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Vermont Cheese Trail Map
 Visit the Vermont Cheese Trail Map to plan your next excursion in Vermont. If you would like some printed copies, please send a request to info@vtcheese.com
Thank you retailers and other associate members for your support of the Vermont Cheese Council!
Billings Farm & Museum
Black River Produce
Brattleboro Food Coop
Castleton Crackers
Castleton Village Store
Cellars Group
Cheese House
Cheese Traders &
Wine Sellers
City Feed and Supply
City Market
Daily Planet
Dairy Connection
Dakin Farm
Diamond Information Systems
Equinox Resort and Spa
Fairfield Cheese Co.
Hanover Coop
Harvest Market
Healthy Living Market
Hunger Mountain Coop
Jim Wallace Consulting
Joppa Fine Foods
Lebanon Coop
Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op
Mountain Cheese and Wine
Mountain Greens Market
Newport Specialty Foods
Norma's Restaurant at Topnotch Resort
Peter Dixon Dairy Consulting
Provisions International
Ren Hen Cafe and Bakery
Rock Art Brewery
South Royalton Market
Stratton Mountain Provisions
Sugarbush Farm
Sweet Clover
Upper Valley Food Coop
Vermont Cheesemongers
Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese
W.A. Tompkins Co
Wasiks Cheese Shop
Wine and Cheese Depot
Woodstock Farmer's Market
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Visit our cheese makers online.
Blue Ledge Farm
Blythedale Farm
Bonnieview Farm
Cabot Creamery
Champlain Valley Creamery
Cobb Hill Cheese
Consider Bardwell Farm
Crawford Family Farm
Crowley Cheese
Dancing Cow Farm
Does' Leap
Fat Toad Farm
Franklin Foods
Grafton Village Cheese
Hildene Farm Signature Cheese
Green Mountain Blue Cheese
Hope Farm
Jasper Hill Farm
Jericho Hill Farm
Lakes End Cheeses
Lazy Lady Farm
Maplebrook Farm
Mt. Mansfield Creamery
Neighborly Farms
Orb Weaver Farm
Peaked Mountain Farm
Ploughgate Creamery
Plymouth Artisan Cheese
Sage Farm
Scholten Family Farm
Shelburne Farms
Spring Brook Farm
Taylor Farm
Thistle Hill Farm
Twig Farm
Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery.
Vermont Farmstead Cheese Co.
Vermont Shepherd
von Trapp Farmstead
Willow Hill Farm
West River Creamery
Woodcock Farm |
Recipe of the Month
By Courtney Contos, Culinary Consultant
@ chefcontos.com
Blue Cheese
& Bacon Tart
Makes one 9 inch tart
4 thick-cut bacon slices, chopped
1 large onion, thinly sliced
¾ cup whipping cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Pinch of salt
Pinch of ground nutmeg
½ recipe pie/tart dough
Crust
1.
Preheat oven to 400°F.
2.
Roll out dough on lightly floured work surface to 11-inch
round. Transfer to 9 inch tart pan with removable bottom. Press dough onto
bottom and up sides of pan. Pierce crust all over with fork. Freeze 10 minutes.
Line crust with parchment paper; fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake
crust 15-17 minutes.
3.
Remove paper and beans. Bake until crust is set and partially
cooked through, about 10 minutes longer. Cool crust while making filling.
Maintain oven temperature.
Filling
1.
Sauté bacon in medium skillet over medium heat until crisp,
about 4 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Add onion to
drippings in skillet and sauté until onion is deep golden brown, about 20
minutes on low to medium heat.
2.
Whisk cream, egg, egg yolk, thyme, pepper, salt, and nutmeg in
small bowl to blend. Spread onion over bottom of baked crust; sprinkle bacon
over, then cheese. Pour cream mixture over.
3.
Bake until tart is puffed and filling is set, about 15
minutes. Cool tart on rack 10 minutes. Remove pan sides. Serve warm or at room
temperature.
Cheese News
The 2nd Annual Vermont Cheesemaker’s Festival
This year's festival was a fabulous success! With 1,500 tickets sold, the Coach Barn at Shelburne Farms was a sea of cheese, and the cheese-revelers took full advantage of this amazing opportunity to sample hundreds of delicious cheeses, take part in one of several educational programs, and rub elbows with the cheesemakers who make it all possible.
Check out Know Whey for a beautiful write-up and dozens of delicious photos of the event.
••••••••
Mt. Mansfield Creamery is on the menu! The Bees Knees in
Morrisville is now using the Gondolier, our herbed Havarti on their Mt. Mansfield Burger. .......... And, their cheeses will be featured in a special pairing dinner with Trattoria LaFesta in Stowe on August 3rd.
 On Saturday, July
3, 2010, Grafton Village Cheese Company celebrated the grand opening of their
new Specialty Cheese and Wine Shoppe in the heart of historic Grafton
village. Located next to The Old
Tavern at Grafton, the new store offers over 80 varieties of cheese, a large
selection of fine wines, Vermont products, specialty foods and more.
••••••••
Late in June, during New York's Fancy Food Show weekend, a traveling team from
Cellars at Jasper Hill witnessed an unprecedented event -- the First Annual
Cheesemonger Invitational. Held in Long Island City, Queens at Larkin Warehouse
- the contest showcased cheesemongers from across the country. For more info
and blog coverage, look here and here and here!
