In 2000, Artigues, 43, and his former wife moved from Durham, where his porch was a pitiful 4-by-4 feet, to an old farmhouse in Rougement in northern Durham County.

Goats were an afterthought for the former Duke University clinical counselor turned stay-at-home dad.

Artigues' first plan was to buy expensive show goats, which he now foolishly admits he did. Plan No. 2 was to breed those fancy goats and sell the offspring's meat to the area's thriving ethnic community. Plan No. 3 was to make goat cheese.

He bought goats from a dairy farmer, along with her equipment and a book on the subject. He called the book's author and persuaded her to coach him through the cheese-making process.

That was the birth of Elodie Farms. Today, one can hardly believe this former Citadel graduate didn't always work on a farm. He merely calls out, "Heeeerrrre goat," and 32 milking goats gallop across a field toward him.

He and his sole employee milk the goats each day and make the cheese: chevre, feta, Camembert, Gruyere, Stilton, Parmesan, Gouda, Montasio and Manchegoat, a play on Manchego, a sheep's milk cheese.

"You can never leave the farm; you are tied to the cycle," he says. "So you really have to love what you do."

-- By Andrea Weigl