Klein Farms Products Now Available at Weis Markets

This may sound cheesy, but products are now also found on the shelves of the new Weis Markets in Forks Township.

The two businesses have teamed up to offer customers some of the freshest, homegrown products around.

"We learned of Klein Farms being in our backyard when we opened," store manager Mike Connolly said. "It's a great community connection to tie in and promote their products. Our customers know them because they are well-established. To tap into the community, it's a win-win for both of us."

Klein Farms Dairy & Creamery has served the region for 75 years and has recently been featured on TLC's show "Cake Boss."

Every two weeks, Weis gets a shipment of cheeses: 30 pounds of hard cheese such as cheddar, garlic and pepper and horseradish cheeses and 30 pounds of a mozzarella/pepperoni rollup. The supermarket spends about $368 for such an order.

On Thursday, Connolly visited the farm and met with owner Layne Klein and Renee Wilkins, who handles the farm store's retail sales and serves as the farm's wholesale coordinator, to go over the next order.

Connolly talked with Wilkins about expanding the cheese shipment with the holidays approaching. Wilkins also asked if Weis will add more Kleins products like raw milk and yogurt. Connolly said he would find out and plans on featuring more Klein Farms products down the road.

Jennifer Sands, communications specialist for Weis Markets, Inc., said that as a locally focused retailer, all of the milk Weis produces in its milk plant is from the state. She said the supermarket chain buys 22 million pounds of local produce a year.

"We've been selling this product since the store opened in June 2011 and we're pleased with the customer response so far," she said.  "It's part of our ongoing commitment to seek out and support local farmstead cheese makers and other local manufacturers to give our customers what they are looking for in our stores."

Klein is pleased too.

"We enjoy it," he said. "We're here to sell our products. We can only draw so many people to our dairy store. So it's great that they can serve our customers."

If you want to visit the Klein Farms dairy store, it is open from Monday - Sunday, 7 a.m. To 7 p.m. year round, except Christmas. It is located at 410 Klein Road, on the farm property. For more about the store, call 610-253-8942.