A little goat named Tulip and the other animals of Fat Toad Farm

We took a lucky group of Co-op members on a farm tour last Saturday, visiting Fat Toad Farm down in Brookfield. The farm is one more of those back-woods paradises that seem to pop up all over Vermont. With a herd of 50 goats, the farm makes chevre and a unique goat's milk caramel that they send to stores all over the US.

Here's a snapshot version of the tour!

This is the road you drive up to get to Fat Toad Farm. I love to think that all their yummy goat's milk caramel and chevre gets to markets across the US on this one shady dirt road. 

Judith, Steve, and their daughters started Fat Toad Farm 5 years ago. Never intending to become farmers, Judith's story starts, "Well, we got a chicken..."

A chicken led to a goat which led to more goats. The family realized they either needed to grow into a commercial farm, or downsize into a homestead. They chose to get more goats (they're milking 58 now) and started making chevre and goat's milk caramel.

The shady farmhouse at Fat Toad.

The milking barn and the Caramel Room are just over this little hill.

These are a few of the goats with Lily, one of the farm's interns this summer. She found the internship on a website while living in Chicago and signed up to work for Fat Toad without ever having seen the place! 

I loved this serene baby goat named Tulip.

The farm got its name from the abundance of toads found in the family's vegetable gardens. Toads are considered a good indication of healthy soil and clean water so the family considered them a good omen.   

This is Boo, the yellow lab of Fat Toad Farm. He's the official greeter and was the first to welcome us to the farm.

The family raises a few pigs every year. In the fall, they trade the meat with their neighbors in thanks for allowing the goats to graze on their lush pastures.

One of Fat Toad's main products is goat's milk caramel, traditional to Mexico where it is called Cajeta. Steve and Judith's daughter, Calley, spent 10 years living in Mexico where she lived in a village on the Baja Penninsula and learned to make cajeta. When she returned home to the farm, she started experimenting with making caramel from their milk in the home kitchen. 

The caramel is now made in these gorgeous copper pots. Lily told us she gets to make much of the caramel these days and that the room gets as hot as a sauna. The heat is ok with her though - she says the whole room smells like caramel and they have a freezer of popsicles to snack on. 

The final product in original, coffee bean, cinnamon, and vanilla.

We were so happy to spend a morning at such a beautiful and well-cared-for farm. Thanks to all the Fat Toaders for showing us around!

We'll have more farm tours coming up this summer. Sunday, August 5 we'll go to Twin Ponds for a natural plant dye workshop and then to Weeping Pines Farm. Learn more and sign up today, our farm tours are really popular!