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Lynch School alum Casey Galligan got her first taste of the agrarian life while studying abroad in Spain, where she returned to teach after graduation. She went on to volunteer for the Peace Corps in Panama and make cheese in France and Vermont—and since 2015, she’s been crafting small-batch cow’s milk wheels as the creamery manager at in New York. —Courtney Hollands

GAINING PERSPECTIVE
"I did a farm stay in France, where they milked a small herd of goats and made cheese on the premises—a really small farmstead operation. The people just reframed my whole perspective on how to live a good life and how to be a member of the community, and also how to be an essential component to this vital process that makes up our everyday life: food and nourishment and keeping the land healthy."

PUTTING IN THE WORK
"Every day starts at 5:30 or 6:30 a.m. Two or three days a week I’m making cheese, and the days I’m not, I’m milking in the morning. Then, it’s tasks like managing the cave, washing the cheeses, cutting cheeses, shipping cheeses, getting cheeses ready for deliveries and farmers’ markets—and cleaning. A lot of cleaning. The three big cheeses we make are Dutch Knuckle, Pound Cake, and Little Dickens. In the last four years, we have changed and adapted the recipe for Dutch Knuckle and it’s consistently getting better. I brought in the recipes for Pound Cake and Little Dickens from my apprenticeships in France."

PAYING IT FORWARD
"I find myself thinking about how I can incorporate being a bilingual educator and teaching small children back into my life. We’re getting to a point where we could bring in an education program at the farm. Not an apprenticeship program that requires people’s labor, but an access point for people who are interested in getting into agriculture and into small, value-added dairy or cheesemaking." ◽