3c hapter - Index of

156 Locavesting
identify his cows. But ultimately, Milk Thistle’s salvation was to
come from a customer after all.
Building A Premier Brand
When their son Finn turned one, Charles Zentay and Clare Sant
began researching organic products. Milk was of special concern,
given the hormones and antibiotics that mainstream producers
regularly feed their factory- confi ned cows. The more the couple
researched, the more they were horrifi ed by industrial dairy practices.
That’s when they found Milk Thistle Farm milk at a Whole
Foods store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. They were buying
three gallons a week when Sant heard about Hesse’s efforts to
raise money. She mentioned it to her husband, who does angel
investing on the side of his job as a management consultant. He
has invested in a farm in Brazil and a couple of software companies,
among other deals. Zentay contacted Hesse, and they began
a dialogue that would result in a novel deal that could point the
way for other agricultural investors and entrepreneurs.
For Zentay, Milk Thistle has that rare combination of potential
and ability to execute shared by other successful food and ag
brands. “Organic has traditionally been seen as small scale, artisanal,
and not necessarily driven by a goal towards profi tability,”
he says. But that’s not necessarily the case. With Milk Thistle, “We
see an opportunity to become the premier brand for ultra- organic
in New England.”
In late 2010—two years after Hesse fi rst hung out his sign at a
farmers market looking for funds—construction began on a processing
facility on a 250-acre farm in Stuyvesant, New York, a halfhour
northwest of Ghent along the Hudson River. This would
be the new home of Milk Thistle Farm. If all goes according to
plan, the plant will be completed in May 2011, and Milk Thistle’s
expanded herd of 150 milkers—a threefold increase—will be
contentedly munching away in their spacious new home. With
the additional capacity, Milk Thistle should be able to more than
double its sales over the next three years, and expand from the
New York market into neighboring states, says Zentay.