In the food world, there is much ado about cheese. So when you come across a goat dairy, as lucky folks like us often do, the first thing that comes to mind is an irresistible tub of chevre or an adorable wheel of aged cheese that fits in your palm. Louisa and Lucas are breaking the mold with their goat's milk caramels, which won a coveted Good Food Award in 2012, and make an excellent finish to any cheese course.
Pssst! July 31st is the last day for entry to this year's Good Food Awards. Click here to learn how you can compete.
When did you know that you wanted to work in food?
There really was not a specific moment. We were living in Vermont teaching art and writing and struggling to imagine a future in the teaching landscape that was going to allow us to really put down roots and not chase jobs from state to state. On a whim I asked one of my student's parents (who happens to be the very excellent owner of Blue Ledge Farm) if they took apprentices, and they did. We just went for it as we had a gap in our schedule. I don't think we expected to be hooked. The goats, though - they got us. After spending four months with goats we left Blue Ledge knowing it was the life we wanted.
How did you get your current good food job?
We started Big Picture Farm from scratch - but we had a lot of help from the owners of Peaked Mountain Farm. We initially came to the farm (with a word of mouth tip from Michael Lee, the brilliant cheesemaker at Twig Farm who had apprenticed here 10 years prior) to tend Peaked Mountain's sheep and make and age their cheese. Part of the deal was that we would be allowed to keep three goats. The first winter the goats lived in the chicken coop. The timing worked out really well. Three years later, Ann & Bob have retired, the sheep are elsewhere and we have 41 goats on the farm. We still use their milking parlor and cheese room. Though now the cheese has to share space with the caramel.
How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?
There are so many facets to running a farm and a small business that I actually think coming to it from different careers has been really helpful. Like most small businesses, we have to do everything ourselves - write grants, apply for loans, crunch lots of numbers, create new designs, new products, marketing materials, social media, and of course, milk goats and make caramel! So, having had a different set of skills before starting farming has been really helpful.
What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream?
There just are not enough hours in the day. We work long days, every day. Right now we are trying to schedule in one day off a week. So far it translates more to an afternoon/evening off a week, but we will take it! There are also a lot of challenges to operating at the scale at which we operate and to scale one needs money. Balancing cash flow and our time is a constant challenge.
What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?
I think there are tons of exciting opportunities in food right now! It seems like the food landscape is rapidly evolving and it is a great place to be.
If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?
Time! Or cheese! But I surround myself with so much cheese already, so I feel very rich.