began offering day trip visits and opened a new cabin for overnight farm stays with the opportunity to just relax or to participate in the daily chores of the working dairy farm.

Other Northern New York region farms participating in Open Farm Sunday are:

In Champlain: Hidden View Farm run by brothers Dan, Don and Dale Tetreault. Their dad started in 1953 with a few hundred acres and milked only 20 cows. Today, the farm has more than 1,000 acres and 600 milking cows. They have never purchased a replacement; they breed and raise all their own stock.

In Lisbon:  Five Mile Farm owned by the Akins family for more than 160 years. Mark and Becky Akins are raising the 7th generation on the now-1200 acre farm with a herd of more than 600 Holstein dairy cows and some three dozen Black Angus beef cattle. A new heifer barn is being added to the operation.

In Peru:  Dimock Farms – a family-run dairy since 1971 with three generations helping to operate the 600-acre farm with a herd of 270 cows. The farm has earned Super Milk awards for more than 20 years and received the 2007 Agri-Mark Overall Quality Award from among more than 1300 farms.

Agri-Mark supports the production of a variety of dairy products including McCadam and Cabot cheeses made at four cooperative-owned dairy plants: two in Vermont, one in Massachusetts, and one in Chateaugay, NY. McCadam Cheeses won all the 2013 New York State Fair cheddar competition categories.

The farm families will be available to talk with visitors during the October 13 Open Farm Sunday event. Cheese samples will be available. For more details, visit the website at www.OpenFarmSunday.com.