Three-Corner Field Farm (Shushan, NY)

Karen Weinberg and Paul Borghard’s farm lies in an unspoilt area in the Battenkill River Valley close to the Green and Adirondack Mountains. The farm is much as it was when the original settlers farmed the land in the 1840s, and even the Revival farmhouse is much as it was, with the cellars now turned into the maturing rooms. The family fell into farming through giving a loving home to a few sheep, and before she knew it, Karen had learned to become a farmer and cheesemaker. Today, the 150 sheep and over 300 lambs provide cheese, meat and other products, and by living ‘light on the land’ they offer a natural healthy environment for the animals, not over-farming and keeping the approach simple. I watched the gathering of the ewes for milking, and then the transforming of the milk into curds in the cheesemaking room, which is really no bigger than a large kitchen. Karen chatted away as she stirred the curds, then cut them, then broke them down, drained them and packed them into their moulds.