Evans' Farmhouse

by Suzanne Fisher

A couple of hours west of Albany, nestled on a hillside just outside the picturesque town of Norwich, New York, is a little farm where cows enjoy the organic lifestyle and freedom to move about daily. A pet pig and a pony share a spacious paddock and stall, Morgan horses watch you from their pasture down the hill, and white pet ducks quack contentedly from their pen as they check out all newcomers. An array of farm cats slip in and out of the barns. Children from the ages of seventeen and down appear and greet you. This seems like an idyllic and traditional family farm from decades ago until you take a closer look.

Sue and Dave Evans have just erected a new building which holds what seems like a whole factory's worth of gleaming stainless steel equipment for all kinds of dairy processing. They were able to buy this equipment from a company that was going out of business, and to fit it all in, they needed to move their pasteurizing and yogurt making out of their garage into a larger space. Tanks for pasteurizing, separating, butter churning, bottling, chilling, cheese making, and homogenizing sit amid a maze of steel piping and valves connecting it all. There are walk-in refrigerators and a walk in warm incubator for making yogurt. A milk truck used to pick up milk from each of their two barns is housed in the garage of the building. All of this together is Evans' Farmhouse Creamery.

Sue and Dave were actually only trying to survive and keep their farm by purchasing a new pasteurizing tank when they found that they could buy this equipment for their creamery. Now they are helping other local farmers by letting them use their equipment for processing milk from those farms. This helps those farmers to retain control of their product and to add value to it before marketing it, rather than selling it to a larger company for processing. This also is opening up the Evans' opportunities to try producing new products. They have plans to try their hand at cheese making, and Dave is considering putting half of his cows on an all grass diet and bottling that milk in glass bottles.

The Evans currently milk 50 Jersey cows in one barn and 50 Holstein cows in another. They produce pasteurized (but not homogenized) milk in various levels of fat content under their own label. The whole milk tastes just like you always dreamed milk was supposed to taste like. They also produce cream and yogurt in an array of flavors. Their yogurt is made with rich whole Jersey milk, and several of the flavors are sweetened with their own maple syrup. This is not ordinary factory yogurt, but rather yogurt with only the milk, the bacteria, the sweetener, and flavor, with the thick consistency of pudding. They have flavors like lemon, orange, and double maple that are good enough to stand as dessert for any meal.

At Honest Weight we are now carrying Evans whole milk in half gallons, Evans cream in pints, and Evans yogurt in quarts and/or eight ounce sizes. If the price seems a little high, you can always drive out to their farm and purchase directly for what seems like a criminally low amount, but if you don't have the time, you can still experience the freshness and wholesomeness of the Evans' family farm here in Albany at Honest Weight.