{"id":32681,"date":"2018-01-04T11:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=32681"},"modified":"2018-01-04T13:42:21","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T18:42:21","slug":"michigan-award-winning-cheese-unexpected-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/michigan-award-winning-cheese-unexpected-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Award-Winning Cheese From Unexpected Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

F<\/span>or Amy and Mark Spitznagel of Michigan\u2019s Idyll Farms<\/a>, owning a goat farm wasn\u2019t always part of the plan. Mark is a hedge fund pioneer, best known for “tail-risk hedging”, and the CIO of hedge fund management company Universa Investments, while Amy has explored many paths. She has trained as a schoolteacher, traveled as an international flight attendant, and studied acting.<\/p>\n

Still, a farm at the edge of Lake Michigan on the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula called to them, and the Spitznagels bought the farm in 2010. The couple had a summer home in the town of Northport but wanted to get involved in local agriculture. This stemmed largely, Amy says, from a desire to teach their children about the origins of food and animal husbandry.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tangible and productive nature of the farm stands out, too, for Mark, the founder and CIO of a multibillion-dollar hedge fund management company. \u201cI live in a world of information and abstractions,\u201d he says, \u201cand for me, that grounding is really important.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

They considered pursuing wine or cherries\u2014the pride of the peninsula\u2014but Amy says, \u201cthe answer kept coming back to goats, and cheese.\u201d They found goat\u2019s temperament charming and the children could handle it, so the choice became obvious.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2013, Idyll Farms began making and selling goat cheese. But getting there meant lots of trial and errors, says Amy, and \u201cbuilding, only to demo the next year if it did not work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Idyll<\/a>Turning the dreams of Idyll Farms into a reality was a collaborative effort, and the Spitznagels went to experts for guidance. They learned from cheesemakers in France and then, with those same experts, built the Michigan farm\u2014receiving on-the-ground advice on everything from choosing equipment to selecting a starting herd of Alpine goats<\/a>. They traveled to Switzerland and around the United States and chose farmers\u2014willing to learn with them and to operate with practices they believed in.<\/span><\/p>\n

At its core, the farm is committed to sustainability and organic practices, using a rotationally grazed, pasture-based approach to goat farming. \u201cThe goats and the pastures work together symbiotically, as they were meant to do, to create something great both in our products and in the environment,\u201d says Mark.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Though according to Mark, his paths of finance and farming are mostly separate, that focus on sustainability seems to have elucidated parallels between the two. \u201cI would say that the farm has given me a much greater appreciation for respecting natural systems, and, despite tempting short-term benefits, the importance of restraint in trying to manipulate them,\u201d Mark says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Using those foundations of rotationally-grazed, pasture-based farming, Idyll Farms has decided on a goat cheese that\u2019s rooted in the French style, Amy says, but influenced by Swiss Alpine <\/span>transhumance<\/span><\/a> and pasture management and modified for the American palate.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t