The Farm Report
The Birth of Sugar House Creamery
Margot Brooks started her farming career as a cheesemaker at Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, Vermont and then decided to start her own operation, Sugar House Creamery - an old Adirondack dairy farm that her and partner Alex Eaton have turned into a farmstead creamery. On this week's episode of The Farm Report, tune in as host Erin Fairbanks chats with Margot about the process of starting your own small farm operation. Discover what Margot needed to consider in opening her own micro milk, dairy and cheesemaking operation. Now that she's up and running - hear what the next steps are in developing the infrastructure and building the business. Get an inside look at an agricultural startup from a woman making all the right moves! This program was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.
"When you have animals, you have situations that arise and it would be really nice to be able to go next door and borrow X, Y or Z from a neighbor - but here we can't at all so it makes it harder to deal with [problems]. We're learning we have to plan into it and stock up more and anticipate future needs we might have. It's more costly." [14:00]
"Conventional lenders don't want to lend to farms - they don't understand them or feel comfortable doing it." [21:00]
--Margot Brooks of Sugar House Creamery on The Farm Report