Describe Fat Toad Farm.
We are a family-run goat dairy in Brookfield, VT.
We have a herd of between 40-50 goats and use the milk to make two different
products: goat's milk caramel (known as
cajeta
in Spain and Mexico) and fresh goat cheese. Our cheeses are only available in Vermont, but we've been expanding our caramel into
New York and Boston markets. It's a somewhat unique
product with a stable shelf life and our goal is to keep inching it out of Vermont.
What's the story behind your goat's milk caramel? My daughter Josey spent quite a bit
of time in Mexico,
where
cajeta is a very common confection. We were just starting out in the goat
milk business and said, "Let's give it a try." It's goat's milk and organic sugar
cooked for between 3-4 hours, until the mixture reaches a caramel consistency. We can do
12 gallons at once, stirring all the time, listening to books on tape or NPR.
The room fills with steam and smells really good - my daughter likens it to a caramel
sauna.
Courtesy of Fat Toad Farm  |
What did you do before you became full-time farmers?
We started Fat Toad Farm as an
official business three years ago. Before that, we were all employed at other
jobs and just beginning the process of starting to get chickens and pigs and a
couple of goats for milk. I worked at the VT Women's History Project part-time,
Steve has his own commercial real estate business, and our daughter was working
at a school.
Steve had an agricultural
background - his family raised a lot of animals and as a young adult he had a
sheep business for a while. He had a lifelong commitment to farming and
gardening. My daughter Calley majored in sustainable ag at UVM.
Why did you decide to farm, and where did you work to gain farm experience?
We just jumped in and did it, actively
trying to learn as we went along. We took cheese-making classes, goat health
workshops, visited lots of people to talk and listen. It's funny, every time
you think you've learned a few things, it seems like another door opens to the
next layer of things you need to learn about. Once you get over the initial
panic of just doing it, you can get more sophisticated, go deeper.
What do you produce during the winter season? We'll milk through this year (we
waited until the end of the season to breed half of our herd). We make caramel
four to five times a week year-round, and in the summer, we make cheese two to
three times a week, but in the winter we only make it once a week. It's really
hard not to have a product to sell for three months. Next year, we'll increase
our herd size enough to stockpile caramel sufficiently. We'll also probably go
back to breeding all of our goats at once next year.
What kinds of professional challenges do you face, and what solutions have you found? The major professional challenge is
that as a farmer, you deal with so many aspects of the business. In the morning
you might be presented with an equipment issue, within a hour you might have a
health issue with the animals, and then a marketing opportunity you might have
to take care of. It's a challenge to find enough energy to stay ahead of
everything, to bring a creative, positive attitude to problem-solving.
Being a farmer makes me look
differently at everyone in this world than I did before. Working in agriculture demands a completely different kind of energy and focus.
