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Coach Farm — a Pine Plains, N.Y., producer of farmstead goat cheese and yogurt — recently hired two new cheesemakers: Mark Newbold and Todd Pontius.

“We are all truly excited to have Mark and Todd joining our team,” says Coach Farm President Steven Margarites. “Each of them has experience and knowledge of a wide range of artisanal style cheeses, which will help us to expand our product offerings.”

Since 2004, Newbold has been working at Cornell University in the Food Science Department as a member of the university’s research group. His work included setting up and conducting experiments that supported the research of his employer and Cornell’s graduate students, many of which included research in milk filtration, and Cheddar and mozzarella cheese making. Prior to working at Cornell University, he and his family owned and operated a cow dairy farm in upstate New York. The farm also was home to a small herd of goats; Newbold began his cheese-making career using the fresh milk to create a line of fresh goat cheeses sold under the Hunt’s Pond Farm Goat Cheese name.

Pontius joins Coach Farm from Jasper Hill Farms in Vermont, where he worked as a cheese maker, gaining expertise and knowledge while working with cow’s milk cheeses. His focus included blue and camembert-style cheeses as well as the care and maintenance of aged cheeses. Prior to his experience with Jasper Hill Farms, Pontius worked with Goat Lady Dairy in North Carolina, where he worked with both fresh and aged goat’s milk cheeses, including cave-aged, raw-milk cheeses.

Coach Farm is a farmstead operation that has been hand-making award winning goat cheeses, drinkable yogurt and fresh goat milk for more than 25 years.