A rooster's cries pierce the dawn air in Orwell, Vt., a quiet corner of the Champlain Valley in the foothills of the Green Mountains. Animal Farm, once a horse barn, is now the center of a unique handmade butter-making operation. Owner Diane St. Clair, 52 (above with Lightning), formerly worked in public health and moved to Orwell 10 years ago. On these 32 acres, she began with a team of draft horses and a family milking cow. As a young girl, she had worked on a Maryland dairy farm and always loved cows. Since the family cow produced more milk than the family could use, she ventured into butter making, doing it the 19th-century way. What makes St. Clair's butter unique is her small herd of eight Jersey cows. They graze on fields dotted with native grasses, legumes, clover, and alfalfa, and produce milk with more butterfat than any breed of cattle. Daily at dawn and dusk, the cows are led into stalls, where a milking machine pumps out 5-6 gallons from each animal. To turn that milk into butter takes two days: The cream separates from the milk, the cream is pasteurized, cultured with St. Clair's own buttermilk, and churned into butter. After the churning is complete, each batch is hand-washed to remove excess buttermilk and kneaded on a marble slab. Using an ice cream scoop, St. Clair packs æ-cup balls into freezer bags to be shipped to a handful of restaurants. Animal Farm butter costs $18 a pound. In Boston, the butter goes to No. 9 Park; it's also served at celebrity chef Thomas Keller's resturants, the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., and Per Se in New York. — Wendy Maeda
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