A New Farmstead Cheese Model: A Tale Of Two Cheeses

For the first 15 years Karli and Jim Hagedorn owned Spring Brook Farm in Reading and ran their nonprofit Farms for City Kids Foundation, “We were selling liquid milk to a co-op,” explained Karli Hagedorn, “but you might as well flush the milk down the toilet.”

“We had talked for years about how to bring more revenue back to the farm,” continued Hagedorn, who said they considered ice cream and cheese among other value-added products. The priority, however, remained bringing inner-city kids onto the farm, so the business aspects stayed on the back burner until the Hagedorns made a serendipitous connection.

Less than 20 miles from Spring Brook Farm, established farmstead cheesemakers John and Janine Putnam of Thistle Hill Farm in North Pomfret could not keep up with national demand for their award-winning Tarentaise, a semi-hard, washed rind, Alpine-style cheese they have made since 2002 from the milk of their Jersey herd.

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