Four Fat Fowl

Four Fat Fowl is a family-run creamery in Stephentown, New York, the only town by that name on Earth. Willy Bridgham, his sister Josie Madison, and his wife Shaleena Bridgham opened it in 2013 in a converted pizza shop, bringing more than 30 years of combined experience in specialty cheese. Willy is the master cheesemaker, Shaleena leads sales, and Josie keeps operations and finances running.

The name reaches back into county history. Stephen Van Rensselaer, the landlord the town is named for, collected rent from his tenant farmers. Rent wasn't just money — it was paid partly in goods: a share of the harvest, plus, written right into the lease terms, four fat fowl. Four plump chickens, handed over to the landlord every year as part of the rent.

So when the Bridghams needed a name for their creamery, they pulled that odd, charming line item out of their town's own history. Naming the creamery for its place follows an old cheesemaking tradition, and the family kept it.

All of the milk comes from a single dairy, Dutch Hollow Farms in nearby Stuyvesant, New York, whose Jersey herd gives the cheeses their signature richness. That partnership anchors bloomy-rind wheels like St. Stephen, a triple cream made with fresh Jersey cream, and Camembertha, a soft-ripened round with milky, vegetal notes.