Beecher's Handmade Cheese

As the story goes, Bob Kilmoyer (a university math professor) was asked by one of his students to watch a few of his goats for the summer of 1971, and the student never returned- at least not for the goats- and thus began Westfield Farm. The herd grew, an entire line of cheeses were developed (not to mention a market for specialty goat milk cheeses), and a number of employees came on to work the farm and live with the Kilmoyers. Nearly a decade later, the workload and cooperative living got to be too much for the Kilmoyers and they decided to sell the goats and place a small ad in the Boston Globe for a goat cheesemaking business. The Stetsons had been working in shipping in Boston and Bob had an increasing interest in shifting his work away from selling services - he wanted to produce something tangible. He saw the ad in the Globe and it piqued his interest. They drove out to visit and although they had never even tasted goat cheese, they saw the creamery as a viable business. So they moved in with the Kilmoyers shortly after that and learned about milk collection, cheesemaking and distribution. Approximately one month later, the Stetsons were living the dream. Over the last ten years, they have nearly tripled the volume of cheese produced on the farm. They made additions onto the cheesemaking facility, shortly after taking over and now use the old barn for packaging and cold storage. Westfield gets milk from four local goat dairies. These dairies have evolved because Westfield Farm created a local market for goat milk. A couple of the dairies they work with shifted from cow dairying to goats because there is now more money in selling goats milk for cheese than selling fluid cows milk. Most of the cheeses at Westfield Farm are pasteurized and a couple, including the Classic Blue Log, are consistent first place winners at the American Cheese Society’s annual judging and competition.

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