 The Cellars at
Jasper Hill were also on hand as local Ag Entrepreneurs celebrated the long-awaited
Ground-breaking of the Vermont Food Venture Center in Hardwick with the help of
Senator Patrick Leahy. A shared-use kitchen and incubator for value-added and
specialty food producers, the facility will be available to rent on an hourly
basis or for co-packing. The staff will provide a wide array of food and
agricultural business consulting services to aspiring entrepreneurs, existing
food businesses and organizations looking to promote food businesses as an
economic development tool. The Cellars at Jasper Hill will be operating a
cheese-making component, as a venue for training new cheesemakers while
simultaneously developing new recipes for them to hit the ground running with.
Ground-breaking? More like earth-shattering!
The Rowland Agricultural Center at Hildene
Farm connects the Lincoln family’s agricultural legacy
and the sustainable and green practices that make sense for the 21st
century.
On weekends through October, ride the big red farm wagon from the
Welcome Center out to Hildene Farm. See the post and beam barn, built with timber
felled and milled on the estate, and using renewable energy resources generated by
solar panels and wood fuel.
Designed specifically to house Hildene’s herd of Nubian goats, the barn
also offers a view of cheesemaking from milking to processing, pasteurization,
aging and packaging of signature Hildene Farm artisanal cheeses.
••••••••
 Check
out the August
issue of Eating Well magazine to read how Keep Local Farms acts as a
catalyst
to preserve dairy farms. David Goodman’s article, “The Future of the
Milk
Industry,” examines what happens to milk when small dairy farms vanish.
 Vermont Butter
& Cheese Creamery's Bijou took a gold this summer at the New York Fancy Food Show! An aged goat cheese, Bijou was awarded the coveted Sofi™ award from the National Association of Specialty Food Trade (NASFT). Click here to see video from the event.
Congratulations!
Conversations about
Food & Culture
with Judith Jones &
Marian Burros
Sunday,
August 8, 2010
Shelburne Farms Coach Barn
Celebrate the
successful farmer-chef partnerships that thrive in Vermont and help
enrich our local communities! This annual event, held at Shelburne
Farms’ Coach Barn on the shore of Lake Champlain, offers a wonderful
opportunity to mingle and break bread with farmers, growers, chefs, and
neighbors all interested in insuring a fair and sustainable food system
for our future. Click here for more information.
••••••••
••••••••
The Vermont Farm Viability Program’s next deadline for applications is
August 31! The program provides in-depth, one-on-one business planning and
technical assistance to farmers. Farmers
enroll for help improving business management,
planning for expansion or diversification, marketing, starting value-added
processing on the farm, or preparing for ownership transition. The program also provides competitive grants and
technical assistance to help implement farm business plans. Farmers must
be full time VT residents, be actively farming and demonstrate at least $10,000
gross farm income to be eligible.
The newest cheese from Cabot
Creamery Cooperative is Smoky Bacon Cheddar…'cause everything tastes better
with bacon! Perfect for snacking, burgers, omelets, or a twist to your
favorite recipe. ••••••••
Boston Post Dairy's Onion and Dill Chevre combines the sweet taste of onion with the clean herbal flavor of dill
weed to make a delicious spread for crackers or bagels. Come out to meet these new council members at the
Vermont Fresh Network’s 14th Annual Forum held at Shelburne Farms on
Sunday, August 8th.
••••••••
Plymouth Artisan Cheese has just released the aged Plymouth Cheese. Enjoy both the younger East Meadow and the original Plymouth
Cheese. The Plymouth Cheese factory, located in the historic village
of Plymouth, Vermont, is open to the public 7 days a week until the
end of October.
Cheesemaking Classes
August 17-18
Beginners Class
Cheesemaking and starting an artisan cheese business. Topics include: starting up a creamery; properties of sheep, cow, and goat milk, and their use in cheese making; use of starter cultures and rennet: making lactic curd cheeses (Chevre) and Tomme from goat and cow milk; cheese brining; cheese ripening; and financial and marketing information.
September 7-8
Cheesemaking & Affinage: Techniques, Microbes, and Facilities
Exploring the craft of cheese making and ripening. On day one we will make a tomme cheese. On day two we will follow the steps for ripening this cheese and many others. The focus will be on ripening cultures, bio-reactions, affinage techniques, quality control, and how to design and construct facilities for ripening many types of cheese.
Cheese Chemistry Short Course
September 9
Starter Cultures
September 10
Basic Sensory Evaluation
September 13-15
Essential Principles and Practices of
Cheesemaking
September 16
Hygiene and Food Safety in Cheesemaking
September 17
Quality and Chemistry of Milk
Click here for complete details and many more classes.
••••••••
Tuesday, August 10th 7-9pm
Summer
Cooking with Cheese
For reservations, call 203.292.8194 or email info@fairfieldcheese.com
Cheesemaking with Jim Wallace
Classes begin with the background and history for
target cheeses, the raw materials (milk .. culture .. rennet), examining
their roles, then move on through the individual steps (the How and
Why!) of the cheese making process, and finally learn how the cheese can
be aged to perfection. Following lunch each day will be an opportunity
to evaluate cheese and participants are encouraged to bring their
cheeses for this.
Your Next Big Step in Cheese Making, Sept 11-12
Semi Soft and Early Ripening Cheeses, Oct 2-3
Making Alpine Cheese “the Details”, Oct 23-24
Your Next Big Step in Cheese Making, Nov 20-21
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