It’s up to you, New York, New York!

For nearly 7 years we have worked to develop, market and brand a full line of organic dairy products from New York state.

Our “overnight” success is finally beginning to pay dividends.

This weekend, three varieties of NYcheese hit the shelves in all the NY, NJ and CT Whole Foods stores (19 in total).

Our 8 ounce organic cheeses, in three varieties (raw milk cheddar, colby and pepper jack) are now on sale in the dairy case at Whole Foods for $3.99 (see pic). This is in direct comparison to the Organic Valley cheeses, manufactured and shipped in from Wisconsin, that sell for $6.99.

Why the huge difference? Well, beyond the obvious of an economic down turn, we are able to sell Whole Foods our local cheeses because they don’t have to travel nearly as far. Our raw milk is made in New York, shipped just over the border into Pennsylvania where our cheese maker resides, and then is shipped briefly up to New York where our distributor brings it into all the stores.

This trip is much closer than Wisconsin, so the Food Miles are much, much less.

In addition, we trimmed our margins to offer the best possible price we could on our cheeses. They are local, organic, and really, really good. Once you try them, we think you’ll make the switch for good.

It takes about 10 pounds of raw organic milk to make one pound of cheese. The more cheese we sell, the more milk we will need to make cheese. The more milk we need, the more farms we save. It really is that simple.

At present we draw our raw ingredients from two different NY cooperatives (28 farms in total) to make the products we sell. Our goal is to save as many small family farms in NY as possible. You purchase of Nycheese (and all of our family of products) DIRECTLY impacts our ability to add more farms.

We have many other products, either in production or soon to be, that we hope we can entice Whole Foods to carry. We have Nymilk in production now, and we are soon to launch Nyeggs, Nyice Cream, and Nyogurt (see our new web site at www.getnymilk.com to check out the packaging and get further details about our mission). If Whole Foods is about supporting local organic farms, these items are for them!!

It is now in your hands, as a consumer, to help us get the word out and to support our project. Please tell all your friends. Use the social media platforms (Twitter handle is OrganicNYmilk1, Facebook page is Nymilk) and word of mouth to let people know about us. Our marketing budget is limited (at best!) so we really are counting on folks to talk about this project to their friends, family, colleagues, etc. If you know retailers that would have an interest in our product line, please drop us a note (email dean@getnymilk.com) and we will get in touch with them. If you know a chef looking to add some local organic cheeses to the menu, tell them about us. We happily send samples and visit in person.

We offer in store demos and food tastings, and we provide sales support and point of purchase signage. We are flexible, nimble, and most of all LOCAL!!

NY consumers have been asking for this for a very, very long time. Well, the time is here…and we need your help so we can continue to grow and prosper. Small organic farms in New York are counting on you.

Lastly, if you have any rich or Slow Money friends, tell them about us. We seek capital to help continue our quest to provide local, organic, amazing food to NY consumers.

Thank you.

Dean and June Sparks
Empire Organics
Greene, NY
(607) 656-4142