Though it’s located on the other side of the state, a dairy and creamery has decided that the Midland Area Farmers Market is the best place to sell its products every Saturday morning.
KandyLand Dairy & Creamery is located in Scottville, not too far from the shores of Lake Michigan. It’s a long drive for owner Kandy Potter, who gets up early Saturday mornings to get to Midland’s farmers market, but she says it’s been worth it.
It was a fellow member of Michigan’s agriculture community that recommended she check out Midland in the first place.
"We had the opportunity to do other markets, but we toured Midland and it’s a beautiful market with a great layout," Potter says. "It has lots of vendors, good neighbors and good clientele."
KandyLand Dairy & Creamery specializes in goat dairy products, including milk, cheese and yogurt. Potter started the company as a reaction to her own lactose intolerance, the irritating-to-some sugar present in cow milk but not goat milk.
The dairy and creamery sells a variety of goat cheeses and fresh goat’s milk. This year, they added hard cow cheese to its offerings.
Perhaps most notable is its line of yogurts. KandyLand is one of the only -- if not the only -- farms in Michigan making fresh yogurts from goat’s milk.
Potter tries to keep her products interesting. This July, she’ll be selling a cherry-flavored goat’s milk-based yogurt at market. She’s also teamed up with Ludington’s Starving Artist Brewing Company to produce beer-washed hard cheeses.
Back on the 200-goat farm, Potter is offering Yoga with Goats classes through August, something that has enjoyed recent popularity in the fitness world.
"Goats are like potato chips, you can never have just one," Potter says. "Their personalities are superior to those of other farm animals. And they’re easy to keep. I’ve fallen in love with them."
Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.
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