Wheel Genius
Over the last decade, Vermont's cheesemaking industry has bloomed. Today, the state?s products can be found winning awards and gracing the tables of highly respected restaurants around the country. Here, a selection of ten top artisanal cheeses.
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Cabot Clothbound Cheddar
This nutty, crumbly cheddar—a joint production of Cabot Creamery (Vermont's largest cheesemaker) and the Kehler brothers' Jasper Hill Farm—was named Best of Show in the 2006 American Cheese Society competition.
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Doe's Leap Goat Farm Caprella
George and Kristan van Vlaanderen's soft, bloomy-rinded goat's cheese—which, like all Doe's Leap cheeses, is certified organic—is subtle and slightly floral. The Van Vlaanderens make cheese only every other day, and Caprella is rarely available outside New England.
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Lazy Lady Marbarella
Rich and creamy layers of goat's cheese are layered with vegetable ash in this offering from Laini Fondiller's organic Lazy Lady Farm. The name of the farm refers to the 25 pampered goats who produce milk for Fondiller's cheeses.
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Thistle Hill Tarentaise
Inspired by the cheese of the French Savoie, John and Janine Putnam make this award-winning Tarentaise using traditional methods—grass-fed Jerseys, unpasteurized milk, copper vat. The Tarentaise is a little nutty and a bit tangy.
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Hope Farm Tomme de Brebis
New York transplants Barbara and Harvey Levin produce this smooth, buttery, European-style raw sheep's-milk cheese at their farm in East Charleston, near the Canadian border. The aged Tomme is produced seasonally, going on sale around early August, as the Levins begin milking their sheep in the spring and stop in the early fall.
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Vermont Butter&Cheese Bonne Bouce
The Vermont Butter & Cheese Company calls this ash-tinted pasteurized goat's-millk round its flagship cheese. It lives up to its name—from the French for "good mouthful"—with a creamy texture and mild flavor (the rind adds a zing).
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Jasper Hill Bayley Hazen Blue
Even professed blue-haters can find affection for this well-balanced, raw-milk cheese, which is a bit drier than many blues. Bayley Hazen, derived from an English Devon Blue recipe, is aged for four to six months. It's named for a road near Jasper Hill that was laid to transport troops to the Canadian Front during the Revolutionary War.
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Peaked Mountain Vermont Dandy
The Works family has farmed the Connecticut River Valley since the 1730s. Today, Ann and Bob Works produce six cheeses, including this award-winning mild and grassy semi-hard sheep's-milk cheese. Peaked Mountain, which the Workses call a "food farm," is also produces lamb, sausage, artisanal breads, and maple syrup, and offers baking and sausage-making classes.
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Orb Weaver Farmhouse Cheese
"We're back-to-the-land hippies," says Marjorie Susman, who, with Marian Pollack, has been making rounds of the cave-aged Orb Weaver since 1982. Susman and Pollack only milk their seven Jerseys and make their cheese—somewhere between a Havarti and a Colby—from November through May.
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Taylor Farm Maple-Smoked Gouda
Jon Wright, the current president of the Vermont Cheese Council, started making Dutch-style Goudas in 1998. Taylor Farm, which grazes its cows on pesticide- and fertilizer-free fields, now produces about 1,200 pounds of cheese a week, including wheels of its most popular product, the prizewinning maple-smoked Gouda.
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