ARCHER MAYOR
“ People always like to think of us as a farm , which is true , but we ’ re also very much a small business - and running a small business is equally insane to running a farm !”
So , why Vermont ?
Louisa had family that lived up in Addison County . And she had come for summer camp , so as she put it , “ I always had a little bit of Vermont . I ’ d smelled it and wanted more .” On a mid-April visit to Middlebury College , a foot of snow surprised everyone , the sun was sparkling and she thought , “ This is perfect . If you ’ re happy when it snows in April in Vermont , you know it ’ s gonna be okay .”
Luke and Louisa attended Middlebury , traveled , went to grad school , taught , and came back to Vermont . And along the way , they fell in love with goats . They interned , learned farming , and explored business options . They considered cheesemaking , chocolates - and happily landed on caramels .
Big Picture Farm now has an array of wonderfulness that tempts immediately : Eight flavors of caramels , from vanilla to maple , even cider . They offer ‘ Goaturtles ’ ( sea salt vanilla caramel seated upon a bed of cashews and bathed in organic , fair trade , dark chocolate ), truffles , honey , and hats and pillows with the sweet faces of goats . They have repeatedly won national awards for their caramels , deservedly so .
Restraint and discipline were sorely needed as I was offered samples . “ We want to make a delicious caramel , not a caramel that would last for a year on a shelf . That just wasn ’ t what our goal was .”
Louisa told me , “ I want to make sure that this food product stays fresh and alive and current . We sell online ( bigpicturefarm . com ) and to more than 1200 stores : food co-ops , specialty stores , cheese shops , museum gift shops . We also sell to florists who use the caramels for gift baskets . And some of our bigger accounts are people who do a lot of corporate gifting . Good in a basket , included with something else .”
Building a strong community is a long-time Vermont tradition . “ We graze our neighbor ’ s fields and swap eggs and cheese and there are very symbiotic relationships . A bagel-making neighbor from Boston comes to Vermont every week and drops off a big bag of bagels . In exchange , we give them eggs , sometimes strawberries , sometimes honey , sometimes just caramels .”
“ One neighbor has big machines and he ’ ll come and dig something out , and we give them produce . Another neighbor grazes their horse on an unused field , in exchange we ’ ll pick their blueberry patch .” It is important to them to be good neighbors as well as to have good neighbors .
The goodwill permeates everything they do : a business rented their farmhouse for a week-long retreat . As they were leaving , they offered , “ We have leftover food . What can we do with it ?” Within minutes , Luke had the food boxed-up and donated to the local food pantry .
They added , “ There is a sense of pride in Vermont and working the land that may not exist everywhere . Being a farmer in Vermont is very deeply respected and admired . We picked Vermont specifically because of its political and economic and medical philosophy .”
And there ’ s help for farmers – “ Vermont supports the working landscape , there are grants that help people who are keeping the land working , because that ’ s what people in Vermont have said is important , whether they ’ re farmers or not .”
“ We received great help from NOFA Vermont ( North East Organic Farming Association ). They represent the small farmer in so many ways . Vermont farmers have a really strong group of people advocating for them .”
Luke recently joined the board of Grace Cottage Hospital , bringing his business background and love of community to this wonderful , local hospital . He calls it “ a little diamond in the rough .”
“ We ’ re finally at a point where we ’ re able
18 VERMONT MAGAZINE