This Bangor dairy company produced more than 1 million pounds of cheese last year
A dairy company tucked away behind the Bangor International Airport has quietly become Maine’s largest cheese producer after coming to town about five years ago.
Pineland Farms Dairy Company produced more than a million pounds of cheese, using 10 million pounds of milk, at its 70,000-square-foot facility on Milk Street in Bangor last year, and plans to produce 1.3 million pounds by 2023.
While Penobscot produces more milk than any other Maine county, the loss of a major dairy company in 2013 forced local farmers to sell what they produced to plants in Portland, including Hood and Oakhurst. This also burdened farmers with the additional cost of transportation, and the journey takes time out of the already short shelf life of the milk.
The Libra Foundation, a Portland-based nonprofit that owns Pineland Farms, purchased and equipped the Bangor facility with the intention of reviving the local milk market, said Craig Denekas, president and CEO of the Libra Foundation. .
“The idea was, ‘What are we going to do with dairy in Bangor in the next generation?’” Denekas said. “What is going to happen to those farms and land if there is no longer a market in Bangor? What farmers really want in order to stay in business is to have a market for the produce.”
Pineland Farms’ Bangor facility was previously home to Grant’s Dairy before it was purchased by Garelick Dairy in 1994. Garelick filed for bankruptcy in early 2013. Every piece of equipment in the facility was sold, and the building sat vacant and in disrepair until 2017 when Libra Foundation bought it.
The Libra Foundation invested tens of millions of dollars renovating the facility, which required purchasing all new equipment for each step of the cheese-making process, Denekas said.
“It was a dead building,” Denekas said. “There wasn’t even electricity running. It was just a shell.”
One of the more complicated additions to the building included three large silos to hold the milk before it was turned into cheese, which required removing a wall to fit them into the building.
The Libra Foundation also created Pineland Farms Dairy Company, a for-profit offshoot of the original Pineland Farms business, in 2017. The new company, headquartered in the renovated space, allowed Pineland Farms to consolidate and expand its cheese operations.
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Earle Taylor, head of cheese production, holds up chunks of cheese that will be ground into curds at the Pineland Farms Dairy Company in Bangor on January 18, 2023. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik/b -
Blocks of feta cheese at Pineland Farms Dairy Company in Bangor, January 18, 2023. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN -
Timothy Whitman shovels curd cheese into boxes where it will be pressed into blocks of cheese to rest overnight at Pineland Farms Dairy Company in Bangor on January 18, 2023. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN -
Cheese curds at Pineland Farms Dairy Company in Bangor, January 18, 2023. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik/B -
Pineland Farms Dairy Company in Bangor has become the largest cheese producer in Maine, producing over one million pounds of cheese last year, January 18, 2023. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
Previously, Pineland Farms made cheese in New Gloucester and then shipped it to Mars Hill to age, cut, wrap, sell, and ship to customers. Now, the entire process happens in Bangor, but the New Gloucester campus is still home to education and recreation operations, according to Mark Whitney, president and CEO of Pineland Farms Dairy Company.
Today, about 40 employees produce more than a dozen different cheddar, jack, Swiss, feta and curd cheeses, using milk from about 20 farmers within 50 miles of Bangor, Whitney said.
“Knowing that their milk stays local and within the community I think gives our farmers a sense of pride in what they do,” said Earle Taylor, head cheesemaker at Pineland Farms.
The cheese-making process takes about seven to eight hours for the milk to be analyzed, processed, turned into curds and pressed into a block of cheese where it then rests overnight, said head cheesemaker Earle Taylor. Once the curd has been fused into a block, it ages in the chiller for between six months and five years.
Once packaged, Pineland Farms cheeses are shipped to New England stores including Hannaford, Market Basket and Whole Foods.
While the Bangor location also processes milk, Whitney said the company was not interested in bottling it for sale in supermarkets alongside other Maine dairy companies. Instead, the company focuses on making cheese and “milk as an ingredient,” which is what other companies use in food products, from baked goods to mashed potatoes.