Our Story

Blue Ledge Farm began as a dream in Florence, Italy where Greg and Hannah met while studying the art and culture of Europe. In 2000, at the tender age of 23, the two began the work of transforming an old cow dairy farm back into production with goats. The barn which once housed seventy Holstein cows would now be home to their Alpine and LaMancha dairy goats.

We began milking four goats at Blue Ledge Farm in 2000, and began processing cheese two years later. We produce seven types of cheese (described on our Product page), from very fresh to aged three months. True to our mission, our focus is always on sustaining a high-quality, consistent product with lots of attention and gentle handling.

The 110 acres of Blue Ledge Farm consist of woods, hayland, pasture and wetland. In 2004 we financed our cheeseroom construction by selling our development right to the Vermont Land Trust, thereby ensuring that our land will always be open and never developed. In 2009, wetlands were identified as one of our great natural resources and so we agreed to conserve our fifty acres of wetland and return them to their natural state as a valuable part of our ecosystem. Our goats spend their spring, summer and fall days browsing in the woods, return to the barn for 4 pm milking and lounge around in a grass pasture as evening sets. Our goats live a life of luxury and as we run from job to job across the farm we sometimes we wonder who works for who!

Milking happens in the parlor, where ten goats come up at a time to be milked while enjoying their sweet pellet feed. We milk eighty goats twice a day.

Sustainable farming practices are at the top of our priority list when making any decision on our farm. We compost our bedpack manure and apply to our fields, thereby completing the nutrient cycle from grass to goat and back to grass. We allow our goats to graze and forage throughout most of the year, which is healthy for them, the consumer as well as the environment. In 2008 we built an underground aging facility, or "cave". Storing cheese underground is beneficial as it is naturally cool and moist, conditions that the cheese likes, and being underground it takes less energy to keep the temperature and humidity at desirable levels. We have partnered with our friends at Efficiency Vermont on several projects over the years, from a variable-speed efficient milking machine, to more efficient cooling compressors, to newer flourescent light bulbs, all in an effort to lower our impact on our environment. At the heart of our operation is our clean-burning EPA-Approved bio-mass furnace. We heat our home, cheesehouse and barn, as well as all of our hot water with the corn grown on local Boivin Brother Farm in Addison, Vermont. The only thing that comes out of our furnace stack is an occasional waft of popcorn-smell!