WILTON – Farmer Benjamin Meier is a patient man.

Each day, he arrives at the Temple-Wilton Community Farm, located at 195 Isaac Frye Highway, in Wilton, at 4 a.m. Meier is a cheese wiz, if you’ll pardon the expression.

Meier is one of three farmers who tends to the farm, along with Silvano Biffis and Elad Sadie. Meier makes cheese each day, for Abbott Hill Creamery, which is named for the hill where the TWCF is located.

Meier carefully brings cheese to a boil, then removes it from the heat to stir, and then returns it to the burner. He checks the temperature frequently.

“You need to heat very slowly,” he explained. “Every cheese has a very special recipe and you have to be very accurate. I’m stirring the curds very slowly at a temperature of 115 degrees.”

Originally from Germany, Meier was a teacher before moving to the United States 12 years ago, and taking a job at the farm, which he refers to as, “his calling.”

“I’ve been here at the farm for ten years,” he said, in between stirring. “The farm itself started in 1986, and there were some people in the community who were looking for high quality biodynamic food.”

Since ’86, the founding principle of the community supported agriculture (CSA) has been to separate food that nourishes the community from the economy that enables the farm to prosper, because the modern relationship that exists between food and money is damaging to plants, animals and the earth.

Meier said it’s all about nutrient-dense vegetables and healthy animals through organic and biodynamic methods.

“I make yogurt here as well,” he said. “It’s plain and unsweetened. We have that available in returnable quart jars. And we sell the cheese here at the farm, and at other locations, like Nature’s Greengrocer in Peterborough and at farmers markets in Concord and Salem.”

Even with COVID, Meier said the farmers markets have been even busier than pre-pandemic.

“Some of them are even bigger now,” he said.

Biffis tends to the 20 cows that live on the farm and the pastures.

“He’s originally from Italy,” Meier said. “We’ve got these people working here from all over the world. Strange, right?”

Sadie is from Israel.

“We mainly have the three of us farmers here,” Meier added. “As a CSA farm, we support hungry families providing food for them year-round. They are from Wilton and Temple, although some do come from Nashua, but mostly this area.”

Even with a pandemic, Meier said that working at the farm has been relatively normal. Now that it’s winter, the primary goal is to tend to the cows and the chickens.

“We just have a few things right now in the store here,” he said. “In March, we’ll start to seed the earth.”

Meier is responsible for making all of the cheeses and yogurt made at the farm with the milk from the herd of grass-fed cows. Producing many types of soft and hard cheese, Meier keeps busy. Making cheese is a long process that takes six hours.

“We have two cheese vats,” he said, pointing at the large, stainless steel containers. “One is 50 gallons and the big one is 150 gallons. The farm process 200 gallons of milk each week, so we buy a little bit of extra milk made from other farms, like Stonewall Farm in Keene. There’s another small farm in Temple as well, Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm. We buy milk from them to make cheese and then they buy the cheese from us.”

Although the TWCF is not certified organic, Meier said otherwise from a content standpoint, everything is organic.

The farm itself, as a community farm, is not owned by any one person.

“It’s a cooperative,” Meier said. “We have a board of seven trustees, and they run the business. The farm is member owned.”

The principles of the farm has resulted in a membership community that understands the crucial difference between buying food and sharing both the economic needs and the produce of the farm. The principles have also resulted in the purchase and the preservation of 150 acres of historic farmland.

“The land is all protected,” Meier said.

At the farm, he works 55 hours per week. He used to work more.

“But my wife wasn’t happy about that,” he said with a laugh. “We have an agreement now. I work until three and then I go home to my wife and young daughter. But every day I come here on my bicycle, year round.”

Meier doesn’t have a car, but said that is by choice. In the snow, he’ll opt to walk instead of ride.

On the property, besides a farm store, there is a café in a space that is rented from the farm to someone who works independently, according to Meier.

“Some of the food that they serve is from us,” he said. “We’re in conversation with them about them selling much more food that we would provide.”

Meier said there are talks about building a creamery, which would allow the farm to produce more cheeses.

“I’m working on the plans,” he said.

Meier said that the way the cows are cared for is an important part of what makes the TWCF so special.

“When it gets warmer, the cows are outside in pasture day and night, every day from spring until autumn,” he said. “And the other thing that’s unique, is we keep the calves with their mothers for four months. No farmers do that. Usually when the calf is born, they are separated. With this practice, the whole herd has a different attitude. The cows are happier. It’s nice to see the cows and their calves running together. You don’t see that often.”

Another perk for the cows is that their horns are not removed.

“We don’t cut the horns,” Meier said. “It’s part of the cow and they communicate with the horns. They’re much more aware. The reasons for taking the horns off is if you have a farm with all the cows packed in together, it’s much more dangerous.”

In America, Meier said, people think cows don’t have horns because you rarely see one with them.

“People think only bulls have horns, which is not the case,” he said.

As for the CSA membership, in June 2016, the TWCF reformed as the Four Corners Cooperative dba, the Temple-Wilton Community Farm.

In order to join the CSA, prospective members must first join the cooperative. This involves making a one-time payment of $200 that is refundable if that member leaves the CSA.

The co-op payment is separate from the annual CSA pledge, which means that each year, the farm determines the average amount that is needed from each adult farm member in order to meet the budget. However, a member is free to determine the amount that they are willing to pay, taking into account personal needs and the needs of the farm.

The average amount spent for the ’20/’21 season is $150/adult/month, and the pledge covers all vegetables that the farm produces plus up to three gallons of milk per week.

The store is stocked twice a week throughout the year, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The farm grows a number of storage crops that are available through the winter and into the following spring.

Items in the farm store, other than vegetables and milk, must be paid for separately. Those items include TWCF products such as eggs, cheese, yogurt and meat, as well as items the store supplies such as bread, cookies, maple syrup, dried herbs, herbal teas, etc.

For more information, visit twcf.com.