Sometimes, what comes around truly does go around. Take cheese‑ maker/-monger Amy Rowbottom, who grew up on a dairy farm in Norridgewock and now owns Crooked Face Creamery in Skowhegan. Knowing that reducing food waste is one of the straightest routes to minimizing our carbon footprint, she donates the whey generated by making her cheeses—the likes of rich smoked ricottas and nutty applewood-smoked Goudas—to nearby Running Wild Farm, where they feed it to their pigs and chickens.
“There are so many proteins that result from the cheesemaking process that are great for animals’ diets,” she says. “Whey is nutrient-rich, and it completes a circle of using milk from local farms to make my cheeses and then passing on the results to help another one.”
Deepening that circle, you’ll find Running Wild Farm’s pork in cases next to Amy’s award-winning raclettes and garlic-rosemary ricotta at her one-woman facility and shop. Buy some there, in specialty shops around Maine, or at upnorthricotta.com, and use them to boost everything from charcuterie boards to homemade gnocchi.
