Milking
Storage
Pasteurization
Filling
Incubation
Refrigeration
Packaging
Our process at Pinehedge Farms is best described as follows:
Milking
To produce quality milk, our cows spend their summers grazing in pasture except for the two times a day we milk them (a total of four hours).
Storage
A 2500-litre tank stores the milk until it is ready to be shipped or processed into yogurt or kefir. At that point, the milk is pumped across to the processing plant via an overhead pipeline.
Pasteurization
At the processing plant, milk is poured into a giant vat and heated to pasteurization temperature. After cooling, culture is added, and fermentation begins.
Incubation
The bottles are filled and then placed in trays which are brought to the incubator. The incubator is a sealed room with consistent temperature control since fermentation requires it.
Filling
We store our product in glass jars and plastic tubs. The filling machine is positioned over the containers and set to place a certain amount of cultured milk into each one.
Refrigeration
After fermentation, the yogurt is moved to an incubator where it can cool and stabilize. Once that process is complete, it’s packaged and stored until it’s ready to be sold.
Packaging
We wait to pack the jars and plastic tubs into boxes for distribution until the cultures have stabilized after cooling.
- Address
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613-674-2751