By Billy Bruce

The Valdosta Daily Times



THOMASVILLE — Sweet Grass Dairy, an award-winning world class cheese producer, is offering its annual Fall Market Day event Saturday. Dairy staff are anticipating more than 2,000 people will attend the free admission event that will feature numerous vendors and provide free tours.

“We’ve done this since 2001,” said Laura Lowery, sales and marketing assistant at the dairy, which is located at 19635 U.S. Highway 19 North. “We offer a spring market day in April and a fall market day in November. We had 2,000 come to this year’s April event and we’re expecting that and more for the fall event.”

The dairy will open its gates to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. New to the event this year is a luncheon of smoked sausages and roasted pork that will be served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

While tours during the year are offered for $5 apiece from late February to late June, Fall Market Day participants can get a free tour. The tours will be offered on the hour, Lowery said.

“The purpose of Market Day is to educate people about the food they eat and about the sustainable agricultural gazing that our cows and goats do here,” she said.

Those Sweet Grass Dairy cows produced an award winning cheese this year that garnered national attention for the dairy. In August, the dairy took home first place for its Green Hill cheese entry at the American Cheese Society’s 24th annual competition. Green Hill is a double cream cow’s milk cheese with a white, bloomy rind similar to a brie. Pictures and descriptions of this cheese are available on the Sweet Grass Dairy Web site at www.sweetgrassdairy.com.

The award winning cheese and other Sweet Grass Dairy products can be found in Hahira at the new Packhouse Market on South Church Street, or they can be ordered online at the dairy Web site.

Vendors at the Fall Market Day include Magnolia Hill Soap Company, Herbal Creations, White Oak Pastures, Broken Arrow Honey, Turkey Hill Farm, Vahalia Pottery, Blue Ridge Farms Hydroponics, Soaps and Sundries by Carrol, Mas Bien Salsa, Blackberry Patch and Crickle Company, Treasured Jewels by Lenore, New Leaf Market and Slow Food Tallahassee.

Sweet Grass Dairy is owned by the Wehner family, who have been in the dairy business for 25 years. In 1993, the Wehners decided to move away from the conventional modern dairy process that puts cows on concrete. They created Green Hill Dairy on 340 acres. It uses a New Zealand style rotational grazing process that has proven to be a catalyst for the world-class cheeses being produced at the Wehners’ 140-acre Sweet Grass Dairy.

Sweet Grass Dairy is home to the Wehners’ goat herd and cheese making facility. Both Green Hill and Sweet Grass practice biologically sustainable grass-based farming.

“The bottom line is our animals are happy,” a statement on the Sweet Grass Web site states. “Happy animals produce valuable, luscious milk, and rich milk makes the best cheese.”

To get to Sweet Grass Dairy from Valdosta, take U.S. 84 west to Thomasville, then go right on U.S. 19. When passing the BP Gas station on the right, make a U-turn in the median, and, heading south, turn right at the Sweet Grass sign. Attendants will be there to guide parking.