June 29, 2026
By Clementina Verge
Photographs by Rana Faure
This July, tucked into the rolling hills of Cornwall, Coltsfoot Valley Farm is unveiling an alpine-style cheese shop, inviting visitors to sample handcrafted raw milk cheeses just steps from the pastures where Jersey cows graze and old-world dairy culture lives on.
At the heart of the farm is Tommy Eucalitto, who left Litchfield County in search of peace and healing. He found both thousands of miles away in the Italian Alps, among mountain breezes, bellowing cows, and generations of cheesemakers preserving centuries-old traditions.
There, Eucalitto also found his calling. The life he couldn’t have imagined a decade ago is now one he can’t imagine leaving behind. He became a herdsman, learning the craft of traditional Fontina cheese production. One mentor left a deep imprint: Attilio, a farmer in his 80s who still climbs mountains and makes cheese by hand.
“It wasn’t just about cheese,” Eucalitto reflects. “It was a way of life.”
After time in the Alps and Sardinia, Eucalitto returned to Connecticut determined to build a dairy farm anchored in the same philosophy he experienced in Europe: work defined not by speed or size, but by patience and authenticity.
That vision found its home at Coltsfoot Valley Farm. Established in the 1890s as a working dairy, the property had been without cows since the 1980s. Jon and Constance Old purchased the land in the early 2000s, hopeful that the pastures wouldn’t remain idle. They welcomed Eucalitto’s proposal to lease the land and bring the cows back home.
Today, Coltsfoot Valley Farm is home to a small herd and operates on an intentionally modest scale. Eucalitto runs it alone, before dawn until dark seven days a week, milking, cleaning, and crafting cheese entirely by hand. He knows each cow by name. His favorite is Valentina.
Set against a sweeping vista, the farm feels suspended in time. Jerseys graze peacefully while cheesecloth flutters in the breeze. Inside the creamery, raw milk becomes small-batch alpine cheeses, fresh ricotta, and aged tomme, each shaped by the day’s changing conditions.
“It starts with quiet mornings and follows the rhythm of the seasons,” Eucalitto says.
That rhythm governs everything: calves born in spring, lush spring grazing, the slower pace of summer. Milk changes constantly, with the grass, the weather, and the lactation cycle of the herd. Eucalitto milks twice daily and makes cheese in the morning, while the milk is still warm.
“It’s as fresh as it can get,”he says.
Cheesemaking, he explains, is never-ending experimentation, as much intuition as science, mastering cultures, fermentation, and timing while negotiating an always-shifting ingredient. Some cheeses are ready within hours; others are aged for a year or more. From newborn calf to finished wheel, the process spans nearly four years. Dairy farming, he says, is the opposite of instant gratification.
Yet that gives the work meaning, “creating something tangible and lasting, and being part of a cycle that keeps renewing itself.”
The cheese shop marks an evolution in Eucalitto’s work, offering guided experiences including tastings and hands-on cheesemaking workshops. It will also feature curated selections of sheep and goat cheeses from Italy and Sardinia.
As demand grows, Eucalitto faces a familiar challenge: expansion without compromise. He will approach it with care, he says, because protecting the land, the animals, and the integrity of the work comes first.
“I began this out of love,” he says, “and I plan on doing it for exactly that reason.”
Under Eucalitto’s stewardship, Coltsfoot Valley Farm offers something increasingly rare: luxury measured not in excess but in authenticity, raw milk cheese crafted by hand, cows grazing beneath open skies, and traditions worth protecting. coltsfootvalleyfarm.com
