It's a combination of the people and the landscape I think that make us proud to be part of Vermont and to make our cheese here. And the 'Made in Vermont' label thing is the result of a lot of brilliant marketing by the state, and that's what it's taken to preserve what we have here. I hope we can keep it.

We settled on cheese because, aside from wanting to make a living on the land in a very depressed part of the state here, we decided that we'd like to create a business model that could be replicated on other dairy farms.

As far as the business is concerned, we are in our infancy. But we're selling all the cheese that we're producing, and we're in rapid growth.

If you’ve ever met an energy vampire (and you probably have), you’ll get the distinct feeling that this person has an intense need to prey off the vitality of others. There is a kind of acute neediness present in energy vampires which can be quite overwhelming and depleting to those they come in contact with.

According to studies, empathic children are more susceptible to developing problems such as anxiety and depression in later life, especially if they experience emotionally turbulent upbringings.

An energy vampire can never “steal” energy from us unless we consciously or unconsciously permit them to.