I grew up with my brothers, parents and grandparents on a 450-acre crop and dairy farm started by my grandfather in 1919. I fondly remember my childhood as a farm kid, and was drawn back to farm life after about 15 years of other adventures — four getting a BS in Rural Sociology at Cornell University, a year spent interning on a farm in Switzerland, and a decade spent working in Maine as a plant science research assistant, a teacher and finally a newspaper reporter. I know many people experience the yearning I did– a desire to connect with animals, to roam fields and woodlands, to see how food is produced — and in additional to running a top-notch cheese production facility, I can provide visitors with these experiences. I firmly believe that a small-scale cheese production facility can thrive and support a small, pasture-based dairy, providing a livelihood for us as a family, and creating a bridge for the increasingly urban consumer to connect with a farm while maintaining open space in a environmentally responsible manner. My grandfather was a sharecropper; at age 14 his parents left him in charge of the farm while they returned to Pennsylvania to attend to a family issue. From him and from many others in the family, we learned to work hard, to be extremely resourceful, to be mindful of the winds of change, to value family and community. I totally love being an agricultural entrepreneur. I believe food production is going to be an increasingly important factor for addressing the needs and challenges our world faces, on both an local and international scale, and I’m excited for all the potential that even a tiny business like mine can hold as a partner in addressing these larger issues.