Tucked in the brush of Eastern Connecticut, Beltane Farm wakes each morning to a subtle symphony: the frenzied rustling of branches, a cow’s yawning moo, the crunching of Paul Trubey’s boots as they break through the icy crust of snow on his way to feed the goats.
Trubey, a social worker by trade, owns and runs the Lebanon, Connecticut-based Beltane Farm. Nearly two decades ago, after relocating to Connecticut from Massachusetts, Trubey pursued a longtime interest he had in the caring of goats, and opened Beltane Farm in 2002.
In late January 2013, Trubey welcomed members of our culinary team to the farm. The visit, part of an ongoing effort to deepen our chefs’ knowledge of farm-to-table cuisine, allowed our team to see Trubey’s cheese-making process firsthand and strengthen relationships with one of our longtime purveyors.
Beltane Farm produces a variety of artisanal, farmstead goat milk cheese ranging from Danse de la Lune, a dense creamy cheese with a Brie-like rind, to Beltane’s Vespers, a French-style cheese with a line of vegetable ash or herbes de Provence, a method traditionally used to divide the morning milk and the evening milk.
Beltane Farm’s award-winning chèvre, made in small batches every week, is their most popular cheese and can be purchased plain or rolled in a variety of spices.
