A trip to the Central New York Regional Market isn't complete without Wake Robin Farm yogurt and cheese curds.
There is one local product we are almost never without at our house: Wake Robin Farm cream-on-top, full-fat yogurt. They say that yogurt is a “superfood,’’ offering benefits for heart health, gut health, weight management and more, but mostly we find Wake Robin’s vanilla yogurt, flavored with vanilla extract and sweetened lightly with New York State maple syrup, to be super delicious. Once you’ve had yogurt that fresh, made 20 miles from Syracuse from milk produced by Meg and Bruce Schader’s small herd of Jersey cows, there’s no going back to supermarket yogurt.
In the next few weeks we’re going to stock up on it – and on Wake Robin Farm cheeses. In an email sent to customers earlier this week, the Schaders announced they are “moo-ving on’’ from dairy farming and production to focus on new projects on and off the farm. Bruce will focus his efforts on baking handmade breads and growing small crops and Meg will continue to freelance as a copyeditor, teach yoga and work part-time at Baltimore Woods Nature Center in Marcellus. She'll also be finishing up her Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Environmental Studies at SUNY-ESF next spring and helping Bruce on the farm and in the bakery.
All of this means they will no longer be milking cows, bottling milk and producing yogurt and cheeses. This “life-changing decision,’’ as Meg calls it, comes after almost 14 years of dairy farming and for a variety of personal and business reasons. “We are looking forward to the freedom to travel together to visit our son at college, sleep in on Sunday mornings and take a 21-year overdue honeymoon to Ireland next spring,’’ the eblast noted. “Milking cows twice a day and processing milk several times a week has kept us very close to home for 14 years.’’
The Schaders have been farming together in Jordan since 1999, when they plowed up a couple acres off Brutus Road and began to grow organic vegetables and cut flowers. Before long, they expanded to 15 acres, offered CSA shares and had cultivated a loyal customer following. They transitioned to dairy in 2006, starting small with four Jersey cows. At first, they offered just European-style yogurt, which was a big hit with customers. They later started bottling milk and making cheeses.
From the beginning, all products have been made, from start to finish, on the farm. For a time, you could purchase Wake Robin Farm products at places like Wegmans, Natur-Tyme and the Syracuse Real Food Co-Op (now Syracuse Cooperative Market). For the last few years, their products have been sold solely on Saturdays at the Central New York Regional Market and at the farm store in Jordan. Longtime market customers have watched the Schader’s son, Hugh, grow from school-age boy to young man. He’s now a sophomore at Harvard University.
At the end of the summer, the Schaders plowed their hay fields. They’ve started to sell their dairy equipment and will sell their cows at the end of the year. The process has been bittersweet for them, but they stress they are not retiring – just evolving, like any small business.
They will be selling their artisan breads and baked goods (“and some other surprises’’) on Saturdays at the Central New York Regional Market. After December 24, the Wake Robin Farm store will be open Fridays only (3 to 6 p.m.) for customers to pick up fresh bread.
Wake Robin Farm is at 125 Brutus Road, Jordan. Website Facebook
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