Whoo hoo - Over The Moon Dairy is Over The Moon!

FANTASTIC results for the team at Over The Moon Dairy here in good ol' Putaruru - here is Sues email that came in over the weekend!

We won two classes at the World Championship Cheese Contest, which got us into the finals today! An unbelievable achievement for one of the smallest companies to enter!!!!!

Hi there, I’m writing from Los Angeles on the way home from the World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin, to bring you news of how Over the Moon has fared this week. This is the biggest cheese competition in the world, and is only held every 2 years. It’s the equivalent of the cheese Olympics with 2318 cheeses in the contest!

Over the Moon has amazingly WON 2 of the 75 classes, which means a gold medal for Tomme (goat and buffalo gouda-style), and another for our Sheep milk cumin pecorino. Pretty amazing for our first batches of both cheeses! We also got a third place (bronze) for our Double Delight (goat and cow brie), and a 5th for our goat feta. So 4 out of our 8 entries have excelled on the world stage and beat big and experienced companies from Europe, USA, Canada and even Australia.

The winners of each class were today being assessed by all of the judges to find the World Champion, so Over the Moon was up against the best cheeses from all over the world. Half of the judges are from the States, and the balance is international. It’s the Brains Trust of the cheese world.

The final round results were announced at midday today. My expectations were pretty low of getting in the first 5 places, but it’s more than a huge buzz just to be represented in the last round. Worth every last hassle of getting here!!! A Swiss Gruyere, a wonderful example, was the winner on the day.

So a heartfelt thanks from me, and the team, for your help, support, and encouragement! I’m looking forward to being home and getting back to the factory.

Earth Hour - 27th March 2010

EARTH HOUR - NEON NIGHTGLOW
80'S PARTY IN THE PARK
GLENSHEA PARK
8.30 - 9.30PM
SATURDAY 27TH MARCH 2009

BRING A PICNIC, A CANDLE, YOUR FAMILY AND A LOT OF FUN!

PUTARURU WATER FESTIVAL 2010 A GREAT SUCCESS!

This years water festival brought over 6000 people through the gates. We are proud that many people within our community came to enjoy all that was on offer throughout the day.

One of the highlight events was Top Team on Water which featured Pride in Putaruru's purposely built inflatable agility course and water walkers. Over 1200 people within our community came to support the teams and were hugely entertained by the great competition.

The winners of Top Team on Water were:

Putaruru Fire Brigade - Winner of Clash of the Codes and for the 2nd year running, winner of the Best Cheaters title!

Adults - The Putaruru-Piako Cheetahs.

Year 5 & 6 - St Marys.

Year 7 & 8 - Te Waotu School.

There were many entries into the Water Festival's Arts and Crafts section from both children and adults. The quality of the arts and crafts were amazing and all who participated should be very proud of their efforts. A big thankyou to entrants as well as the community for viewing the display.

Included in this years Arts and Crafts section was Fluid Fashion where entrants created a fashion piece from the design phase right through to the making of the garment. The pieces that were created were mindblowing and we congratulate all who entered. The overall winners of Fluid Fashion were Lewis Bourne, Maria Clara Mackinnon and Samantha Clark.

The farmers market was a huge hit and was full of delightful and yummy food and high quality crafts.

Vox Nova our jazz band that was playing throughout the afternoon provided a relaxed and fun atmosphere and was a great background to the fluid fashion entrants while on they were on the catwalk.

One of the main focuses on the Water Festival was providing an affordable and great day out for families with lots for children to enjoy. By bringing in huge inflatables and selling tickets for only $2 we were able to give the children alot of fun things to do that didn't break the bank. One of the main attractions proved to be the worlds highest inflatable water slide and people keep going back for more!!

Our nighttime event After Flow was very entertaining with Boogie Monsta pumping out great music throughout and ticket holders enjoying taking on the Mechanical Bull and the Bar fly. Our MC for the night, John Martin from Balloons Funtastic, had the crowd laughing all night due to his risque and clever balloon hats and his infectious laughter and witty sense of humour.

We have received alot of postive feedback about this years festival and are immensely happy that our community enjoyed what we provided throughout the festival. The combination with the A & P association and Putaruru Axemens proved to be very popular and we have received alot of positive feedback also about the combination.

A big thankyou to all involved and support from the community for the Putaruru Water Festival 2010.

Water Festival 2010

Many thanks to Claire Birks of Bella Creative for taking these photographs and loaning us a camera for use during the day!