Heading into the holiday baking season, I always pull out the old cookie recipes I inherited from my mom, grandma, great-grandmother, and mother-in-law. It’s not unlike visiting old friends—pulling each card from the box and remembering why each cookie holds a special place in my heart. As I pore over the recipe cards, I can almost taste each of these cookies, the memories are so strong.
Once I’ve narrowed down my list of holiday cookies, I check the pantry and make a grocery list of all the items I will need to buy. Not surprisingly, the most needed ingredient is BUTTER.
Lucky for us, we have access to some of the best butter right here in Central New York. I have been using Kriemhild Dairy’s butter since first meeting owner Bruce Rivington years ago as fellow vendors at the Oneida County Public Market in Utica. His butter is higher in butterfat (85%) than regular commodity butter (80%) and is made with milk from his mixed-breed herd of seasonally grazed dairy cows. The result is a rich, ultra-smooth butter that just begs to be used in treasured family recipes.
While we aren’t vendors together at market anymore, I still see Bruce and his crew almost weekly throughout the year. Bruce sells our Jones Family Farm gelatos, cheeses, and chicken at the Kriemhild Kupboard, an adorable farm stand that sits in front of the Kriemhild creamery just outside of Hamilton. In turn, we sell Bruce’s butters at our farm stand in Herkimer and I love to use his crème fraîche to make a decadent Lemon Crème Fraîche gelato at the height of summer.
Kriemhild is a member of the CNY Cheese Trail, hosts an annual Calving Day, and regularly participates in Madison County’s Open Farm Day. It is worth signing up for their newsletter or following them on social media, just for the chance to get a tour of their antique butter churn museum! (Antique dairy processing equipment is one of Bruce’s favorite pastimes. You can find him expertly surveying mountains of antiquated cream separators and butter churns at the many Bouckville antique shops and fairs.)
I recently chatted with Bruce about his start in Central New York and his journey to become a butter maker:
We moved our family dairy farm from Ontario, Canada to Central New York in 2000 to form Red Gate Farm. We were looking to extend our grazing season. It took quite some time to find just the right farm, but we ultimately found our home. We are happy to have developed a seasonal grazing dairy operation that seeks to prioritize soil health, herd wellbeing, and life balance for our family.
Nearly 10 years later, Kriemhild Dairy was formed by a group of like-minded grazing dairies in the Hamilton area, including Red Gate Farm. (The name “Kriemhild” comes from the first herd of Holstein-Friesian cattle that were born, raised and registered in the United States, just a few short miles from our creamery.)
Originally, we worked with two different co-packers to produce butter until our own plant was established in late 2019. The need to control production and quality ultimately drove us to open our own creamery. We now make our 100% grass-fed, Organic Meadow Butter in Original and a variety of flavors, Organic Cultured Butter, Crème Fraîche, Real Buttermilk with Cultures, Real Chocolate Buttermilk, and Baker’s Butter (made with local conventional cream).
Folks can find Bruce and Kriemhild’s products at the Hamilton and Pleasantville Farmer’s Markets, online at Local Foods Mohawk Valley and at www.kriemhilddairy.com, and many stores throughout the Northeast.