For around four decades, Marjorie Susman and Marian Pollack farmed the land at 3406 Lime Kiln Road together. 

The Monkton property in 1981 became the site of Orb Weaver Farm, where the pair grew vegetables, milked Jersey cows and started a successful cheesemaking operation.  

Susman and Pollack have since hung up their hats at the farm, but the land’s agricultural legacy is carrying on under the stewardship of another family.

Local farmer Ben Osicky now raises Texas Longhorns at the farm with his mother, Tammy Lavalette, who also raises rabbits and chickens on the property. 

“It is an absolute dream come true,” Susman said of the arrangement. “It makes us able to age in place because we know that the land’s being taken care of, there are beautiful cows that are well cared for and loved, and it’s making us really, really happy.” 

It was in 1980 that Susman and Pollack moved to the property for a farm job. 

“We were here for about a year and the people offered to sell it to us,” Susman recalled. 

The pair decided they wanted to get a herd of Jersey cows and make cheese, a dream that began unfolding at Orb Weaver. 

“We thought there’d be a zillion people up here making cheese, but there was nobody,” Pollack said. “We were pretty much on our own.” 

Susman and Pollack became something of pioneers in Vermont’s artisanal cheesemaking industry. Over the years the pair taught themselves the craft, eventually building a cheese house and cheese cave on the property. They sold Orb Weaver’s cheese to a variety of places around the state. 

Along with raising cows and making cheese, the pair used a portion of the 103-acre property to grow vegetables that they sold to local restaurants and the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-Op. 

Susman and Pollack stopped milking their herd in 2018. Around that time, the pair was working with a young couple who planned to take over the cheesemaking operation. Though factors including the pandemic and a lack of affordable housing led the couple to cease operations in 2022. 

But when one door closes, another one often opens. 

“When (Kate Turcotte and Zack Munzer) stopped milking and making cheese, Ben came and asked if we would consider letting him have his cows here,” Susman said. 

The arrangement allowed Osicky to further a dream of raising Longhorn cattle and for Susman and Pollack, who live on the property, to watch a new herd graze the same pastures their Jersey cows once did.

“It was a lifesaver,” Pollack said. “The fact of not having animals out here was going to break our hearts.”

MARJORIE SUSMAN, CENTER, started Monkton’s Orb Weaver Farm in 1981 alongside Marian Pollack. The pair has since retired, but Ben Osicky and Tammy Lavalette are continuing to raise animals on the Orb Weaver land. Osicky and Lavalette run Green Mountain Longhorns, which raises Texas Longhorns, rabbits and chickens. Independent photo/Marin Howell

RAISING LONGHORNS 

Osicky moved his herd of Texas Longhorns to the Monkton farm a few years ago. He and Lavalette now run their operation, Green Mountain Longhorns, at the site. 

“I’ll never forget the day they arrived,” Susman said. “We were sitting up in the garden, and we’re looking at the cattle truck, and these gorgeous, gorgeous cows … just came off the truck.”

Osicky started out with five cows several years ago, and the herd has now grown to 30. Osicky and Lavalette’s family has raised cattle for generations. Lavalette noted her brother-in-law works in the industry, trucking cattle from auction houses and sales. 

“He was actually the one that stumbled across them and said, ‘I found you some Longhorns,’” she said. 

The herd is currently made up of both registered, grade purebred and beef crossbred animals.  Lavalette said she and Osicky are working toward a fully registered herd. 

“We will achieve this two ways — by breeding our own and buying in a few (more) brood cows or heifers,” she explained. “The market is crazy expensive right now so what we paid for a cow last year is about 2.5 to 3 times more now. I can see us topping out with between 15 and 20 brood cows in the next three years.” 

Lavalette noted Longhorns take longer to finish out (the last stage of cattle’s life) than other beef breeds. 

“They take closer to three years (versus) 18-24 (months) with other beef breeds,” she said. “Longhorns have a longer life span. Females will calve at 22-24 (months) and will often produce a calf every year into their early twenties.” 

Lavalette said she and Osicky expect to cap their herd around 50 animals. She noted that as they build their purebred herd, cross breeds that finish in 18-24 months will help keep a steady supply of beef available. 

Green Mountain Longhorns beef is available for purchase by appointment in the Monkton farm’s former cheese house, now the “meat house.” 

“Longhorn beef is a lot leaner,” Lavalette said. “It’s right up there with chicken and rabbit, both of which we also have.” 

Green Mountain Longhorns currently sells its beef to Snap’s Restaurant in Bristol and through New Haven’s Village Green Market. 

“My hopes are to definitely expand to more restaurants locally,” Osicky said. “Our biggest thing is we want the quality, not the quantity.” 

Lavalette also raises pasture-raised chickens and rabbits for meat. Eggs and rabbit meat can be found in the meat house along with the Longhorn beef. 

While Green Mountain Longhorns marks a new chapter for the Orb Weaver property, Osicky and Lavalette’s family is working to bring back a key part of the farm’s past. 

“We’re trying to fill the barn with Jerseys again,” Lavalette said. 

She noted that her grandchildren are raising Jersey calves for 4-H projects as a tribute to the former herd at Orb Weaver. Once those cows calve and start producing milk, Lavalette will begin making cheese for the family’s consumption. 

“Not to the level that (Susman and Pollack) did, they’re professionals,” Lavalette said. 

Susman and Pollack have enjoyed having Lavalette and Osicky raise animals on the property and watching the family pursue a labor of love on the same plot of land the pair once grew their own. 

“(Osicky) has done a great job; he’s so fastidious,” Pollack said. 

Susman agreed. 

“They do a stellar job. You can look at just the way everything’s mowed and taken care of; it’s pretty amazing,” she said. “It’s a good match.”