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Twig Farm

Twig Farm
Michael Lee and Emily Sunderman
Phone: 802-462-3363
Web Address: www.twigfarm.com
e-mail: twigfarm@shoreham.net

Twig Farm is owned by Michael Lee and Emily Sunderman. We have been in business since 2005. Our twenty-acre farm is located in West Cornwall, Vermont, about 10 miles south of Middlebury. Michael manages our herd of goats and makes and ages our cheese. Emily manages the business and marketing for Twig Farm and works as an analyst for a publishing company.

Michael makes our cheese by hand using traditional techniques and equipment for farmstead cheese production. Our cheeses age in a temperature and humidity controlled enviornment in our cellar. Michael learned his craft mostly by doing. Prior to making Twig Farm cheese, Michael worked as an apprentice at Peaked Mountain Farmin Townsend, Vermont, and before that was a cheese manager at South End Formaggio in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cheese Varieties

Goat and Cow Blend:
Twig Farm Washed Wheel: a washed rind cheese made with raw goat milk and sometimes a little raw cow milk, aged about 80 days. As the cheese ages, the rinds are washed with a whey brine. The texture of the cheese is semi-soft and the flavor is full. This cheese is made from goat milk from our farm and sometimes with cow milk from Joe Severy's farm in Cornwall, Vermont.

Goat:
Twig Farm Goat Tomme: a raw goat milk cheese, aged about 80 days. The cheese features a natural rind and a semi-hard texture. The milk for this cheese is made with the milk from pastured goats on our farm and from the farm of Dan Robertshaw, an off-the-grid dairy in Bridport, VT. Tomme was a ribbon winner at the American Cheese Society competition in 2006.

Goat:
Twig Farm Square Cheese: a raw goat milk cheese, aged about 80 days. The texture is semi-soft and the rind is natural and rustic in appearance. The cheese is formed in a tied cloth that makes the cheese have its square shaped. In the middle of the cheese is an indentation from where the knot was tied. Square cheese is made with milk just from Twig Farm goats. Square Cheese won Third Place in the Farmstead Goat Cheese category at the American Cheese Society Competition in 2007.

Cow and Goat Blend:
Twig Farm Fuzzy Wheel: The recipe for the Fuzzy Wheel is loosely based on the Twig Farm Washed Rind Wheel, but includes both cow and goat milk and the more rustic appearing natural rind. The texture of fuzzy wheel is softer than the Twig Farm Goat Tomme, and the taste is perhaps a little more daring. The milk for fuzzy wheel is from lactating animals working at the following dairy farms: Twig Farm / Michael Lee, West Cornwall VT (30 goats), Animal Farm / Diane St. Clair, Shoreham, VT (7 cows) and Dan Robertshaw, Bridport, VT (35 goats).