North Stonington — Raising capital was the first hurdle and building and equipping the milking parlor the second, but farmer Brianne Casadei succeeded in both efforts and will open her new Terra Firma Farm Creamery on Saturday on the 500 acres she's leasing on the Norwich-Westerly Road.

"People have been so amazing," said Casadei, who founded the nonprofit Terra Firma Farm on Al Harvey Road in Stonington in 2004 and expanded it in 2014 to the North Stonington property, where the creamery is located.

"All of this wouldn't have happened without Kickstarter, and all of those people who have helped us all along the way," she said, standing in the farm shop that will begin selling fresh milk on Saturday and, soon after, yogurt and eventually ice cream — all manufactured on the premises with support from the herd of cows living there.

More than a year ago, Casadei started the project on her own. But, after about a $50,000 investment, she realized she didn't have sufficient funds to complete the milking parlor renovations and buy the necessary bulk tank, pasteurizer and chiller.

That's when she did something she said she's never been comfortable doing: She asked for help.

Casadei set up a Kickstarter campaign.

She launched the effort last November and had about three weeks to raise the $47,970 that she estimated she needed to complete the project.

With Kickstarter, the entire amount must be raised for the campaign to pay out.

The effort succeeded.

Just before Thanksgiving last year, Casadei learned she had raised $50,000 — enough to finish the creamery.

There were incentives as part of the fundraising campaign, including six $750 offers to name a calf.

Casadei knew that if her campaign succeeded, she would buy six heifers (a heifer is a young cow that will be having her first calf) and said contributors at that level would be able to name their offspring.

Some of those calves — Molasses, Klarabelle, Dynamite and Gilly — already have arrived.

Casadei's got a herd of 16 cows, and milks them twice a day. Three times a week, she processes the milk.

"It's fresh. Very fresh," she explained. "And the cows are all grass fed."

Now, she is manufacturing whole and chocolate milk, and has plans to start making yogurt soon.

Although the farm already is producing, Saturday's festivities, starting at 11 a.m., will mark its official opening. 

Farm tours are planned for noon and 2 p.m., and there will be a milking demonstration at 4 p.m. 

There will also be calf-cuddling, a milk and cookie booth, and grilled hot dogs and sausages. 

The milk and meat will all be Terra Firma products.

"The last six months have been the hardest thing I think I've ever done," Casadei said of raising the funds, renovating the farm property, buying the equipment, passing all the necessary state and local inspections, and starting production.

And now, its calving season, keeping the farmer up all night some nights.

"But we've done it, and it wouldn't have happened without Kickstarter, and all those people who have helped us all along the way," Casadei said. "I hope Saturday is a chance for those people to come out and see what they've created."

While Terra Firma Farm is a nonprofit with a goal of reconnecting children to agriculture, the creamery is an LLC under the nonprofit.

Support for the creamery came from many of the families whose children have attended camp and afterschool programs at Terra Firma Farm.

At the Al Harvey Road property, there is a farm store, about 1,000 laying hens, a horse, a pony and two miniature horses, and 30 each of lambs and pigs.

The Stonington site hosts the camps and the equine, home school and afterschool programs, including Cows to Cones, where children spend time at the farm, milk a cow and make ice cream.

Most of the cows and calves are at the Norwich-Westerly Road location, where the creamery and another farm store are located.

Each cow averages a daily milk production of about five gallons.

For now, the Terra Firma milk is packaged in plastic half-gallon containers and sells for $5 for whole milk and $6 for chocolate. Since it's not homogenized, there's a cream line at the top of every container.

In time, the farm will obtain the required washing and sterilizing system, and the milk will be sold in glass bottles.

Casadei said Terra Firma Creamery plans to sell about 200 gallons of milk each week.

"We did it," said Casadei, in the milk house at the creamery.

She'd just finished milking Mocha, the cow she credits with "starting this whole thing."

Mocha was the star attraction in the original one-week Cows to Cones camp.

The first session immediately sold out, so the next year the farm added a second week. And the third year, a third week.

Now they've opened a creamery and Mocha is still on the job.

a.baldelli@theday.com