Thomas McCurdy

Thomas is a farmer/pastry chef who spends his days feeding pigs, milking goats, baking cookies, and decorating wedding cakes. He received his formal pastry training in Philadelphia, where he and his husband Bailey gardened, kept bees, and raised chickens next to their downtown row home. When the city came to evict their illegal backyard flock in 2011, they decided to leave their urban lives behind in order to start farming full-time. Today, they own and operate Ardelia Farm & Co. in Irasburg, VT, where they raise pastured pork, poultry, dairy goats, and cut flowers. Thomas also runs a farm-based bakery, where he uses their own eggs and produce, along with other Vermont ingredients, to create custom cakes, desserts, and pastries which they sell at farmers’ markets throughout Vermont and ship nationwide.