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One of the last places I visited in New Hampshire was tucked away on a back road, one of those ribbons of asphalt barely wide enough for two cars but empty enough that you feel compelled to go fast anyway, despite the dips, curves, and possibility of meeting another car around the next bend. Anyway, Via Lactea farm is back there on Stoneham Road, and it comes complete with goats, chickens, and pigs. Jenny Tapper showed me around. The goats were being coy up in the higher meadow and wouldn’t come down to say hi, the chickens were pretty much oblivious to us, but the pigs … I didn’t see a pig until Jenny called out to another meadow from the barn fence. Then one piggy popped up, then a whole bunch of them came a’runnin’ up from the leafy, shady place out back. You can see them making a beeline for the trough in the pic up there. They seemed to be happy pigs. The Tappers sell fresh goat’s milk, goat cheeses, maple syrup, eggs, and assorted other items from their honor-system store off the front porch. There’s even goat’s milk soap!— Nathalie Strassheim
