FarmStart - Tanner and Heleena Abbott

Tanner and Heleena Abbott are Yankee’s most recent FarmStart investment. They used the investment monies to start up a goat cheese manufacturing facility. While Tanner is new to this operation, Heleena is not. Heleena’s grandmother, Jean Hurlburt, owned and operated her own operation for over 15 years in New Hampshire. Heleena spent many summers with her grandmother helping her milk the goats and package the cheese. Last year when her grandmother decided to get out of the business, Heleena and Tanner decided they wanted to take it over.

The Abbott's operation is located in the small town of Franklin, Vermont. They currently have 32 milkers with each goat producing approximately 6 pounds (young herd) of milk per day. Their goats range in age from just 1 week to 3 years. The milk is used to make two types of cheese: Feta and Chevre. Feta cheese can be purchased plain, Greek, or marinated in a tomato basil olive oil mixture. The Chevre cheese (more of a cream style cheese) comes in many flavors such as dill & garlic, Boursin (thyme, pepper & garlic) and sweet dessert cheese with flavors like Cranberry-Orange or Pineapple-Apricot. These are just a few of the flavors currently available. They plan to add additional flavors in the future.

The Abbotts plan to sell their cheeses at local farmer’s markets, Co-ops and eventually via their website: www.hilandfarm.com. They already have customers (previous customers of Heleena’s grandmother) anxiously waiting to place their orders.

Tanner and Heleena are excited as they begin their new venture and while Heleena’s grandmother is no longer the owner and operator of the business she is there providing them guidance and in a small way will always be a part of their business as she painted the goat found on the HI-LAND FARM label.

The goal of FarmStart is to provide working capital to help start-up farmers establish a positive business and credit history during the early phases of their business careers. Within five years recipients should be positioned to graduate to a conventional line of credit from Yankee or another lender.