Contributors
The Milkmaid Society Is A Collective Of Knowledge And Experience. Find All Of The Contributors Here And Check Out Their Websites And Socials.
Deanna Ellem
From Queensland Australia, Deanna has been milking cows for 10 years. Living and working on a cattle ranch, Deanna has a love for milk cows and cheesemaking.
Aimee Murray
Aimee Murray from Antler Springs Farm located in Northern BC Canada is a mother, equestrian instructor, goat farmer, and is currently building a "from the ground up, off grid homestead' on 1500 acres in remote Northern BC.
Aimee contributed to the Milkmaid Society just as she was relocating her goats from their small 5 acre homestead and transitioning them to their new off grid 1500 acre ranch.This has given her content a unique spin and she has contributed a ton of super useful information about transitioning goats home.
Aimee has tons of dairy goat experience and her vast knowledge of dairy goats shines through in all of her content.
Sarah Withers
Sarah Withers from Nest In The West is a mother, homesteader, milkmaid and goats milk cheesemaker in Arizona, USA. Sarah has experience with both milk cows and dairy goats and has contributed this unique perspective into the Milkmaid Society as she takes us through the ins and outs of keeping dairy goats on her small Arizona homestead.
Katie Bonow
Katie owns and operates a goats milk creamery in Minnesota, USA, where she makes and sells raw goats milk cheeses. Katies has been making cheese since she was 15 years old, and is a wealth of knowledge. Her contribution to the goats milk section of this masterclass is something that everyone should watch, regardless of if you are using goats milk or not!
Tamara Camber
My name is Tamara. My family and I moved to British Columbia from Peace River, Alberta in October 2021. We sold our acreage and decided to embark on a ranching adventure with my parents. My husband and I packed up, bringing our six children, 36 head of dairy and dairy cross cattle, 54 hens, six cats, four dogs, farm equipment and a small amount of house hold goods. Somewhere along the way we acquired 3 extra beef calves. Before moving into British Columbia, we were living self sustainable life style, producing 90% of our food. Although it’s taking a little time, we are almost set up here.
Morgan Allen
My name is Morgan Allen and I live in Kenyon, MN with my husband, Keith and our two children. We have a herd of registered Oberhasli dairy goats on a small five acre farm. I grew up with goats, having them as pets and for milk mainly, but as my brother and I got older and more involved in 4-H, we began raising and showing the goats as a project. We eventually started genetically improving our herd with registered stock and began showing regionally and nationally. About 12 years ago we also began selling milk to an artisan cheese maker, so had a licensed dairy for that time. We currently keep around 25 milking does and similar number of youngstock and bucks. The herd is mostly Oberhasli, but we do have some Alpine and Oberhalsi / Alpine cross does. We love dairy goats for their calm and gentle nature and quirky personalities. They are a great fit for raising children and teaching about responsibility and work ethic in a safe environment. Goats are also a good fit for small acreage and they adapt well to many housing styles. We enjoy using the milk for drinking, to make confectionary products and for cheese! In my professional life, I worked as a Ruminant Nutritionist for Big Gain, Inc. for 19 years consulting on both dairy and dairy goat farms in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. I recently made a career change and am now working for Milk Specialties Global as a Nutrition and Formulations Specialist in the R & D, Animal Nutrition division. I work mainly with milk replacer and fat products, but get to help with some research projects like rumen protected methionine and it’s impact on milk protein in goats!
Lacey Yates
I’m Lacey Yates, stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, residing in Western Nebraska with my ranching husband and four children. Along with helping out where needed on the ranch, I am owner of Raising Arrows Nubians. I got my first milk goat 11 years ago when my oldest was diagnosed with a severe cows milk protein intolerance. The Nubians became an absolute passion of mine and I began building my small herd of dairy goats. Since then I’ve been striving to raise happy, healthy, and productive milkers that excel in the show ring. My children love helping and have begun learning the ins and outs of dairy goats. In addition to the goats, we recently purchased our first milk cow, Poppy, and have been enjoying her abundant milk along with making cheeses and other dairy products.
Tracey Johnson
I’m Tracey Johnson, 46. Married with three kids (two autistic) I’m british and Canadian living in Northern BC, on an 8ac farm we’ve built from scratch. I keep chickens ducks goats and guinnea fowl. I own cheeseneeds.com and run the worlds largest Facebook group for cheesemakers, learn to make cheese. I’m the author of Cheese Please! A cheesemaking recipe book, and Cheese Log - a notebook to help with your cheesemaking journey.
Robyn Jackson
Hi There! I'm Robyn; Wife to Zach, Mother to three, Rancher, Homesteader, Cheesemaker and Milkmaid (Wew.. that was a mouth full). I am the creator of Cheese From Scratch and The Milkmaid Society, and I am very passionate about sharing and learning all things dairy and cheesemaking. My favourite spot is perched underneath my little jersey cow, Sukey.
Heidi Thull
Heidi Thull and her husband homestead, homeschool and home dairy with their 3 children on their little farm in Minnesota.
