About a decade ago, Diane St. Clair moved her family to a farm in Orwell and decided to buy a family cow. What she soon discovered was that the Jersey produced much more milk than her family could use. So she decided to make small batches of farmstead butter.
Now, Diane’s Animal Farm butter is available at a few very select restaurants around the country: at Chef Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and Per Se restaurants in San Francisco and Manhattan and at Chef Barbara Lynch’s No. 9 Park in Boston. Locally, it’s sold is at the Middlebury Natural Food Co-op.
We caught up with Diane during early morning milking and churning to learn how her butter came to be the favorite of several of the country’s top chefs.