Sweet Pea Farm

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Sweet Pea Farm Cheese at House of Hayes Farm, North Granby

November 21, 2010

spaSometimes Hoang just wants to go for a ride. Since gas costs money and it’s really never a good idea to “just drive,” I take the time to plot a route and hit some blog-worthy spots along the way. It had been a while since we drove in a northerly direction, so off we went to North Granby and environs.

We took in the sites of North Granby – the awesome Granby Oak (old CTMQ Visit here) and then drove around up into Massachusetts and across the Southwick Jog (CTMQ report on the Jog here – one of the most popular pages on the whole site) and then down and around and ultimately to this place: Sweet Pea Cheese. I should note that there’s another cheese maker in East Granby at Griffin Farm, but they weren’t open when we drove by. (We have subsequently been there though.)

I don’t know why they concatenate Sweet and Pea like they do on some labels and signs, but they do and it annoys me. However, I’m happy to report my annoyance with the place ends there.

sph

As is typical of such places, we were greeted by roaming chickens in the driveway and saw cows feeding in the nearby barns. The little hut with the cheese for sale was open but untended – again, this is pretty common. Just make sure you have singles and fives with you when you journey along Connecticut Cheese spTrail so you can buy stuff and not worry about getting change, because most often you can’t.

I think Sweet Pea only offers goat cheeses, even though they do sell cow’s milk and yogurts. Their list of chevres is rivaled only by that of maybe Beltane Farm down in Lebanon (CTMQ Visit here). I can’t remember how many were for sale at the time of our visit, but I do recall having to make a difficult decision. According to their website, they make: Plain, garlic & dill, dill, Garlic oregano, black pepper, cranberry, orange honey and apricot maple chevres. Pretty impressive list!

They also make a couple varieties of feta as well.

Of course, they don’t have EVERY variety for sale EVERY day. This is Sweet Pea Cheese, not the supermarket. But they do have a bunch of goat’s milk soaps for sale most likely all the time, if you’re into that sort of thing.

spccheese

I need to mention that issues of “Cook’s Source” were available to take. Now, you may not remember why this was interesting to me, but back in November or 2010, this crappy little New England free magazine was the center of a huge Internet maelstrom. In spffact, a quick Google search of “Cook’s Source” yields page after page of articles about the incident. It was reported on in the Guardian and NPR, to name a few.

The magazine lifted a recipe/article from some freelance lady and published it in the ad-supported magazine (including ads for, yup, Sweet Pea Cheese). They credited the author, but didn’t bother telling her, let alone paying her. The author got wind of it, asked for an apology and a very modest donation to her journalism school and waited.

Waited for the editor to write the missive that pretty much destroyed her and her crappy magazine. Here’s Wired’s take on the matter. As one who has had words and pictures stolen from me all the time, I sort of identified with the writer. Who knows how much of my stuff is “out there?”

spo

Oh yeah, back to the cheese! We bought the cranberry chevre and enjoyed it on cinnamon raisin bread and bagels for a few days at home. It was great. Unlike plagiarism.

Sweet Pea Cheese

spg

5 responses to “Sweet Pea Farm”

  1. Kerri says:

    They regularly sell cheese (and maybe other stuff) at the farmers’ market at Billings Forge in Hartford, which runs on Thursdays. Thanks for writing about this — it was cool for me to see where the cheese comes from.

  2. cindy says:

    They have some of the best eggs around. The supply is rather limited though. And their Greek style yogurt is otherworldly. I’m always more than happy to pick up a tub of goat cheese too of course. I’m just saying they’ve got a lot of other tasty stuff goin’ on.

  3. connie says:

    this is an amazing place the people who run the place are so kind and the milk is so good and cheap ive got raw milk for a half gallon for 7 bucks but a gallon of milk here cost 5 bucks fantastic i thimk this place is great.

  4. jim gazlay says:

    Hi, do you sell saanen goats? if so im looking for a doe, for milking. phone 203-828-7434 or e-mail thanks!

  5. Steve says:

    I actually think refusing to read stuff like the guy above is worse than plagiarism.

Leave a Comment

The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism