Help Wanted

Assistant Cheese Maker

Part-time and full-time positions available

Learn to make artisanal cheese at our Pennsylvania farm.  At Raspberry Ridge, we make cheese and yogurt from the milk of our pastured sheep.  Every morning and evening we milk our flock and move them to a fresh pasture.  During the day, we make cheese and yogurt from our milk in our commercial creamery.

We practice natural and sustainable farming practices.  We take pride in our pastures and manage our manure to fertilize our pastures keeping them healthy and green.  We rotate the sheep onto fresh pasture twice a day to evenly graze and constantly provide new grass to the sheep. 

In the cheese kitchen we make cheeses that age for months or years as well as fresh cheeses.  We also make sheep milk yogurt, the “Original Greek yogurt.”  Check our website to see everything we make. 

We sell most of our product direct at farmers’ markets year-round.  We meet our customers and talk with them about our products.  Many of our customers are repeat customers who provide excellent and informative feedback about our cheese and yogurt.

Sheep milk is a healthy and delicious milk.  It has twice the fat, protein, vitamins and minerals as cow or goat milk.  It also has the sweetest taste of the three.  Grass fed sheep milk is easier to digest than other milks and has the “good” fats and omega 3’s and 6’s that the human body requires.  Cheese and yogurt made from sheep milk are an excellent source of nutrition.

Schedule:

• We start our lambing in early February which lasts about two months.  This is the start of our busy period.  We are birthing and taking care of newborn lambs and milking ewes.  
• We attend one farmers’ market during the winter.
• In late February we will have enough milk from the ewes to start making cheese and yogurt.
• Our “peak lactation” months are March, April, May.  During these months we are most busy.
• In May, we move the sheep out to our pastures.   This means we don’t have to feed them hay each day.  Instead, we  walk them back and forth from the pastures to the milking parlor and move the rotational grazes twice daily.  
• We also attend three summer farmers’ markets starting in May so our weekends become busy.
• From June to September, the amount of milk our flock produces decreases each month and we stop milking in October.  During this period we continue to make cheese and yogurt and package it every week for the markets.

Requirements:

• Ability to lift 30-pound wheel of cheese
• Desire to learn about cheeses or  animal care
• Prior knowledge of kitchens or animals is a plus

You can even invent your own cheeses!

Email us at info@raspberryridgecreamery.com for more information.