Bruce and Sharon VandenBerg are enjoying a hard-earned success. The owners of Mariposa Dairy, in Kawartha Lakes, were one of 55 earning the Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovative Excellence. The VandenBerg’s received $5,000.

They earned the award for developing a new product, cranberry goat cheese, which increased sales.

Since the first flavoured cheeses developed in 2003, were a real hit in the market place, they increased their product line to include rum raisin, dill, herb and garlic, honey, and blueberry goat cheeses. All of their product can be found in major grocery stores including Loblaws, Sobeys, Longo, and Costco. While most of the cheeses produced are soft varieties, their ‘chevre’ makes up 90 per cent of business and is in stores under the name ‘Celebrity’.

Bruce is proud of the success. "It’s nice that government is taking notice of what certain companies are doing in Ontario."

He adds, "Sharon and I were blessed with the ability to pull the trigger at the right times but we definitely haven’t done the work. It’s due to our staff that we were able to get the award and to expand."

The VandenBerg’s bought their farm in 1985 and starting with just 10 to 12 kid goats.They soon built a cheese plant and purchased three more goat herds, bringing it to a total of 200 milking goats. Bruce and Sharon opted to produce specialized goat cheese rather than the standard product. That necessitated hiring help and soon they realized that the local market for goat cheese products wasn’t big enough to support the business, so they started delivering into Toronto.

In Toronto where cow’s milk feta cheese was selling for $4 a pound their goat milk feta brought $8 to $9 a pound. Now their product brings $5-$10 a pound and they distribute over 200 tonnes of cheese a year, marketing from Halifax to Vancouver Island. They still deliver once or twice a week to distributors in Toronto and there are now plans underway to introduce goat cheese products to international markets.

Today they have 2,800 goats, 1,200 of those are milking. A few years ago Mariposa Dairy enjoyed the distinction of being the only on-farm goat cheese plant in Ontario that used only the milk they produced.

This year they set up a 20,000-square-foot cheese plant in Lindsay where they supply half the milk required and buy the other half from across the province, including milk produced by the Amish.

With a full-time staff of 22 people, workers are on two shifts, and also work every other weekend. Milking is done twice a day, starting between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. and again at 4 p.m.

Goats move easily into the stalls where 36 milkers are used to milk 72 goats at a time. Each goat is tested for yield every 6 to 8 weeks and animals average a yield of three litres a day. The process takes about four hours.

Mariposa Dairy has grown its market, increased the number of people they employ and have expanded goat milk production in Ontario. Besides the financial rewards, there is the satisfaction of knowing that they’ve achieved a dream, and that their dream has brought them provincial recognition.