Put Blackwood Cheese on the NZ map
By Tina Wilks
PledgeMe.Project
Food,
NZ $1,275 pledged
15 people pledged
Closed
NZ $60,000 minimum target
This campaign failed to reach its target by 19/09/2019 at 9:00 PM (NZST) and is now closed.
Make a PledgeAbout
Put Blackwood Cheese On The NZ Map
Project 2019-05-24 19:01:35 +1200
After spending seven years growing the flock, experimenting and perfecting cheese recipes, developing the business plan, and planning the milking shed and cheese room construction– we need help from you.
We're just starting the process to build a sheep milking shed but we need help to kit it out and build the cheese room that meets safe food production standards. Milking on the wooden stand in the garage and making cheese in the kitchen has been a great start but only family and friends can taste our products at the moment.
That’s where you come in!
Support us by making a pledge. We’ve got lots of rewards – hopefully to fit all budgets.
Share our vision
An integral part of our journey is to build a ‘Farm Family’ – a community of like-minded people who support and invest in our farm, and in return receive produce and direct connection with the farm where their food is grown. Our ‘Farm Family’ will be part of our project through regular newsletters, farm days and the ability to provide feedback, ideas and input to us for future farm planning.
We are very excited about taking this next step … And we want you to be a part of it.
Why is this farm important?
Our farm is small and our approach simple - have happy, healthy animals, grazing healthy land. We have adopted a biological farming approach, and this allows us to grow food of the highest nutrient densities for our sheep.
Our flock is made up of a great mix of recognised milking sheep breeds. Our lambs are all raised by their Mums.
We want Blackwood Farm to not only produce wonderful and interesting cheeses from sheep milk but be a showcase for community supported, sustainable small-scale dairy farming that is all about animal welfare and milk quality.
Help us grow great artisan cheese in New Zealand.
Who are we?
We are a small family of passionate, determined, innovative people
- Me (Tina) – Chief milker, cheese maker and sheep midwife
- Tracey – Web store and admin expert, runs lambie day-care with the help of 4-year-old Emily, cheese making assistant
- Tim – IT guru, versatile farm handyman
What we have done already
Well after buying the farm (which was a real lot of $$) we've spent a lot of time, effort and a fair bit of heart ache getting a great breeding flock of good milk producers! The milking shed is on its way in the front paddock and that was another cool $45,000. We have electric milking machinery that will milk 4 ewes at a time but it would be really nice to be able to milk 8 at a time and have automatic cleaning (rather than lots of buckets of hot water and cleaning agent). We plan to use the pledge money to replace the old garage we currently milk in with a food grade cheese-making room with cheese maturing chillers, and fund an 8 bail milking set-up, with in-place cleaning and a nice little milk cooling vat.
So, come on! If you care about where your food comes from, how it is produced, and you love great cheese get involved in this special farm, make a pledge and become part of our farm family.
I really appreciate any help that you can give us.
Thanks
Tina
Comments
Updates 3
Belle has her lambs
05/09/2019 at 9:02 AM
Yesterday evening Bell finally had her triplets. The first was born really easily I think becasue she was small but the second one needed a hand - it turned out he was a whopping 6kg boy!! Belle's third lamb is a lovely black ewe.
It's raining now so not easy to get a good photo - but Belle is not silly she has squeezed herself and her lambs into a little shelter we have in the field!! And I am such a softy - I took her breakfast in bed!
Lambs nearly here
31/08/2019 at 6:52 AM
Belle is now at her due date for her triplets and you can see she's pretty big. I feel sorry for her because the lambs must be resting on a nerve to one of her back legs and she is having trouble walking. So when it's breakfast time she gets her's delivered by the 'human' uber'!!
Check out our website and FB page
30/08/2019 at 7:44 AM
Pledgers 15
31/08/2019 at 6:56pm
30/08/2019 at 8:48am
"Keeping everything crossed that you make itxxx"
27/08/2019 at 10:01pm
16/08/2019 at 11:36am
09/08/2019 at 9:43am
"I look forward to trying the cheese!"
07/08/2019 at 9:42am
"Yay Blackwood - best of luck from the Curious Hare"
05/08/2019 at 3:48pm
"Love the whole idea. Wonder if yoghurt and butter might follow. "
03/08/2019 at 8:47am
03/08/2019 at 5:54am
"Go Blackwood! Lot's of love and support from all of us in Montreal."
