Our story begins with farmers. An excess of milk. Two five gallon pots to make simple soft cheese on a stove top. It begins with Benjamin Meier who came to the Temple-Wilton Community Farm to milk cows and started experimenting. 

In the Summer of 2011, the TWCF had 50% more milk than they could sell. A vat was attached to a tractor to spread the overflow on the fields and feed it to the chickens. While milking with dairy farmer Lincoln Geiger, Benjamin began taking some of the milk home, making simple cheeses, and selling them in the small farm store. A seed was planted for what we now know as the Abbot Hill Creamery.

As in all good stories, our path was a winding one. While Lincoln and the other farmers encouraged Benjamin to make cheese, life called him elsewhere. It was clear that the farm could benefit from a creamery, and thinking someone else would answer that call, Benjamin left New Hampshire, first for Wisconsin and then to work on farms in India. Half a year later from half a world away, he often thought of that small farm. And when he contacted the TWCF, farmer Andrew Kennedy encouraged him to return. They had transformed an old apprentice apartment into a cheese room and were looking for a cheesemaker. 

So it was that in January of 2013 Benjamin Meier came back to the Temple Wilton Community Farm and established the creamery. He still made cheese in two pots at first, and yogurt in a 40 gallon pasteurizer. Later that year, a 50 gallon cheese vat was installed. He began to make more hard cheeses, mostly Alpine and Gouda, which were aged initially in a refrigerator. When the refrigerator became too full, the cheeses were moved to an empty room, unheated in the winter. Here they were waxed and aged as things began to grow.   

The creamery expanded. Andrew built an 150 square foot walk-in cooler to be used as a cheese cave to age the cheese. Our products became available at Nature’s Green Grocer in Peterborough and at the Bedford Farmers’ Market. By the next year, we were attending five farmers’ markets. A second, larger, cheese vat was purchased. While adding more variety to the types of cheeses we produce, we also began to make cheese for other small local farms. In 2015 we began to sell our products with the name we use today, Abbot Hill Creamery. 

The creamery continues to flourish, and provides financial support for the Temple-Wilton Community Farm. Benjamin has trained and worked with over ten apprentices, and continues to share the art of cheesemaking with the wonderful people who come to work and learn. Each has brought something special to the creamery. We are grateful for all who have been part of our journey, and look forward to the future.