This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Vermont farmer Hilary Haigh.
Haigh and her husband own Rolling Bale Farm where they raise grass-fed lamb and beef.
In 2022, the Haighs bought Animal Farm Creamery, where they raise Jerseys and make their own butter.
The creamery was initially opened in 2000 by Diane St. Clair, where she developed her butter into a high-end product that is used by chefs at restaurants like the Inn at Little Washington, Per Se and the French Laundry.
"I work sort of directly with the chefs," Haigh said. "They know this product very intimately and are very supportive of the business."
Adding on an already well-known dairy operation was a bit of a challenge at first, but in the past three years of owning both the livestock operation and the dairy, Haigh has found her rhythm.
On the livestock side, the sheep and beef are intensely rotationally grazed. While the butter is sold almost completely wholesale to restaurants, Haigh's meat products have a bit of a humbler market.
"I actually sell all of our meat through this very rustic self-serve farm stand here on the farm," she said.
When Rolling Bale was first started in 2014, Haigh spent a lot of time selling at farmers markets. She transitioned to the self-serve stand when the dairy operation was added to the farm.
"It's one thing to have an understanding how rigorous a dairy is," Haigh said. "It's another to be living in it and fully experience year after year the endlessness of it all."
Haigh makes butter six days a week, and most of it is done by hand, which adds to the uniqueness of the flavor.
But much of that specialty comes from grazing the cows. Because their diet changes with the season, the butter tastes and looks different depending on what time of year it is.
"It's a whole system that creates this product and what makes it unique," Haigh said. "The quality of the cream is the No. 1 reason the butter is unique and delicious. But what goes into controlling the quality of the cream has to do with the size of our dairy, the breed of our cows, what we're feeding them, how we're managing them. All of those factors are what is controlling the quality of the cream."
