Cara: extreme enthusiasm. team player. honest. communicative. sold cheese for Whole Foods for years before coming to work with us. she takes initiative on important projects. yoga makes her quite giddy. she has hot pink pants, and is not afraid to wear them. she is a wonder woman with the creamery hose – curds beware!
Justin: downright hilarious. full of light-hearted humor. charismatic. has a delicious singing voice. did trail work with the SCA for years in all sorts of places including Alaska and the Southwest. he knows when i need a pick-me-up at work, and delivers it in the form of an old lady’s New Yorker accent or the words to love songs and musicals. likes to bike ride around the area and knead butter.
Mike: all smiles. gets down to business. carries himself with ease andboundless positivity. he worked in the men’s suit department at Bloomingdales, which led him to think critically about business structure and finance, which is kind of how we met. looks great in coveralls. he is a great cook and has the biggest cast iron pan i have ever seen in my life.
Jenna: playful. conscientious. highly organized. likes to belly dance. sarcastic – in an awesome way. she grew up on an organic dairy farm and brings her love for cows here. she is a world traveler, and pretty much taught herself Russian in her early 20s. has a special way with the Tobasi cheese, i think she is really a witch that has cast a spell over the cheese to make it incredible.
Eric: always prepared. focused. diligent. full of ideas and solutions. has a big smile. should be on Jeapordy because of all the facts in his head. hates waste. has worked on farms in the Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley for years before coming here. also has a Masters of English. he can perform spacial magic in the Maggies Round aging room to create tons of space when we thought we had none.
Mike – handy, adaptable, practical, kind, resourceful. pumps up flat tires in the parking lot without being asked, and doesn’t expect acknowledgement – he’s just that giving. likes to problem solve. is a paint expert, and what he doesn’t know, he definitely will find out. drives a 25 year old station wagon with feathers, bark, and origami cranes on the dashboard. before farming, he worked as a design drafter where he worked on steam turbine detail drawings. last name is fox.
Casey – light-hearted, poised, imaginative, dynamic, positive. has a boxer named Cudi who loves her dearly and yearns for her while she works. she is from oklahoma and has lived in all sorts of states that I know little about. has worked as a baker and concentrated on naturally leavened breads and specialty pastries. carries a comfortable, upbeat demeanor with her. knows the lyrics to any song that just happens to be playing. has a readiness to learn and a lovely ease about her.
Paul – spirited, bold, devoted, earnest, giddy. studied art, and then realized his true love of cheese. is a master cheese taster and describer. dives in and takes initiative. values education and taking on complex issues. bonds with the tobasi late into the evening through wild molds, telepathy, and a roaring boom box. sports a beard-net in the creamery. it is amazing to dance with him – especially if there is a hula hoop involved. has been described as part hobbit. he knows more than he lets on.
here is information about the apprentices who were here prior to 2012, and what they moved on to do when they left Cricket Creek Farm…
Anne Borgendale
Anne came to us from Minneapolis where she had spent the previous 7 years working for the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota as their Communications Coordinator. A real good food lover, Anne drools over cheese, butter, chocolate, and is known for cooking up the best soups (borscht!, beef bourguignon, ginger carrot…), loads of homemade ice cream and decadent marshmallows. Anne brought her keen eye and talent for design to Cricket Creek and propelled us forward with professional brochures and posters. When she left here, Anne took a job as assistant cheese maker at Shepard’s Way Farms in Northfield, MN.
Yasmin Roberti 
Yasmin sings while she works, while she cooks, while she sits, knits, plays, swims. She has a lovely singing voice and brought her joyous melodies to life here at Cricket Creek. Other joys she brought to us while working here were her rockin’ dance moves, sweet affection for the cows, excitement for weeding the garden by moonlight, and a willingness to come skinny dipping any time day or night! When she left Cricket Creek she took a job working for Philabundance, the largest hunger relief organization in the Philadelphia area, where is is helping to establish a gleaning program – volunteers go to area farms with extra produce, and them distribute it.
Cella Langer
Immediately after arriving at Cricket Creek, Cella took our Fresh cheese packaging to a whole other level, carved a wooden spoon or two, chopped firewood, and took about a million beautiful photos of the farm. Cella sews on an antique treadle sewing machine, eats 3 hearty meals per day, knows the Latin name of just about every tree in this region, likes to make puns, plays the Cello and the fiddle. When Cella left Cricket Creek, she and Emmet started a small farm in Wisconsin where they milk a cow, raise beef, pork, lamb, chickens, produce, grains for their animals, and cut a small crop of hay- details on her blog.
Emmet Fisher
Emmet grew up on a beautiful farm in Stockholm, Wisconsin. A few of Emmet’s culinary specialties are sourdough bread, hand-cranked ice cream, pizzas, and sweet pies. Emmet loves pie and fashions gorgeous pie crusts. He plays the accordion and is a phenomenal contra dancer (one of those partners you want to end up with because they’ll keep you from getting too lost). Emmet trained some Brown Swiss Oxen in his teens, and has a special place for cows in his heart. He loves to tinker – and tinkered his way into an improved system for separating cream in our bulk tank and moving milk into our cheese vat. He and Cella ventured out with their own small farm operation after leaving Cricket Creek.
Lindsay Quella 
Lindsay likes to knit, plan methodically, and care for animals. She has a very analytical mind and brought that to Cricket Creek in the form of systems organization and planning for the future. Lindsay is great at thinking of and implementing the little details. Before coming here, she worked for various other farmers both in Massachusetts and California, and most recently worked on a food truck in the Bay Area. When she left Cricket Creek, she went to work at Denison Farm in Schaghticoke, New York to grow vegetables.
Nick Haslett 
Nick knows all sorts of rare vocabulary. He whips out these words daily – it was good to have an English teacher around! He is quick to pick up tunes on his mandolin or guitar and creates lovely music. Nick cracks some pretty hilarious jokes and has an all-around jolly good mood. Nick became an expert in some fairly obscure tasks during his time at Cricket Creek, including how to change ballasts in all our big fluorescent light fixtures. We had literally been in the dark for months before Nick came along. After leaving Cricket Creek Farm, Nick went to work at Denison Farm in Schaghticoke, New York.