East Hill Creamery Wins Grand Champion at New York Fair
East Hill Creamery, a farmstead producer based in Perry, Wyoming County, received the Grand Champion award at the 2026 Great New York State Fair Dairy Products Competition. Richard A. Ball, New York’s agriculture and markets commissioner, announced the result. The creamery’s winning entry was an Alpine-style cheese modelled on Gruyère.
The business was founded by dairy farmers Gary and Betty Burley. It processes milk from its own pasture-raised herd rather than buying milk from outside suppliers. The creamery was established as part of the family farm’s effort to turn its milk into aged cheese with a longer shelf life.
Cows supplying the milk graze on grasses, clover and chicory under a rotational pasture system. The cheese is made in copper vats, with the curd washed before the wheels are aged, cleaned and turned in caves over several months. The process produces the texture and flavour associated with Alpine-style cheeses, including crystalline elements, savoury notes and nutty characteristics.
Entries in the state competition were assessed in categories that included fluid milk, cottage cheese, cultured yoghurt, speciality cheese and frozen desserts. Judges examined factors such as microbial quality, texture, fat composition and flavour. HP Hood and Lactalis were among the companies receiving awards in commodity and cultured-product categories.
The competition is a showcase for New York’s dairy industry, the state’s largest agricultural economic sector. East Hill’s award placed a small, integrated farmstead processor ahead of entries from national and regional dairy manufacturers competing in the same event.
The creamery’s cheese is sold as a value-added farm product, allowing the farm to process its own milk into a finished product for specialty grocery and food-service markets. The business uses basswood boards harvested from the family’s timberland during the ageing process and developed its production methods with assistance from European cheese consultants.
