Spring Brook Farms, Berlin, CT

Spring Brook Farm is a traditional dairy farm located in Reading, Vermont. It spans more than 1,000 acres and is home to a wide array of livestock—the maintenance and care of which keep our students quite busy. Our farm is home to over 100 registered Jerseys, and the 42 milking cows produce over 600,000 lbs. of milk each year, now used to make our artisanal Tarentaise and Reading Cheeses. In addition to the cows, we have goats, chickens, roosters, pigs, turkeys and even some humans–just for good measure. All these efforts play an integral role in helping us help ourselves. The Farm sells hay for horses, sweet corn to the local market, chickens and turkeys seasonally and this, combined with our egg and meat production, enables us to take the lead in sustaining our program annually.

Our students help grow many kinds of vegetables including sweet corn, peas, tomatoes, pumpkins and potatoes as well as caring for the animals. The greenhouse, raspberry and blueberry bushes, grapevine and small apple orchard also keep the kids busy. The Farm’s honey bees pollinate it all, while still finding time to produce fresh honey.

The addition of the Spring Brook Farm Cheese House, designed for the kids with a glassed-in viewing area so the students can watch the cheese makers from two different levels, further enhances our mission by creating an important venue for students to study chemistry, microbiology, food preservation, economics and health and nutrition. This new learning experience enables our Lessons for a Lifetime ® workshops to take on a new level of meaning and importance as the students, perhaps our next generation of future cheese makers, see all of their efforts transformed into a product that will be consumed by people they may never meet.