Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1301686
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 46 NOVEMBER 2020 L I V E + P L AY Lillooet Sheep & Cheesery's farm stand is tucked behind a thatch of trees on Topsfield Road in Boxford and is blink-and- you-miss-it tiny, with nothing but a red door and a modest sign that reads "farm stand" on the outside. Inside, though, it's a different story. The small, spare space is a cornucopia of meats, cheeses, honey, yarn, veggies, maple syrup, and other goods that are grown and made on the farm or within a handful of miles from it. The cheese, yarn, and meats come from sheep that graze on the farm's 100-acre swath of conserved land. Nathaniel Higleyand and Gillian Marino raise those sheep and make that cheese, and on the day they spoke to Northshore magazine, they were at home in the farmhouse where Marino had just given birth to the couple's sec- ond baby a few days before. Their property was established in 1688, and their baby is no doubt the latest of many who've been born there. That cozy story of a homesteading couple raising sheep and babies on their bucolic land far from the bustling city fits a narrative so romantic and idyllic that it seems plucked from a movie. But this story is very real, rooted in the land and inspired by the world's greatest cheesemaking traditions. Nathaniel Higleyand and Gillian Marino raise sheep and their young family on the 100-acre farm. Marino, the farm's cheesemaker, has made cheese in Italy, England, France, Vermont, up- state New York, and throughout New England, but came home to the North Shore to live out the couple's dream of raising animals, making cheese for the local community, and building their life and family on the farm. Rather than setting their sights on major grocery chains and large-scale production, Lil- looet Sheep & Cheesery aims for small-batch, high-quality products made for the locals. "The plan was to sell to people who live nearby," Marino says. "To have people stop by on their way home from work and grab a wedge of cheese." If locally produced foods really capture the taste of a place, then Lillooet Sheep & Cheesery's farmland is absolutely delicious. Their sheep graze rotationally in pastures and woodlands so they're always eating something fresh, resulting in happy, low-stress animals that eat a highly varied and nutritious diet.