It’s caramel with cachet. Big Picture Farm’s candies, made with goat milk, are a welcome reinvention of the classic treats. Goat milk sugars are the background note in the creamy sweetness and tantalizing flavor. When cheesemakers Louisa Conrad and Lucas Farrell decided on a future with goats, they also decided to make the candies. Now the Townshend, Vt., farm uses its own 1910 taffy wrapping machine to individually package each caramel in waxed paper ($10.99 for a 3.2-ounce box of 11 or 12 candies). The couple got the idea from Conrad’s brother, who had been making caramels, to which they applied a goat milk recipe. The Big Picture candy line started with sea salt and Bourbon vanilla, then came chai and cocoa latte, and — this being Vermont — maple cream. Each box has drawings of some of the 28 goats milked for the treasures within: for instance, Gertrude, Junebug, and Winnimere, with shaggy dog Elvis keeping watch. Available at Formaggio Kitchen, 244 Huron Ave., Cambridge, 617-354-4750, and Formaggio Kitchen South End,
268 Shawmut Ave., Boston, 617-350-6996;
American Provisions,
613 East Broadway, South Boston, 617-269-6100; Central Bottle,
196 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-225-0040;or go to
www.bigpicturefarm.com.
RACHEL ELLNER
Caramels reinvented with Vermont goat milk
