Amy Forgues only dreamed about running a farmstead cheese operation when she and her husband Travis farmed their 80 Dutch belted cows in Northern Vermont. Amy took cheesemaking classes and it was a hobby of hers, but the price of building an on-farm cheesemaking operation was too great.
Amy and Travis raised their three children on the family farm in Vermont while farming organically for 17 years, then fate threw them a curveball that found them both in Wisconsin working in the agriculture industry and advocating for family farmers. After about 9 years in Wisconsin, another stroke of fate came to Amy when she was approached about purchasing Hidden Springs Farm and Creamery where she could fulfill that dream of producing farmstead cheeses, the couple jumped at that chance and the rest is history.
Amy is running the farm and creamery while her husband continues to work off the farm in the agriculture industry. “Hidden Springs is a return to farming for my family,” Amy says. The couple have 3 children, the youngest is still in college studying environmental science but comes home whenever possible to help, her favorite chore is taking care of the lambs. The second is a son who plans to return to the farm to help his mom build the business, their oldest daughter works in Minneapolis in the medical field but says she has felt a pull to move closer to her parents and the farm so she can be more involved, something she has not felt since the family left the family farm in Vermont.
Hidden Springs produces award winning Sheep milk cheese, Willy Street Co-op carries all of their cheese including Ocooch Mountain reserve, Wischago, Bohemian Blue, Farmstead Feta as well as a line of soft spreadable cheese called Driftless after the region the farm in located in.
Read more local vendor stories here.
