April Update

On the 6th month since Anne passed, we do as she commanded through her everyday actions living life to its fullest, always looking forward, always with a smile no matter what.

Anne grew up in Libertyville, Illinois, moved to New York to attend New York University, and eventually talked/walked her way onto various farms around the world, learning three languages fluently along the way. At 25, she opened the country’s first all domestic artisan cheese shop at the Essex Market, a public market Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia started in the 1930s. Her tiny shop provided thousands of samples and sold tons of cheese — over the years it would become what Jasper Hill called “a conduit of salvation for rural communities across the country.” She started a family, wrote a book, and volunteered for causes important to her. Respect!

Thank you to Anne for living such a full life that even with what happened, so many inspiring individuals are working to make the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund such a success.

We have received 200 APPLICATIONS for apprenticeships in our first year!!!

Thank you so much to all the inspiring young adults who applied from across the country — your essays are filled with such touching stories about the importance of good, clean and fair agriculture, and family histories around sharing food at the table, and respect for the farmers who supply us.

Thank you so much to the university professors, entrepreneurs, and friends who took the time to write such thoughtful references about such special people. Seeing the names of so many renowned universities on letterheads is a sight to see.

Thank you to all those who hustled and zoomed to see Anne’s legacy continue through this program. Thank you to Anne’s family, the ASLF Board, Advisory Board, team members, and to Anne’s contacts in the industry. And thank you of course to the farms who signed up to host this summer, making this program possible — here are some details regarding these bastions of quality food in advance of our upcoming summer program…

Uplands Cheese, Dodgeville, Wisconsin
Number of Apprentices: 2
Living quarters: Apartment in town.
Farm Description: 200 cows milked seasonally, with a focus on rotational grazing — they produce two raw milk cheeses in their on-farm creamery, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, an aged cheese reminiscent of a Gruyere or Comte, and Rush Creek Reserve, a spruce-bound, soft-ripened cheese, similar to Vacherin Mont d’Or.

Thanksgiving Farm, Hurleyville, New York
Number of Apprentices: 1
Living quarters: Private bedroom, communal kitchen and living room on the farm.
Farm Description: Dedicated to feeding individuals with developmental disabilities at The Center for Discovery, besides the farm produce, they also make value added products including lactofermented ginger and carrots, pickles, and sauerkraut, dried culinary herbs, herbal teas, apple and garlic chips, and apple cider vinegar.

Paradise Locker Meats, Trimble, Missouri
Number of Apprentices: 2
Living quarters: Bonnie Reid Bed and Breakfast
Farm Description:  Fully operational slaughter facility, processor, and cure house with over 60 employees that is dedicated to humane treatment and audited by three organizations: Animal Welfare Institute, Certified Humane, and USDA.

Jasper Hill Farm, Greensboro Bend, Vermont
Number of Apprentices: 4-6
Living quarters: Walking distance from barns, communal housing, private bedroom.
Workplan: The Cellars at Jasper Hill is home to a collection of 16 cheeses, separate goat and cow barns and milking parlors, 7 underground cheese caves, hay facilities, and 2 cheesemaking creameries representing a range of cheese styles.

Consider Bardwell Farm, West Pawlet, Vermont
Number of Apprentices: 1 or 2
Living quarters: Private room and bath at the Farmhouse.
Farm Description: On land that is conserved as perpetual grassland by USDA, they raise dairy goats and a herd of 17 registered dairy cows to make three types of raw cheese: Rupert (Alpine), Pawlet (Italian-style toma), and Dorset (washed rind stinky).

Stony Pond Farm, Enosburg Falls, Vermont
Number of Apprentices: 1
Living quarters: Mountain Cabin, rustic but cozy, located 5-minute walk from barns.
Workplan: The apprentice will work side by side with Melanie on cheesemaking days and participate in the entire cheesemaking process from culturing and renneting to hooping and brining and then caring for the cheese in the cave.

