Gabriella Steria
Gabriella Steria, a Mennonite, was raised on a farm in upstate New York. She moved to Western Massachusetts 20 years ago when she was asked to teach at a Russian Christian school in Westfield.
After a few years of working there, she and another teacher at the school (Janice Weaver) decided to buy the property where Gabriella now lives, so they wouldn’t have to pay rent in town. They started a goat farm and they opened a bakery in Russell called Stony Creek Store.
Sadly, Janice died of cancer in 2006. Gabriella tried to do it all alone but it was too much, so, she sold the bakery to other Mennonites who now call it The Bread Basket.
Gabriella continued to raise and milk goats. She had learned about goats when her parents let her have one as a child.
The farm store.
The land was all overgrown with only a house and a half barn. Gabriella built the milk house onto the barn before anything else so she could start milking.
6 years ago she quit teaching to run the farm full time.
She is now milking 58 goats twice/day which usually yields around 40 gallons. They are a mix of Nubians, LaManchas, Saanens and Alpines. She had somewhere around 80-90 kids this Spring.
For several years, she rented the creamery at Cream of the Crop in Russell, MA to make her dairy products. Now, she takes her milk to them and they make the products for her (using her recipes and procedures, of course).
In the summer she takes her milk to the creamery every other week or so and, in the winter it’s usually more like once/month.
It’s amazing how many different products can be bought at this little store!
The eggs are from her free-range chickens.
Gabriella made the chocolates in these containers.
She also made these jams, jellies, pickled beets, corn relish, chutney, salsa and apple butter.
The maple syrup comes from Henry Sarafin’s farm.
Feta is on the second shelf and there is a wide variety of chevre flavors: blueberry, blueberry-almond, maple-walnut, cranberry-pecan, honey, tomato-basil, dill, jalapeno, garlic-parsley, hot pepper, chive-onion and Italian.
You can find Gabriella’s cheese at Simple Gifts Farm in Amherst, MA, Red Fire Farm North in Montague and the Westfield Farmer’s Market on Thursdays. She will be at the Easthampton Farmer’s Market on Saturdays, starting June 22nd.
With her friend, Susanne who operates Susanne’s Cleaning Service.
Stony Creek Farm
13 Chamberlain Road
Montgomery, MA
(413) 281-1760
stonycreekgoatfarm@gmail.com
Open Monday–Saturday, 8am–9pm year-round
