I talk to my cats. Big whoop, right? They don’t seem to mind. At Moxie Ridge Farm & Creamery in Argyle, NY, Owner Lee Hennessy likes to chat with his goats. “I firmly believe that the happier they are, the better the milk is,” he says.
The millennial farmer makes good on his merry goats’ milk, turning it into traditional French-style cheeses—fluffy chèvre; a low-fat, spreadable “dream” cheese that’s heavenly on bagels; and various other seasonal, ripened fromage—that are snatched up everywhere from Saratoga’s Farmers’ Market to Troy’s Waterfront Farmers’ Market and the big one, New York City’s Union Square Greenmarket, which sees some 60,000 shoppers per day and has been going strong for more than 4 decades. Market-goers also pig out on Moxie’s whey-fed pork and milk-finished chicken (the birds are actually fed goat’s milk in an adaptation of a 500-year-old chicken-raising method).
A former cheese monger and sommelier, Hennessy’s all about the terroir; he’s passionate about bringing food to market that has a taste unique to the Washington County pasture and woodland where his animals thrive. And this fall, locals won’t even have to get off the couch to purchase it: The farm will be debuting a home delivery service in the Capital Region. Now, if only I could get my cats to fetch me that chèvre from my doorstep…