01/08/2019 at 9:55pm
01/08/2019 at 1:05pm
"Let's make this real :-) Love K & S"
31/07/2019 at 10:36pm
"Wishing you loads of luck with the venture...just sorry I won't be able to taste the cheese!xx"
31/07/2019 at 8:24pm
31/07/2019 at 7:36pm
30/07/2019 at 9:51pm
Followers
Followers of Put Blackwood Cheese on the NZ map
Put Blackwood Cheese On The NZ Map
Project 2019-05-24 19:01:35 +1200
After spending seven years growing the flock, experimenting and perfecting cheese recipes, developing the business plan, and planning the milking shed and cheese room construction– we need help from you.
We're just starting the process to build a sheep milking shed but we need help to kit it out and build the cheese room that meets safe food production standards. Milking on the wooden stand in the garage and making cheese in the kitchen has been a great start but only family and friends can taste our products at the moment.
That’s where you come in!
Support us by making a pledge. We’ve got lots of rewards – hopefully to fit all budgets.
Share our vision
An integral part of our journey is to build a ‘Farm Family’ – a community of like-minded people who support and invest in our farm, and in return receive produce and direct connection with the farm where their food is grown. Our ‘Farm Family’ will be part of our project through regular newsletters, farm days and the ability to provide feedback, ideas and input to us for future farm planning.
We are very excited about taking this next step … And we want you to be a part of it.
Why is this farm important?
Our farm is small and our approach simple - have happy, healthy animals, grazing healthy land. We have adopted a biological farming approach, and this allows us to grow food of the highest nutrient densities for our sheep.
Our flock is made up of a great mix of recognised milking sheep breeds. Our lambs are all raised by their Mums.
We want Blackwood Farm to not only produce wonderful and interesting cheeses from sheep milk but be a showcase for community supported, sustainable small-scale dairy farming that is all about animal welfare and milk quality.
Help us grow great artisan cheese in New Zealand.
Who are we?
We are a small family of passionate, determined, innovative people
- Me (Tina) – Chief milker, cheese maker and sheep midwife
- Tracey – Web store and admin expert, runs lambie day-care with the help of 4-year-old Emily, cheese making assistant
- Tim – IT guru, versatile farm handyman
What we have done already
Well after buying the farm (which was a real lot of $$) we've spent a lot of time, effort and a fair bit of heart ache getting a great breeding flock of good milk producers! The milking shed is on its way in the front paddock and that was another cool $45,000. We have electric milking machinery that will milk 4 ewes at a time but it would be really nice to be able to milk 8 at a time and have automatic cleaning (rather than lots of buckets of hot water and cleaning agent). We plan to use the pledge money to replace the old garage we currently milk in with a food grade cheese-making room with cheese maturing chillers, and fund an 8 bail milking set-up, with in-place cleaning and a nice little milk cooling vat.
So, come on! If you care about where your food comes from, how it is produced, and you love great cheese get involved in this special farm, make a pledge and become part of our farm family.
I really appreciate any help that you can give us.
Thanks
Tina
Comments
Belle has her lambs
05/09/2019 at 9:02 AM
Yesterday evening Bell finally had her triplets. The first was born really easily I think becasue she was small but the second one needed a hand - it turned out he was a whopping 6kg boy!! Belle's third lamb is a lovely black ewe.
It's raining now so not easy to get a good photo - but Belle is not silly she has squeezed herself and her lambs into a little shelter we have in the field!! And I am such a softy - I took her breakfast in bed!
Lambs nearly here
31/08/2019 at 6:52 AM
Belle is now at her due date for her triplets and you can see she's pretty big. I feel sorry for her because the lambs must be resting on a nerve to one of her back legs and she is having trouble walking. So when it's breakfast time she gets her's delivered by the 'human' uber'!!
Check out our website and FB page
30/08/2019 at 7:44 AM
31/08/2019 at 6:56pm
30/08/2019 at 8:48am
"Keeping everything crossed that you make itxxx"
27/08/2019 at 10:01pm
16/08/2019 at 11:36am
09/08/2019 at 9:43am
"I look forward to trying the cheese!"
07/08/2019 at 9:42am
"Yay Blackwood - best of luck from the Curious Hare"
05/08/2019 at 3:48pm
"Love the whole idea. Wonder if yoghurt and butter might follow. "
03/08/2019 at 8:47am
03/08/2019 at 5:54am
"Go Blackwood! Lot's of love and support from all of us in Montreal."
01/08/2019 at 9:55pm
01/08/2019 at 1:05pm
"Let's make this real :-) Love K & S"
31/07/2019 at 10:36pm
"Wishing you loads of luck with the venture...just sorry I won't be able to taste the cheese!xx"