At Thorncrest Farm in Goshen, pampered cows make milk for chocolate and caramel
For Kimberly Thorn of Thorncrest Farm and Milk House Chocolates in Goshen, it’s the milk that makes her chocolates special.
The story goes, on the Thorncrest website, that Thorn was living in Ireland and fell in love with the desserts made with local dairy products — especially the chocolate desserts. The man who would become her husband, Clint, grew up on a commercial dairy farm and was planning to go into the family business.
Together, Kimberly and Clint decided to take a different approach to dairy. On their Goshen farm, they raise a small number of cows in calm, peaceful conditions without any pesticides or herbicides. Thorncrest sells the milk from these cows in small batches of cream-line milk and vanilla milk, caramels and, of course, chocolates. Many of these products’ labels bear the name of the cow or cows whose milk was used to make them.
Clint is in charge of breeding cows that will produce rich, creamy milk. Kimberly is in charge of tasting that milk and figuring out the best way to use it. Clint says her palate can determine what’s best for dark versus milk chocolate,
or one of Thorncrest’s other products.
The chocolate menu changes daily. It includes chocolates filled with flavors like mango, passion fruit, key lime and lavender. The shop also sells chocolate bars, barks, chocolate-covered nuts and pretzels, and often seasonal items like a chocolate Santa Claus.
Kimberly uses Fair Trade Peruvian cacao nibs to create these chocolates and organic fruit and nuts where possible to fill them. But it’s the milk, she said, that tie these chocolates to this place and time. That’s the part that matters to the Thorns.
“This is how (dairy farming) was done in the 1700s,” Clint said. “It’s kind of backwards how we do things.”
Clint explained that in the world of commercial dairy, it’s all about volume, but at Thorncrest, the goal is to keep the cows happy so that their milk will be of excellent quality. Aside from the organic feed, the cows are kept in a calm, relaxed and clean environment. Visitors are welcome at the barn, but they can’t go all the way in because that could be stressful for the cows and affect how the milk tastes.
Thorncrest has Hereford and Jersey cows. While Jerseys are traditionally known for milk with a higher butterfat content, Clint said their milk has a nuttier flavor that Kimberly finds overwhelming in chocolates. The Jersey milk, instead, is used for the caramels and sold on its own.
The dairy barn is right next door to the area where the chocolates are made, and to the farm’s shop. It’s just down the road from where Clint grew up on his family’s dairy farm, Kimberly said.
Both Clint and Kimberly are passionate about preserving the area’s heritage through their milk and their chocolates.
“When I was growing up here, there were 23 dairy farms just in Goshen,”
Clint said. “I’d go to school, and most of us would have helped a cow give birth.”
The Thorns’ two grown sons are working in the family business, sometimes bringing their kids along.