Meadow Creek Dairy, Galax, Virginia
Number of Apprentices: 1
Living quarters: Farm manager Jim and cheesemaker Anna’s guestroom
Farm Description: A herd of 130 animals produce the main ingredient to make 5 varieties of artisanal raw milk cheese ranging from semi-soft to hard, aged anywhere from 60 days (Grayson, Galax) to over a year (Mountain Laurel).

Mad River Valley, Waitsfield, Vermont
Number of Apprentices: 1
Living quarters: Bragg Farm, home to one of the most photographed barns in all of Vermont and founding site of Ploughgate Creamery.
Workplan: The Apprentice will work both at Von Trapp Farmstead shadowing a different team member each day from the pasture to the milking to the cheesemaking facility to the retail store to the pig farm — and at Mad River Taste Place contributing to all aspects of this beautiful store from merchandising to retail to the tasting room!

Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, Ponsford, Minnesota
Number of Apprentices: 8-10
Living quarters: Houses, campers, yurts, and teepees.
Farm Description: Across their six different farm sites, the Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute’s horse-powered operations cultivate roughly 40 acres of hemp, heritage produce, wild rice, maple syrup, foraged food, medicine, and a herd of goats!

Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch, Lindsborg, Kansas
Number of Apprentices: 1
Living quarters: Will live locally to Lindsborg.
Workplan: Working with Frank Reese and the oldest poultry genetics in the world including gatherings and cleaning eggs, setting them in the hatcher, incubation, and preparing them for market; sorting freshly hatched poults and chicks, bucket feeding birds, running/maintaining automatic feeders, and watering birds; learning breeding techniques for rare breeds of poultry and waterfowl.

Talbott & Arding Cheese and Provisions, Hudson, New York
Number of Apprentices: 1
Living quarters: In town at local B&B or at farm 12 minutes away.
Farm Description:  Talbott & Arding is a beautiful store, a living testament to the food culture of the Hudson Valley, and located on the main street in the historical commercial district of Hudson. Collaborating farms might include Churchtown Dairy, Chaseholm Farm, Sugar House Creamery, and Kinderhook Farm.

Spring Brook Farm Cheese, Reading, Vermont
Number of Apprentices: 2
Living quarters: Housing on the farm at the dormitory, a short walk to the dairy barn.
Workplan: The Cheese House makes, ages, and distributes alpine style cheeses with unique equipment from France. They sell 3 types of cheese: Tarentaise, an alpine style, Reading, a Raclette, and Ashbrook, a Morbier style. All other products from the farm contribute to meals for the Farms for City Kids Foundation.

Newman Farm, Myrtle, Missouri
Number of Apprentices: 2
Living quarters: Will be a local to Myrtle.
Farm Description: Apprentices will work at the on-farm store, The Farmer's Daughter, and be exposed to every aspect of daily chores on the farm including at the cow-calf and sheep operation, and the Berkshire pig operation where the oldest line of Berkshire pigs in the world dating back to 17th century England are raised in a farrow-to-finish setting.

Big Picture Farm, Townshend, Vermont
Number of Apprentices: 1
Living quarters: A tiny house owned by farm on rented land.
Workplan: A small hillside goat dairy and farmstead confectionery and creamery located in southern Vermont, an apprentice will shadow on milking of the goats, who are like extended members of the family, and all chores including farm upkeep and feeding pigs, chickens, cats, and dogs. Additionally, he or she will help with the once-a-week cheese make, in the garden, and with odd jobs around the farm.

Brooklyn Grange, Brooklyn, New York
Number of Apprentices: 1
Living quarters: NYC
Workplan: Their rooftops total 5.6 acres and produce over 100,000 pounds of organically grown crops per year. An apprenticeship at the Grange would include working with the team to experience the ins and outs of outdoor rooftop vegetable production which may include planting, crop maintenance, harvesting, weed control, distribution, and soil management.

More farms and details coming soon!!

Onward!

Sincerely,

Patrick and the ASLF Team