Some people tire of their jobs and decide they want a change. Maybe they’d like to move somewhere new and start a different career. Didier Laurent took that a step further. A former chief steward to the Belgian king, he gave up a busy life the court for a quiet farm near Rexton, N.B.

After thinking about moving to Canada for years, Didier took the plunge in 2012, buying a farm, complete with goats. He knew nothing about cheesemaking, but after a lot of trial, error, and spilled milk, he now produces dozens of different European-style goat cheeses, from mild tommes to the distinctive, biting “Brillant.”

Didier’s Fromagerie au fond des bois is just outside Rexton, N.B. “Au fond des bois” translates as “deep in the woods.” Didier has five children in Belgium (the oldest is 31) from his first marriage, and he and his present wife are raising two school-age twin girls.

The author has edited and condensed this conversation and translated it from French.

“I used to be the chief steward to the king of Belgium. I worked for a caterer, and we were first hired for the wedding of the prince — the current king. Eventually, the queen chose me as the chief steward. So, I would do private events — baptisms, marriages, birthdays, communions — and I would organize official ones too. I worked at the court for 13 years, and went along on state visits and missions to other countries. I did lots of banquets in France and Italy too. That was all fine, but then there were also the evenings with the young nobles. Their events could start at 5 p.m. and finish at 9 or 10 the next morning. At a certain point you ask yourself, “Do I want to be doing this my whole life?” Canada seemed much more quiet and peaceful.

I was married in Belgium, and we were looking at a place in Quebec. A farm with some chickens, a vegetable garden, and a small restaurant attached. It was nice, but did I really want to be in the food-service business again? About a year later, I moved here. I found this place on the internet. I didn’t want pigs, and goats are likeable.

When I bought the farm, there were about 60 goats, and I increased that to 200. But the problem is that it’s hard to find people to work on the farm. So I had to milk twice a day, make cheese, go to the market, and prepare orders. Something had to give, and since you can buy milk, it was the goats.

Goats can be very destructive! They’ll destroy fences, fight with each other. They’re great for some things. You don’t have any weeds or brambles. But we let them wander around freely, so we never had any flowers either. Sometimes they’d be up on the deck of the house. I miss them, though. We went from 200 goats to having 10, over there in the barn.

I love my work, but it’s not always easy. I came here in 2012, with my partner at the time. We would wake up at 4 a.m. to milk the goats, and we would finish at midnight. Plus going to the farmers market on weekends in the summer. She left after a year.

I had never made cheese before, and we threw out hundreds of litres of milk. But slowly we learned, finding recipes on the internet, reading books. One year, there was no power for several days and we had to milk all 200 goats by hand. It happened that three of my children were here on vacation, and they were all milking goats. You build muscle! Problems out of your control can always come up. But you have to deal with them. I’m resilient.

When we started, we had a 650-litre tank for milk, and a 360-litre pasteurizer. But we’ve grown. We bought a bigger tank, one that holds 4,000 litres. Now, I need a bigger pasteurizer.

The previous owners made goat cheese too, but in general, people here were not used to it. They would walk by the counter, see we had goat cheese, and grimace as if it smelled. But now I have a good clientele of New Brunswickers. And there are more and more French people and other Europeans, and they love goat cheese. Some are tourists, and some are visitors whose children have moved here, but there are many now who are immigrants too.

Some Indo Canadians asked me if I make paneer, and I said no, but I can make it if you want me to. Some Ukrainians asked me for a particular cheese, and I’m going to try making that one too. The problem is I only have two hands. I make four tommes, (mild, low-fat cheese) but also dozens of other kinds of cheeses. Sometimes you try something and it doesn’t work, but then other experiments turn out well.

For the holidays, I made a spreadable cheese with lobster. We tried it at the market and it sold well. Le Brillant is one that was an accident. It was a cheese that didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to, but it’s good. Very sharp. It doesn’t sell well in Dieppe, but at the market in Saint John in the summer, everyone wants it.

There’s a small Belgian community in New Brunswick. Maybe 100 or 120 people. There are get-togethers, and I went to one, but I don’t usually have time. There are some things I miss. I would love to eat a good Brussels-style waffle! There are waffles here, but they’re not at all the same. If there’s something I really want, I have sons in Belgium and I can ask them to send it. And you can make things yourself.

I love it here. I love the space. New Brunswick is three times larger than Belgium. Belgium has 12 million people, but the population of New Brunswick is about 750,000. I have 265 acres (107 hectares), and I lead a quiet life. There are days when I don’t really see anyone, unless I go to town for the farmers market. Having seen too many people for years, that suits me fine.”