Strafford Organic Creamery

03/31/2026

When I was a kid and young person, I never had a good answer to what I wanted to be when I grew up, except maybe happy or well-read, or something like that. If you asked me what I didn't want to be, however, I had a long list. I'll be 56 this month and I've done just fine on a life path defined by rejecting things I didn't want to do (sit still, dress up, parallel park, talk to dumb people, raise kids who are as****es) far more than the pursuit of any specific goals.

Getting this email today was like bumping into some guy who asked you out once in high school and you said no because no matter how cool he and everyone else thought he was, he wasn't. Seeing him reminds you that you've always been who you are and it hasn't worked out badly.

There aren't many ingredients in our ice cream (milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks and the flavor parts) and a whole world of stuff we're not putting in. That's a hard no, Ingredients Online. We're staying on the path.

12/25/2025

Teamwork getting the chores done quick on this windy night. All the cows are well fed and cozy. There's a goat stew in the oven from Clifford's thoughtful gift of semi-exotic meat. We are so grateful for this life. Happy holidays, everyone. We wish you peace, comfort, tasty food and love.

12/02/2025

We were on TV last night!

As temperatures drop, eggnog production at Strafford Organic Creamery starts to really heat up.

11/15/2025

If you’ve wondered about the artist who drew Nori and Pinnacle (the cows) on our ice cream containers and eggnog tags and captured their respective serenity and sauciness, here’s a chance to meet Shawn Braley. He’s an amazing artist and lovely human.

11/11/2025

Toasting the start of eggnog season.

Coming to stores near you soon. The Strafford General Store tomorrow, the rest of the Upper Valley and Hunger Mtn. on Wednesday, Chittenden County on Thursday and Littleton/St. J on Friday.

Cheers!

11/03/2025

Second request/plea for bottle returns, especially half gallons. Regular return rates aren't going to get us through until our next shipment of bottles comes in two weeks. Please bring them back to any store that sells our milk. You'll get $1.50 for each one and we'll be able to keep bottling.

I'm sorry I used a picture of eggnog as bait, but I was desperate for attention. The first batch of eggnog will hit stores on November 12th and 13th.

As always, thanks for your support.

10/27/2025

If you have any empty bottles in your mudroom or car that you’ve been meaning to return, could you maybe do that this week? We’re running low on all the sizes. Thank you!!

Pictures of cows just because.

09/26/2025

Here's why you, or someone you know, should work at the creamery:
1. Free milk and ice cream for your household, including some flavors we make only for us.
2. No drama. No customer service. No nights or weekends.
3. We strive for a truly welcoming, supportive workplace across the board. LGBTQ, BIPOC, whatever letters you got; we got you. If we miss at something, we want to know and we'll get better.
4. Your coworkers will be kind, thoughtful people who want you to have a good day. They also have excellent taste in music.
5. You can see cows out the windows and sometimes help move them between pastures.
6. Shorter Wednesdays and Fridays (except for when we're making eggnog).
7. Eggnog.

Experience isn't necessary (almost no one has done this work before). Monday-Friday, about 35 hrs./week. $19 to start. Year-round. Email is [email protected] or call 802-765-4180. We need one more person to round out a fantastic team. Thanks for your help in finding them.

09/26/2025

Most of the time good news on the farm is about some bad thing we were expecting not happening, like a cow coming back strong after a health crisis or finding a part for an older tractor when it was seeming impossible.

Today's good news is a different kind of order. It's about having the opportunity to set a small piece of the world right. I'm going to leave out the crazy stuff (look up New Vistas if you want it) and just try to explain the big good feelings of the day.

In 2016, there was a big to-do in these parts because a wealthy developer/eccentric visionary guy started buying up land for a proposed 20,000-person utopian community called New Vistas. If you had land in the area that you were thinking about selling, it was a good time to do it because he'd pay whatever you were asking. If you opposed the project, it was still a good time to sell because the land trusts got lots of donations and were buying land outright or buying development rights to keep it out of his hands.

And this is how we came to own the Manning Farm property a few miles down the road. It was a working dairy farm into the early 2000s, but had ended up in the hands of non-farming relatives who wanted to keep it agricultural. We'd been pasturing our heifers there for a few years when we were asked if we would like to buy it, with the Upper Valley Land Trust making up the difference so it could be sold at an agriculturally-sustainable price. It's a lovely piece of the world, in a long valley a little west of here.

There's land we farm and there's our farm, RockBottom, where every square inch holds a story of our history. To us, the Manning Farm was land we farmed, but to our employees (and this word doesn't come close to holding what they mean to us), Asa and Kim Manning, that property was their farm, even though we owned it. Until today, when they bought it back.

Most of this isn't our story to tell, but we got to be in the right place nine years ago to keep the land in farming. And we were in the right place seven years ago when Asa and Kim were looking to move back to the area and joined our team. And today the right place was a law office in Norwich, scribbling our names a few times to get out of the way of a family and its farm.

We're honored to have played a part in the story, and happy to see the Mannings take it from here.

09/14/2025

Day 3 of the fair is a very busy one. Today’s shows were youth fitting and showmanship and the RockBottom crew made us so proud. Eben, August and Willie all won their classes, exhibiting Seychelles, Nunny and Delicata with great attention to detail and grace. Junie also did a great job in the peewee class. I went home to milk before the calvacade of livestock began, but Earl carried our sign and repped the brand.

09/12/2025

Cows are tucked in for the night, chalkboard is done and it’s time for sleep. Good night, Tunbridge Fair. Goodnight, cows. See you tomorrow.