Throughout April, the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) visited each of BCSD’s five elementary schools to highlight the dairy production process.

CCE educators taught students that New York is home to more than 3,600 dairy farms and over 600,000 dairy cows. Each cow yields around 7 gallons of milk daily, producing 15 billion pounds of milk per year. New York State is the leading producer of yogurt, sour cream and cottage cheese.

Students learned that many of their favorite foods begin at a dairy farm; ice cream, butter, yogurt and the official beverage of New York State: milk! They also learned the term, “cheddaring”, which describes a cheese-making process that involves cutting, stacking and turning curds into blocks to draw out whey. 

At the end of the presentation, students were invited to taste-test cheese curds made by the Argyle Cheese Farmer with milk from Ideal Dairy Farms both of Hudson Falls, NY.

Harvest of the Month is a Farm to School initiative that promotes a different locally grown food each month. The campaign highlights New York State products served in BCSD’s school cafeterias.