Limestone Creamery At The Eastern Ontario Local Food Conference

Dec 11, 2013

At the Eastern Ontario Local Food Conference titled “Innovation Driving Local Food”, which was held in Kingston on December 2 and 3 at the Ambassador Hotel, one of the three presenters was a local producer from our readership area.

Olivia Groenewegen, who is part owner along with her parents and brother of the Limestone Organic Creamery, which is located on Sydenham Road, spoke to the 200 plus crowd about the innovations that she and her family have spearheaded at the family-owned organic dairy farm and creamery, which opened in July 2012.

Olivia, who works at the family business and as a dairy educator for South Frontenac, has her Bachelor of Science degree in organic agriculture from the University of Guelph. She was introduced at the conference by Executive Director of the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (FCFDC), Anne Prichard.

Olivia spoke of the history of the business and her parents, who both come from dairy farming families in Canada and Holland. The family transitioned to organic agriculture 14 years ago and in 2011 began planning to open their organic dairy farm and processing plant and retail store. With the help of a $237,000 Rural Economic Development (RED) grant and a grant from the Frontenac CFDC their new business is booming. The family gathers and processes the milk from their 30-member herd comprised of Holstein and Jersey cows. They bottle their milk products in glass bottles that are reused an average of 20 times, and sell a wide assortment of products that include skim, 1%, 2%, whole and non-homogenized milk, and a full fat 3.8% chocolate milk, which Olivia advertised as 96.2% fat free.

Anne Prichard was just one of many at the conference who expressed their love of the Limestone Creamery's full fat chocolate milk, saying that her college-aged nephews prefer it to beer as a gift. They also produce non-homogenized milk as well, which harkens back to the old days and Olivia said customers love since they can scrape the cream off the top.

The Groenewegens also make and sell their own salted and unsalted butter and they also sell a wide range of cheeses and yogurts produced by Organic Meadows. They process their milk on site three days per week and the process involves high temperature short-term pasteurization. Currently they are also producing their own egg nog, a product that has become very popular and added another processing day to their weekly schedule. Recently they have also begun processing milk for Farm Boy through the Organic Meadow producers.

The business has been able to employ seven part-time employees. In addition to their extensive dairy line they also have a line of their own organic meats, which Olivia said are in “high demand and hard to keep on the shelves.” She said that 5000-6000 cars pass by the store every day and the location of the farm is what made the decision for the family to start up the business. The creamery also offers home delivery and currently 240 families receive milk deliveries twice a week. "Little kids especially love seeing the milkman come right up to their door.” They also deliver their milk to 18 stores from Belleville to Perth and Olivia said there is also interest from businesses in Toronto and Ottawa but they are trying to stay as local as possible for now. Olivia said they hope to pay off their mortgage in 10 years and they always strive to keep their prices low in an effort to make their products accessible to as many people as possible. "Since we have been able to cut out the middle man and because we are the producer, the processor and the retailer, we can afford to do that.”

Olivia said the community support for the business has been exceptional from the get go. “From the start we have had huge customer loyalty and we tend to see the same customers coming back. Buyers love to get to know the farmers and to know exactly where their food is coming from, which is really encouraging for all of us producers.”

She said that their products have on average less than one single food mile. “Our milk comes from the farm just down our driveway to the store, which is a really good feeling. The fact that we get to be involved in the entire process, from planting the seed that grows the crops to feed the cows that we milk, and the milk that we then process ourselves and bottle here and sell at our store is a pretty amazing process.” She added that the local food movement in Kingston has been very helpful, along with the NFU in encouraging eaters to buy local. She ended by saying that location, diversification and selling direct along with wholesaling have all been important moves in their efforts to help rebuild the local food system, stimulate the local economy and promote food security in the region.

The Limestone Organic Creamery is located at 3127 Sydenham Road just 10 minutes north of Kingston.