Big Picture Farm Goat Milk Caramels

The concept of “terroir” has been a popular one in the food and wine culture in recent years. It’s a term that wineries and
cheesemakers like to use to help draw attention to the place where the product is produced. When we say “Farmstead
Caramels” on our boxes, we are trying to draw attention not only to our particular farm and animals, but also to our
method of production. The philosopher Walter Benjamin famously lamented a loss of art’s “aura” in the age of mechanical
reproduction. Well, the same thing could be said for food in contemporary society. “Farmstead” techniques have
been marginalized and largely eliminated during the modernization of industrial agriculture and food production over
the past century. Small batch, place-specific, traditional food production has been replaced with a centralized and highly
mechanized factory process. Which means a lot of food—despite being sold under different brand names – tastes pretty
much the same. On a farmstead operation, even reproducing the exact taste from one batch to the next can be a
challenge. That’s because all the living variables are still invited to the party.
And when we place our “Animal Welfare Approved” seal on each package, it means
the farming standards we implement at Big Picture Farm are the most rigorous and
progressive animal care requirements in the nation, as recognized by the World
Society for the Protection of Animals for two years running now. It’s an expression
of the tremendous pride we take in the work that we do. There’s a lot of labor
involved on the farm side, and the high cost of raising our primary ingredient
ourselves makes it difficult to compete with other candy companies who can simply
purchase their ingredients at commodity prices. But our animals are our family, and
this type of farming is more endangered than ever before, and therefore it is worth
it. And we trust that our customers will think so too. We rotationally pasture our
herd on 100 acres from May-November, using solar-electric fences to move the goats
twice every day to ensure fresh, delicious, and diverse forage. They are fed only
organic pasture, and supplemented exclusively with GMO-free and organic whole
grain, minerals, and alfalfa. Our milk is our medium. And it is a beautiful and
precious one, indeed.