Devotion to Dairy

Ballerino Creamery’s owner Louella Hill has long loved food. Born in a mining town on the U.S. / Mexico border, she grew up eating raw milk queso fresco from “across the line”. Later, in college, she made her way to a sheep farm in Tuscany. There she first witnessed the transformation of fresh milk into fragrant wheels. It was a point of no return.

Since then, Louella has worked on dairy farms and in cheese factories in the U.S. and abroad. She has taught cheesemaking classes, co-founded what was once Rhode Island’s only artisan creamery (Narragansett Creamery) and published a book on home cheesemaking (Kitchen Creamery, Chronicle Books). Ballerino Creamery (named after Louella’s great grandmother’s fashion label) came to life after Louella and her partner built out a space inside a building formally known as Augusta Dairies. To add cream cheese frosting to the cake, the stream running alongside the building is called Buttermilk Creek.

Be in touch if you have a question about our cheeses. As a small business, we care not only about the cheeses we make but about the community we serve. We thank you for supporting our family business.