Alessandra Rellini always wanted to raise her own animals. So when this Italian native was recruited by the University of Vermont to teach in the Psychology Department, she saw an opportunity to pursue her farming dream in the Green Mountain State. “The opportunity allowed me to cultivate the idea of raising my own animals and doing my own butchering,” she said in an interview at the end of March. “But then things spiraled out of control.”

She started with three little pigs... Now, 11 years later, Rellini has 90 pigs, a flock of chickens and upwards of 27 Icelandic sheep. With the help of Stefano Pinna, Andrew Sheets, Tirragen Vixie, Drew Anderson, Rellini and her daughter Eva, Agricola Farm offers meat and homemade pasta CSAs; a farm store with meats, pastas, and other local products; monthly authentic Italian lunches and dinners; and local butchering. If that’s not enough to keep someone busy, Rellini has maintained her full-time job at UVM since moving to Vermont in 2006.