Cheese-Making Journeys

Around the turn of the century, cheese making played an important role in the rural economy of Eastern Ontario. Farmers turned much of their milk into cheese for both personal consumption and for sale; money made from selling cheese was a significant source of annual income on many farms.  Some chose to make their cheese on site, in other instances farmers banded together in co-operatives to set up full-scale cheese making operations.

There was a time when hundreds of small cheese factories dotted the Eastern Ontario countryside. A 1928 map in the Hastings County Museum of Agricultural Heritage identifies more than 270 cheese factories in existence across Durham, Northumberland, Victoria, Peterborough, Hastings, Prince Edward, Lennox and Addington and Frontenac Counties.

In the 1860s Lennox and Addington was producing 44,000 pounds of cheese a year; this number grew to nearly five million by 1900 through the production of 32 factories. The Riverside Cheese Factory, a two-person operation established in the 1890s in Hastings County was said to be producing more than 800 pounds of cheddar cheese each day. [Source: The Smiling Wilderness, 1984].

International demand for Canadian cheese was strong and cheese production in Eastern Ontario continued to grow. By the mid-1900s, four counties (Frontenac, Hastings, Lennox and Addington and Prince Edward) were producing roughly 14 million pounds of cheese per year.

Journeys of the Region’s Cheese Makers

Marlbank Cheese and Butter Factory
A small cheese factory in the village of Marlbank (Lennox and Addington) was in operation before 1893. As milk supply increased, a new factory was built just outside the village, the cost of which was $1,300. Four milk routes, sold by auction, ran through the surrounding countryside. In May of 1893, more than 88,000 pounds of milk were received; the first cheese sold for 8 7/8 cents per pound.

The Black River Cheese Company
The Black River Cheese Company, started in 1901 by a group of farmers in South Marysburgh (Prince Edward County), was built and equipped (along with a home for the cheese maker) for $1,800.
Milk was delivered to the factory from each of the farms seven days a week in galvanized cans, transported by horse and wagon. With no form of refrigeration in existence, milk was kept cool in summer by storage in wells.  Originally, Black River cheeses were sold at auction in Picton; the auction moved to Belleville in the 1940s and a new auction method (Dutch clock) was introduced. Just months after marking one hundred years of successful operation in June of 2001, the factory – and all inventory – was destroyed by fire.
Support from customers, cheese connoisseurs and the “never-give-up” attitude of the farmer-owned co-operative enabled reconstruction of the factory in a timely manner and cheese making resumed.  Today, Black River makes naturally aged cheddars, mozzarella, brick, fresh curd and flavoured mozzarella specialty cheeses. Only animal-free rennet is used.

The Eldorado Cheese Factory
The Eldorado Cheese Factory was established in 1951 in the hamlet of Eldorado (Hastings County). Eldorado’s name, derived from the Spanish language meaning “gold”, hints at the August 1856 discovery of gold in the area, triggering Ontario’s first “gold rush”.
With the factory’s production of cheddar, Mozzarella, Colby and fresh curd, the Eldorado name came to represent another kind of gold when Eldorado won top honours in the British Empire Cheese Show. Today, the cheese factory makes the only Canadian Cholov Yisroel Kosher dairy products.