A new video series from Vermont producer and host Rocket features a visit with Seth Leach, the seventh-generation farmer at Woodlawn Farmstead in Pawlet, to explore how vertical integration has been essential for this small dairy farm’s survival.
Seth discusses how he and his wife Kate have worked to manage every step in milk production, from growing crops to making cheese, to overcome the modern challenge of “buying retail and selling wholesale." By partnering with renowned cheesemakers like Plymouth Artisan Cheese and Crowley Cheese, and even starting their own cheese brand, Woodlawn Creamery, the Leaches continue to find inventive ways to keep their 250-cow operation afloat.
Filmmaker Rocket profiled Woodlawn Farmstead in a series of eight video stories called Small Vermont Businesses in Small Vermont Towns. New videos will be released weekly for eight weeks. To see other videos from the series, click here.
Rocket is a storyteller and the driving force behind Eat Vermont and Stellar, a mobile application that empowers people to create custom recipes and navigate the kitchen. He's an alumnus of The Putney School '10 and Middlebury College '14, and a recent graduate of the Vermont Law School.
Rocket's video series was supported in part by Vermont Public's Made Here Fund, launched in 2022 to broaden and diversify Vermont storytelling. Rocket's project was one of 10 projects selected by a jury in and funded in 2023. To learn more about the Fund and released and upcoming projects, click here.
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