VERMONT AYR

OUR FARM

Crawford Family Farm is a small, fourth generation dairy farm run by siblings Cindy, Jim and Sherry.  We are maintaining a line of cattle started by our grandparents in the 1950s.  Our parents, Bob and Bettelee, continually improved the Ayrshire herd and were named 1984 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year.  The fifth generation (aged 4-24) all help with the cheese making, everything from renovating the barn for the cheese room to coming up with ideas for the label—and of course, taste-testing!      Our 330 acre farm sits nestled between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains in the fertile Champlain Valley . The cows in the pasture as well as the cheesemakers at work all enjoy the view of the Brandon Gap shown on our label.  We’ve noted that at the equinox, the sun rises through the Gap!       We are committed to preserving Vermont ’s working landscape, and have integrated our cheese-making facilities into a working farm.  Our cheese-making and aging room are on the ground floor of a historic barn, the slate roof of which documents the year it was built along with the farmer who built it:  A. C. Needham in 1910.  An original octagonal wood silo attached to the barn may someday become our business office.