Vermont Cheese Council e-Newsletter Volume 3, Issue 3 March, 2010
In this issue:

Recipe of the Month

Cheese News

New Cheeses

Shopping Tips

Events

Cheesemaking Classes


Join the Vermont Cheese Council

...more info

Vermont Cheese Trail Map
Vermont Cheese Trail Map ThumbnailVisit 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!

Black River Produce

Brattleboro Food Coop

Castleton Crackers

Castleton Village Store

Cellars Group

Chees House

Cheese Traders &
Wine Sellers


City Feed and Supply

City Market

Daily Planet

Dairy Connection

Dakin Farm

Equinox Resort and Spa

Fairfield Cheese Co.

Hanover Coop

Harvest Market

Healthy Living Market

Hunger Mountain Coop

Lebanon Coop

Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op


Mountain Cheese and Wine

Mountain Greens Market

Newport Specialty Foods

Norma's Restuarant 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

Wasiks Cheese Shop

Wine and Cheese Depot

Woodstock Farmer's Market




Facebook

Become a fan of the Vermont Cheese Council on Facebook!

Visit our Facebook page.

Post a comment or a photo about your favorite Vermont cheese.




Follow the Vermont Cheese Council on twitter






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 Shepherd

von Trapp Farmstead

Willow Hill Farm

West River Creamery

Woodcock Farm

Recipe of the Month

By Courtney Contos, Culinary Consultant
@ chefcontos.com



Grilled Beef Brochettes with
Grapes and Blue Cheese Aioli


For the beef:
1 pound beef such as tenderloin, flank steak, or strip steak, cut into 1inch cubes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons smoky paprika
1 tablespoon lime juice
Salt to taste
One small bunch red grapes
2 tablespoons capers

Marinate the slices of beef with the oil, paprika, and lime juice for at least 15 minutes or up to one hour. Slide the beef and the grapes onto soaked wooden skewers and season with the salt. Preheat either an indoor or outdoor grill over medium high heat. Grill the beef about 1-2 minutes per side or until done. Serve with the aioli and garnish with fried capers.

For the aioli:
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
3/4 cup grapeseed oil
1/4 cup Spanish olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup crumbled Vermont blue cheese

In a bowl or food processor, whisk together the yolk, mustard, garlic, and vinegar. Then add the oils in a thin steady stream until emulsified and thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Fold in the blue cheese.

Cheese News


SAVE THE DATE!

The 2nd Annual Vermont Cheesemaker’s Festival will be held on July 25th at the Coach Barn at Shelburne Farms.

The website is live and tickets are now available!Order early, limited availability, last year sold out.


view a video of last year's cheese festival

Last year we had over 60 volunteers and will be looking for more this year. If you are interested in volunteering contact Hilary.



Keep Local Farms

Please help support this program that will in turn help support the Vermont cheesemaking community as well as many other farmers, the working landscape and the ability to produce farm products for our community. Read more


Our new Retail Member, City Feed and Supply, of Jamaica Plains, MA is featuring Cobb Hill Ascutney Mountain. “Ascutney Mountain is a great example of how the art of affinage has taken a major step forward in VT, (via The Cellars). Ascutney Mountain is a tomme style cheese that consistently puts its best foot forward, and reigns as an excellent example of a New England (Green) mountain cheese, and seems poised to be a New England tradition for the next 4000 years or so.

Also, CF&S is very excited to be an Associate Member of the Vermont Cheese Council and enthusiastic about hosting cheese makers, artisan food producers, and proponents of the new sustainable face of the regional New England economy. They are always interested in working directly with producers, maintain a great relationship with Vermont Quality Meats, and are always looking for innovative ways to co-op the process of producing, distributing, vending, and promoting the wonderful wares implicit to the great states of New England!

Consider Bardwell Releases New Book

Hay Fever: How Chasing a Dream on a Vermont Farm Changed My Life

Written by Angela Miller

Do you dream of escaping the big city for a bucolic farm in the country? To grow vegetables, raise a few animals, and maybe even learn to make cheese? It would be a relaxing, simple life—wouldn't it? Hay Fever tells the story of one prominent Manhattan professional who gave it a shot—and discovered that the "simple life" is often anything but. Read More

Find this book on Amazon or Barnes & Nobel




Marc Druart, Adeline Druart, Allison Hooper

Allison Hooper, Adeline Druart of Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery, and Marc Druart of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, have been inducted into the “Guilde des Fromagers” at this year Salon de l’Agriculture in Paris. The Guild is combined with La Confrérie de St. Uguzon organization, whose purpose is to transmit knowledge through cheese companionship. Created in 1969, the Guild counted 5,300 members in 2009 both in France, Europe and across the world. Also in this year induction: Sue and Peggy from Cowgirl Creamery. Congratulations to everyone.


