Allison Lakin and Neal Foley, of East Forty Farm and Dairy and Lakin’s Gorges Cheese in Waldoboro, stand with two of their Jersey dairy cows. The couple bonded over their shared passions for farming, food, and educating others about the joys and lessons of sustainable agriculture. Food connects us all, and cheese is on almost everybodys plate on a daily basis, so thats not a bad food to connect people with,” said Lakin, an award-winning cheesemaker. (Molly Rains photo)
In 2015, Allison Lakin was busy establishing herself as a Maine cheesemaker, without yet having a herd of dairy cows to call her own. Neal Foley, a trained farmer and chef, had recently returned home to New England and was in between farms. When the two met that year at a pig roast in Appleton, it was clear their goals aligned.
“He said, ‘Hey, let’s farm – you should have some cows to go with your cheese,’” Lakin said on the afternoon of Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Almost 10 years later, Lakin and Foley, now married, co-own and operate Waldoboro’s East Forty Farm and Dairy. Stretching from the ridge traversed by Friendship Road in south Waldoboro to the shore of the Medomak River, the East 40 property is an expansive home to Lakin, Foley, and their livestock.
The pair described their operation as a “diversified farm,” with all their activities centered, in one way or another, around cheese.
On the grounds, the couple raise a herd of Jersey cows for both milk and meat as well as a herd of whey-fed pigs. Lakin creates her cheese in a former garage turned state-of-the-art cheesemaking parlor and sells her products year-round from a small, gray-shingled, self-service “cheese hut” at the end of the driveway, complete with freezers, fridges, and a doorbell to request farmer assistance.
However, while cheese is the focal point of their farm’s operations, both Lakin and Foley found their way to the dairy world later in life.
Lakin, raised in upstate New York, first worked as an anthropologist and educator. With a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Cornell University, she worked at museums throughout the U.S. for about 10 years before discovering her passion for cheese.
Though Lakin is passionate about education, after a decade working in the nonprofit world, she decided to branch out. It was by chance, then, that she happened upon the world of cheesemaking after taking a job in marketing for a dairy.
“It was a voyage of discovery,” she said.
Intrigued by the process of cheesemaking, Lakin began learning more about the craft while working at the farm. Eventually, she began participating, and stepped into the role of cheesemaker for the first time in 2002.
Making cheese for a living, Lakin said, supplies much of what she had dreamed of in a career.
“I really like science, I really like storytelling. I love food, and I love having the opportunity to educate people. I am a firm believer in lifelong learning. Cheese does all these things for me,” she said. “Food connects us all, and cheese is on almost everybody’s plate on a daily basis, so that’s not a bad food to connect people with.”
To Lakin, cheesemaking is full of magic. From the highly sensitive nature of the process to the joy of seeing milk transform into a range of diverse products, the whole enterprise is a thrill, she said.
Since starting her cheesemaking journey in the early 2000s, Lakin grew her production and skills, taking workshops and eventually renting a cheesemaking space from the State of Maine Cheese Co., then in Rockport. Lakin founded her own label, Lakin’s Gorges Cheese, in 2011.
When she and Foley met in 2015, Lakin had scaled up production and was seeking more space. With Foley looking to continue farming, their introduction was fortuitous.
Originally from the area of Hartford, Conn., Foley comes from a farming family, though he said his parents did not keep up the tradition themselves. Raised in “rural suburbia,” he began working on farms in his childhood, picking raspberries and other produce during the summer months to earn pocket money.
“If you wanted to get ice cream, you had to have a job,” Foley said.
From then on, it was “dumb luck” that kept Foley in agriculture, he said. He attended the University of Connecticut, at first planning to become a veterinarian, but instead decided to move out west after graduating to work on a farm.
For his first farming job after graduating from college, Foley took a unique post as a farm hand at a Benedictine monastery on Shaw Island, a 7.7-square-mile off the northwest coast of Washington state with a population numbering 188 as of the 2020 census. He enjoyed the work and setting and would ultimately remain on the island for the next 20 years, turning to homesteading and construction work after moving on from the monastery.
Foley’s life path would change again, however, when a back injury took him away from construction. In the wake of the injury, he decided to travel far afield to attend culinary school at the Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland.
There, Foley honed his skills as a chef and even learned the basics of cheesemaking – though, he said, he now leaves that side of the business to Lakin. Before returning to Maine, Foley ran a catering company on the West Coast. Then, he worked at a bakery upon returning to Maine and resumed his work in farming.
Foley eventually returned to Europe for more culinary training, studying the art of charcuterie making in France.
“That’s taking pork and turning it into any number of delicious things, in the French manner,” he explained.
Allison Lakin and Neal Foley stand with some of their Jersey dairy cows on Tuesday, Nov. 12. For animal wellness and quality control, the farm keeps a closed herd of cattle and also raises pigs from “farrow to finish,” meaning they are bred, born, and raised on site, Foley said. (Molly Rains photo)
Now, Foley brings his skills as a chef to his work at East 40, where he and Lakin teach classes in cheeseboard making, whole-animal breakdown skills, and host suppers with carefully curated menus and guest chefs, who they ask to create menus using items from the farm, from meat to whey and both foraged and cultivated produce.
Just as their love of food shaped Foley and Lakin’s work as farmers and business owners, it also brought the pair together.
At the pig roast where the couple met, both were working, with Foley giving a sawmill demonstration and Lakin selling her cheese. The couple bonded over their passion for farming and homemade food, and began looking for a place where they could live out their dream: raising livestock and making cheese with milk from their own farm.
The couple had high standards for their farm. They knew it must have room for the pigs and cows they hoped to raise, while also being an accessible location where members of the public could come to learn about farming and cheesemaking. Foley and Lakin toured more than 100 sites before settling on their Friendship Road property.
In the years since, the couple has renovated the buildings, starting with Lakin’s cheesemaking parlor. One of Foley’s first projects was taking the existing four-bay garage down to its frame and removing the asphalt floor with a pickaxe, Lakin said. The building now houses a white, gleaming, and naturally lit cheese parlor that Lakin said is a joy to work inside.
Lakin has 13 different types of cheese that she produces with the farm’s milk, from soft cheeses to hard, aged blocks. Inspired by the farm’s proximity to the Medomak River, Lakin created Rockweed, a soft cheese incorporating seaweed, which would ultimately win several awards including a 2022 gold medal in the World Championship Cheese Contest.
Lakin’s Gorges Cheese continues to grow, Lakin said, with her products being picked up just this year by a national distributor. Now, in addition to being available at the cheese hut and Lakin’s Gorges website, her cheeses are sold nationwide at more places than she knows about, she said.
The pair also raise rose veal, a more “humane” type of veal raised by allowing calves to roam free with their herd rather than immobilizing them, as is more typical in the production of veal, according to Foley. Their herd of pigs is fed the highly nutritious, protein-rich whey that is a byproduct of cheesemaking.
Life on the farm is busy – but the couple embraces the “ever-changing tableau of chaos,” Lakin said.
The pair’s vision for the farm’s future, Foley said, is focused on sustainability.
“Right now, while we’re still young-ish, we want to build a design so that we can age into the farm, so that everything is in its place – so that as we get older, things are set up so we can continue doing what we love: Making cheese and raising animals.”
Cheese and meat from East Forty Farm and Dairy and Lakin’s Gorges Cheese is available at the cheese hut, at 2361 Friendship Road in Waldoboro, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day of the year except Christmas Day. To order cheese online or for more information, including about classes, private parties, and suppers, go to lakinsgorgescheese.com or call 230-4318.
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