Hidden Springs Creamery
Amy Forgues, left, and June Bug, right, of Hidden Springs Creamery.
Supplier to PFC since 2007
Hidden Springs Creamery is located a few miles outside of Westby. Amy Forgues recently purchased the business from previous owner Brenda Jenkins. Amy, formerly of Organic Valley, has bought not just the business, but the farmhouse, barn, and pasture that Hidden Springs has used since 2007. Amy intends to keep most of Brenda’s business practices in place. The Hidden Springs cheesemaker, Rigo, will stay on, and the product line will continue essentially the same.
Amy has about 300 sheep in the operation. They have the run of about 175 acres of pasture. The creamery has several donkeys to keep the sheep company in the field. The donkeys are good at scaring off coyotes and they get along well with the sheep herd.
The farm is not organic. Amy notes that the farm employs drugs only when necessary. The sheep are susceptible to flystrike and other diseases and sometimes therapeutic intervention is required. The sheep are wormed once a month to eliminate parasites. Amy makes sure they have organic hay and corn in the winter, and she expects she will never need to spray the pasture.
Organic Valley to Hidden Springs
Amy and her family had been organic farmers in Vermont before being recruited by Organic Valley (OV). In 1999, Travis and Amy contacted George Siemens, CEO at OV. They were interested in joining. George responded that he was interested, but they would need to bring more farms along with them. OV wouldn’t start operations in Vermont for one farm. So, Travis and Amy organized 60 other farmers to join Organic Valley that year. George decided that anybody that good at organizing should come to Wisconsin and work directly with OV. Amy and family moved to the Driftless in 2013 to manage programs for Organic Valley. Amy was the Farm Resources Programs Manager, running the Generation Organic program, and her husband Travis became the Executive Vice President of Membership. While Amy has left the co-op to run Hidden Springs, Travis continues at OV.
Compared to the Organic Valley, Hidden Springs is a comparatively small project. The farm has only a few employees; besides Amy and Rigo, Hidden Springs Creamery employs a couple of young Amish farmers who live next door.
“We loved farming, and the rhythm of being on a farm,” Amy says. In Vermont, Amy and her husband had a herd of about 80 dairy cows. Amy finds that the sheep are much easier than dairy cows. “Sheep are cleaner, smaller—not as much trouble.”
The lambing has gone well this spring and the youngest, named June Bug, has become the family pet. “We bottle fed her and we’re weaning her now. She’s pretty upset with us. My daughter Molly had been feeding her and she won’t look at Molly now. She’s so mad.”
Varieties
Hidden Springs has supplied People’s Food Co-op of La Crosse for many years. In addition to their spreadable “Driftless Cheeses,” Hidden Springs also sells “Bohemian Bleu,” a Bleu cheese, and “Wischago,” a Spanish-style cheese at PFC. Recently, Amy has added a delicious soft feta to their product line and plans to add a ricotta.
People’s Food Co-op is fortunate that Hidden Springs has found a new manager to carry on the tradition of supplying quality cheeses for local consumers.
Sheep.