Kayla Schapansky
Hi, I’m Kayla
I live in rural central Alberta, Canada with my husband and five children. We own a small 7 acre farm, raising everything from our beautiful dairy cows, to pigs and everything in between. You will find me happiest in my gardens, both perennials and vegetables. I am so blessed to be able to homeschool my children, which gives us the ability to work right alongside one another, to cultivate the soil together, to raise our animals together, experiencing both the highs and lows of farm life, to spend time in the kitchen side by side, and lots of time cozied up fireside with never-ending cups of tea and good books. It is not always perfectly ordered but it is beautiful.
Celine Gerber
I am Celine, my family immigrated to central Alberta
Canada when I was 3 from Switzerland. I grew up on, and live on a dairy farm in central Alberta, where we milk 81 pastured dairy cows of various
breeds, as well as 24 dairy sheep, 10 pigs, 40ish chickens, and a few rabbits have been a professional baker, cook by day, and farmer (by
morning and night) since I graduated high school 10 years ago.
Naomi De Ruiter
Naomi De Ruiter is a first-generation farmer and the Modern Milkmaid and Artisan Cheesemaker at Birdsong Farm, where she raises registered Jersey cows, provides family milk cow mentoring and masterclasses, and teaches online cheesemaking classes using raw and pasteurized milk.
Naomi and her husband, Ben, currently live in Falkland, British Columbia, where they are the Herd & Barn Managers on a 110-cow dairy farm.
Rachael Conley
I am Rachael Conley. I live about an hour away from Chicago, Illinois in a small farming community. Together with my husband, Joe and our four kids, we own Honeysuckle Farm. We are passionate about regenerative farming and bringing highly nutritious food to the tables of those in our community. I also work off farm as a Nuclear Health Physicist.
Micheon Reay
My name is Micheon and I live off grid on 100 acres of Canadian paradise with my husband and 4 young children. I’ve spent my whole life in the woods, tending to gardens, keeping animals, building and creating. And my ultimate dream for as long as I can remember was to get to exactly where I am today; off grid, living off the land with my family. We have dairy cows, heritage pigs, ducks and chickens, and many other animals who all contribute in some way to our life. We garden, educate our children at home, run businesses, hunt and fish, and work with our land. We live a very rugged, full, wholehearted life as we build our homestead together and care for the land God gave us. You can follow along with me on my Instagram page or my website where I share what’s happening around the homestead and what I’m learning!
Natalie Nickols
Hi! I’m Natalie from @nickolsfamilyhomestead in northeastern Indiana where myself, my husband, and three kiddos homestead on 5 acres. We currently have two milk cows, tons of chickens, ducks, two dogs, and a large garden.
My husband works full time as a Worship Pastor at our church where we are heavily involved. Music is a big part of our lives. I work part time as a birth assistant in a home birth midwifery practice and as a childbirth doula. Our family also runs a small raw milk herd share for our local community. We love being able to share what we grow and produce with those around us.
Sara
Hi, I’m Sara. I live up in the mountains of MT on a little farm with my husband & teenage sons where I raise Nigerian Dwarf goats & milk them, egg layer chickens, meat chickens, turkeys, & rabbits. I have big dreams to own more land & animals!! I have a small garden & have to get creative on how I grow things because it is so rocky here. It’s a mostly raised bed kinda garden & i love it.
I am having a blast this year making wheels of cheese. I made 2 last year but I have made 14 this year so far. Cheese is one less thing I would love to stop buying from the store.
We love living in the mountains even though our winters are harsh with TONS of snow but spring always comes. Ha ha.
I am also very passionate about sourdough everything. I am not an expert but have years of experience under my belt. I have a class teaching you the basics & sell dried sourdough starter to get you going.
Mikayla
Hi! I’m Mikayla, a 4th generation dairy farmer and 1st generation dairy sheep farmer. I am a stay at home mom of 4 children and a wife to the very best husband. We own and operate a full time landscaping business in Northern Michigan. I train and raise therapy dogs for our community and families in need of their services. We have raised sheep for nearly 9 years and have been married for nearly 10. It’s no surprise to anyone that the dairy farmer’s daughter indeed grew up to own her own little farm. Dairy sheep have been our current “new” adventure though the dairy world is nothing new to me nor sheep. Sheep milk soap is quickly becoming my new love language and we have several drops a year of our soaps we make from our very own milk.
You can find us on Instagram @hydrangeahills_farm and keep up with us there!
Moriah Aviso
Moriah Aviso – 30 years old – mother of 4! I’ve been living the milkmaid life and drinking raw milk since 2020.
Our farm is in north central North Dakota. I have two milk cows. A Jersey cow named Coffee and a Milking Fleckvieh x Jersey, Cookie! I calf share in early lactations and hand milk once a day.
I have a farm of 30.5 acres with my two milkers, 20 head of angus beef cows, sheep, pigs, poultry, dogs and a donkey! (And yes this is my car/license plate.)