Member Spotlight
Every post the Federation has filed under Member Spotlight.
Member spotlight: the swab log she rebuilt
A farmstead producer spent late August rewriting her environmental testing log from scratch after this week's Listeria webinar convinced her the old one wasn't asking the right questions.
Read postMember spotlight: her first solo vat
An apprentice at a small farmstead creamery ran a full cheddar vat alone for the first time this month, right as milk prices dipped and the margin math…
Read postMember spotlight: two calendars, one farmstead
A farmstead cheesemaker in her third season is running the hay crew and the cave off the same August calendar, and neither one waits for the other.
Read postMember spotlight: a week-old membership at the conference
Nia Thompson joined the federation the week before the Madison conference and went straight from signing up to standing on the trade floor. She told us what that…
Read postMember spotlight: the wholesale maker behind a folding table
After a decade selling only to distributors, one farmstead maker set up her first market table this spring. She told us what a wholesale account never taught her.
Read postMember spotlight: the room she built for the new guidance
A farmstead maker walks us through the aging room she built this spring, sized for records as much as humidity, ahead of federal review of the raw-milk aging…
Read postMember Spotlight: a partner for the cave
A farmstead maker who spent 2025 unsure she'd keep her cave open now has a business partner, a second vat, and a story worth telling other members.
Read postThe volunteer behind competition check-in
Long before a judge tastes a single wheel, someone has to check every entry in correctly. We spent an afternoon with the member who volunteered to run it.
Read postMember spotlight: the vat she finally runs
Three years as the assistant, then the head cheesemaker retired. A farmstead assistant on what changes when the make sheet has her name on it.
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