How Vermont's Consider Bardwell Farm Bounced Back from Challenging Times

Author’s note: In my position as a cheese buyer and retailer, I have been fortunate to learn more about Consider Bardwell Farm in recent years, and I have been thrilled to become further acquainted with its owners and the creamery’s cheeses. In 2018 I attended the American Cheese Society Conference and Judging in Pittsburgh, and while breezing through a corridor, I came across a large photo of the creamery’s Pawlet and had to stop and gaze at the image of that beautiful cheese. The event organizers had placed portraits of past winners on easels throughout the event space. Less than a year later, Consider Bardwell became the first Potash Featured Artisan at our store in Chicago, and we featured a number of the cheeses for our customers over the course of a couple of months. We are currently showcasing cheeses from our fourth Featured Artisan, Sweet Grass Dairy, of Georgia. I am hopeful that by the time you read this we will also have the new Dorset Minis available in our cheese department. 

Consider Bardwell Farm, one of Vermont’s most recognized cheesemakers, is back to making and selling cheese after teetering on the verge of foreclosure. The award-winning creamery, owned by Angela Miller and Russell Glover, was hampered by the effects of the pandemic, like other cheesemakers. But that loss of restaurant and farmer’s market sales came on the heels of a potential food safety situation that caused a complete shutdown of production that crippled the company financially. There were staff cuts, and a temporary sell-off of the farm’s goat herd, and for a while, there was a chance that the company would fail. 

A Bump in the Road 

At the beginning of 2019, the company was in growth mode, looking to expand beyond its traditional markets in the Northeast, and hoping to break into well-developed artisan cheese markets on the West Coast and in major cities across the U.S. It had begun selling to larger distributors and suffered a cash crunch while working to meet demand. Later that year, Miller received word that a batch of goat cheese from an outside milk supplier had tested positive for Listeria, a bacteria that can cause serious illness if it contaminates a food product. None of the cheeses made with the tainted milk were released, but some Dorset, one of Consider Bardwell’s seasonal cow’s milk cheeses, had been aged in the same cave with those potentially contaminated cheeses, so they had to be destroyed.

Consider Bardwell was in constant touch with USDA as it worked through the recall and the mitigation process, Miller added. 

Bouncing Back 

Now, nearly two years after the Listeria scare that led to a voluntary recall, two cheesemakers are back on the job, a new sales rep has joined the staff, and as of last month (APRIL) some of the 200 goats that were furloughed a year ago are back on the farm’s pastures.  “We managed to get some PPP (Payroll Protection Program) funding in May or June of last year,” Miller says. “There was also a GoFundMe campaign that helped, and by the end of the year we had enough money to feel comfortable about re-starting. We now have two people in the creamery and a very tight five- year plan. And thank God we have animals on the farm again!” 

A large lot of the company’s Alpine-style cheese, Rupert, was aged in a separate cave and Miller says those wheels are now being released along with pasteurized Dorset Minis, a smaller version of a Taleggio-style that the creamery had traditionally made with raw milk. “Our intention is to concentrate on the Northeast and then to be able to fill some West and Midwest orders, but not go heavily into those areas until we are fully stable.” Murray’s Cheese veteran Steve Millard is now consulting with Consider Bardwell Farm to develop and has developed an e-commerce store, while working with staff to create a new website. Cheese sales specialist Michael Trullinger will oversee and develop the sales while maintaining a position with importer Forever Cheese.  

History of the Farm 

Miller and Glover, (a literary agent and an architect respectively) moved from New York City after purchasing the farm property in 2000. The 300 acres, near the town of Pawlet, straddle the Champlain Valley and Eastern New York. The creamery was licensed in 2004, but the cheese and farming history of the property dates to the early 19th century. It was then owned by Consider Stebbins Bardwell, who launched Vermont’s first cheesemaking cooperative to help add value to the milk of his herds and those of his neighbors.  

The new owners took cheesemaking courses and designed the new creamery. They had help developing some of their early cheeses from Vermont cheesemaking expert Peter Dixon, who now operates Parish Hill Creamery with his wife and continues a cheese consulting business. Along the way, the farm achieved certification with Animal Welfare Approved the National Humane Society, and Miller and Glover established the farmland as a federally protected grassland, which will ensure that will be used as pasture and hay production into perpetuity. The farm continues to practice intensive rotational grazing which benefits both the animals and the soil. 

The Future Looks Bright 

Those goats that returned in April will “get a year off” Miller says. Their milk will go exclusively to young kids as a new closed herd is developed, but Miller says goat’s milk cheeses may be produced on the farm in future.

Neighboring cow herds, whose milk contributes to the creamery’s cheese, have also grazed the farms pastures.  Miller says there have been some positives that have come from the tumultuous two years, including more consumer interest in e-commerce. She says too, that going back to a steady-growth approach is a welcomed shift.  “It’s quite an opportunity to start again with a much tighter business plan that takes advantage of our assets and isn’t so challenging to our resources,” she says.  “We couldn’t have continued to be in the rat race to become ever larger."