Ithaca College

The Sustainability Café on Monday, April 22nd will feature Alan and Keeley McGarr O’Brian presenting “Keeley’s Cheese Co.: From New York to Ireland and Back Again for Value-Added Dairy Production.”  The Café will be held in Center for Natural Sciences Room 112 at 4:00PM, in conjunction with the Environmental Seminar. The Spring 2013 Sustainability Café/Environmental Seminar series is focused on our local food system.  

Keeley McGarr grew up on her family’s dairy farm, and as a student at UVM, she struggled to see how she could fit into the family business once she completed her studies. Keeley got a work-study job making cheddar cheese and as a senior, she landed a cheesemaking internship in Ireland, where she learned to make Irish Farmstead cheeses. Home again and recently married to Alan O’Brian, an Irish cheesemaker, Keeley works with McGarr Farm’s grazing herd of registered Holstein and Jersey cows to produce the high quality milk that she turns into her signature cheeses, which are based on washed-rind recipes and aged in an underground cellar. Each cheese is unique, due to the special microflora of the Finger Lakes region where it’s created. 

“Teachable edibles” – local, organic and/or seasonal snacks – for the Spring 2013 Sustainability Café series are being sponsored by Ithaca College Dining Services whose motto is “Sustainability – Healthy – Fresh.” Please bring your reusable mug and fill up at the nearest drinking fountain or provide your own beverage of choice.

This event is free and open to the public.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Marian Brown at 607-274-3787 or mbrown@ithaca.edu. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.

Drink in a new way to think in the Sustainability Café.