Sheila Flanagan

Sheila Flanagan is an owner and cheesemaker at Nettle Meadow Farm and Cheese Company located in Thurman and Lake Luzerne New York. Sheila is originally from Stamford, Connecticut and earned Bachelor’s degree at Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota, a Master’s degree at San Francisco State University and a J.D. at Golden Gate University, also in San Francisco. Sheila was a partner at two highly regarded law firm in Oakland, California before pivoting to attain a long-term dream of artisan cheese production and domestic animal care at Nettle Meadow Farm since 2005. Since that time, Nettle Meadow has grown 20-fold and received more than 25 national and international awards for their hand-made bloomy rind, washed rind and fresh cheeses, as well as ecological awards and recognition. Perhaps more importantly, Nettle Meadow has managed to rescue and care for more than 200 non-productive farm animals over the last decade or more. Most recently, Nettle Meadow has begun an expansion into the old Hitching Post location in Lake Luzerne where they will be able to grow larger in the unique log structure that is the Hitching Post while offering a tasting room and expanded retail location and spread the joy of great cheese even wider around our region and beyond. Sheila also keeps her legal mind active by serving as the town justice in Thurman and her community agricultural and rural economic awareness current by serving as a director of the Farm Service Agency for Warren County.