Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1516167
BEGINNINGS 2024 culturecheesemag.com 45 S arah Spring began teaching French to middle school and high school students 38 years ago. But it was almost 20 years ago, while making batches of yogurt in her kitchen in Falmouth, that she began to think about making something more. "My students thought I was a little bit nuts as I was incorporating yogurt making into my curriculum—anything to avoid conjugating," she laughs. Spring started reading and learning about cheesemaking as much as she could, and in 2005, she joined the volunteer-led Maine Cheese Guild. At the time, there were only 15 cheesemakers in the entire state; today there are 80. She eagerly joined the close-knit group and "embraced the whole thing." While Spring was still teaching, she and her husband Gary moved to an old farmhouse in Durham. Her initial cheesemaking efforts quickly took over the entire house—hanging it SPRING DAY CREAMERY Durham, Maine—Sarah Spring from rafters, aging it in the bedroom, and stockpots and water baths were everywhere else. Eventually, Spring's husband transformed a dilapidated shed connected to the main house into Spring's own 8-by-10-foot make room with a draining table. In 2008, she became licensed and produced her first batch of blue cheese. She has since moved her small operation to a garage attached to her kitchen but describes it as still very crowded. "My husband moves and washes the heavy cans of organic Jersey milk that are delivered to our house on Mondays," explains Spring, who sells her cheeses at two different nearby farmers' markets. Spring enthusiastically describes the various styles of cheese she makes (aged blues and soft-ripened), and her sense of humor allows her to embrace the many variables that go along with cheesemaking. She sometimes offers accidental wheels at markets (ones that haven't gone exactly to plan) and describes blue cheese as the eighth grader of the cheese world—it's fidgety and just wants to play. When asked if she missed teaching, she says her booth at the market often feels like the United Nations with folks speaking various languages throughout the day. It seems Spring gets to have her cheese and eat it, too. She sometimes offers accidental wheels at markets (ones that haven't gone exactly to plan) and describes blue cheese as the eighth grader of the cheese world—it's fidgety and just wants to play. Left: Blue cheese from Spring Day Creamery. This photo: Sarah Spring tends her vat.