New Cheeses

Mt. Mansfield Creamery
Topnotch Resort and Spa now has it's own Topnotch Tomme produced at Mt. Mansfield Creamery. This French Alpine Cheese is a raw milk cheese aged for 3 months. Try this cheese with you favorite glass of wine and fruit, or incorporate it in you favorite fondue recipe.

After months of aging, Hayride, an Austrian Tomme is now available and ready to accompany your favorite chardonnay or other white wine.

Mt. Mansfield Creamery is now making another herbed cheese named the Tres Amigos. This cheese incorporates sundried tomatoes, garlic and chives giving it a spicy flavor that lingers on the palate. This seasonal cheese will only be available during the summer months along with the herbed cheese, the Gondolier.

MMC will continue to make Chapel Lane only for wedding requests during the summer months.

Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery
Double Cream Cremont. Cremont is a mixed milk cheese, combining local fresh cows’ milk, goats’ milk and a hint of Vermont cream. This cheese will be available at local market, call creamery for location 1-800-884-6287. More details


Cabot Creamery Cooperative has produced a limited amount of 10-mth old sharp Cheddar 8-oz bars certified OU Kosher for Passover, and available thru their online shopping site, www.shopcabot.com.


Shopping Tips
For Vermont Cheese

Retailers
Find a Vermont Cheese Council retailer near you!

On-line/Mail Order Sales
Grafton Village Cheese
Woodstock Farmers' Market
Castleton Village Store
Thistle Hill
Fat Toad Farm
Orb Weaver
Mt. Mansfield Creamery
Twig Farm
Shelburne Farms
Sugarbush Farm
Crowley Cheese
Cabot Creamery 

image1Other On-line Sites that Often Feature
and Carry Vermont Cheese

Murray's Cheese
Saxelby Cheese
Zingerman's
Cow Girl Creamery
Artisan Made Northeast

Culture: the world of cheese: a searchable, and extensive, directory of cheese retailers who handle farmstead, artisan, specialty cheeses, etc.


Events

March 20, 2010
First Annual Mac and Cheese Bowl

Albany, NY
Cabot Creamery is the cheese sponsor for the First Annual Mac and Cheese Bowl being held in Albany, New York on March 20.  Sixteen restaurants from the region will be vying for the honors of "The Best Mac and Cheese in Albany".  Proceeds from the event benefit the Regional Foodbank of Northeastern New York"
Read more...


Shelburne Vineyards Cheese Pairing Series

April 6: "How to Taste” Wine-Beer-Cheese

April 27: Wine, Beer & Cheese Pairing with Jasper Hill

May 18: Wine and Cheese Pairing with Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery


Contact Shelburne Vineyard for more information (802) 985-8222.


The Daily Planet
Chef Michael Clauss will host several beer and cheese dinners at his at The Daily Planet in Burlington, VT. Dinners begin in April and will take place over the next 6 months. For information contact 802.862.9648 or gm@dailyplanet15.com


Cheesemaking Classes

Artisan Cheesemaking Workshops at Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, Vermont. 
Two-day workshops in making and aging cheese on the farm, taught by Peter Dixon. Contact Peter Dixon at Tel. 802-387-4041 or email dixonpeter@mac.com
 
March 24-25, 2010
Beginners Class
about cheese making 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; making lactic curd cheeses (Chevre) and Tomme from goat and cow milk; cheese brining; cheese ripening; and financial and marketing information.


April 6-7, 2010
Beginners Class about cheese making 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; making lactic curd cheeses (Chevre) and Tomme from goat and cow milk; cheese brining; cheese ripening; and financial and marketing information.


May 11-12, 2010
Cheesemaking and 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 the many types of cheese.

Learn more about these classes...


March 25 - 27, 2010
Cheese Camp: 3 Day Vermont Cheese Course

Inn at the Round Barn Farm,
Waitsfield, VT

Read more...



April 16 and 17, 2010

Mt. Mansfield Creamery
Peter Dixon and Mt. Mansfield Creamery will be hosting this entry level cheese making class. Participants will make 3 batches of cheese and be involved in the affinage process. A special guest chef will present on incorporating cheese into cooking. There will also be a private tour of the Rock Art Brewery with a beer and cheese pairing followed by a dinner at guest chef’s restaurant. Cost is $350 per person for the 2 day course, and the optional evening meal is $25. Discounts: $50 off for culinary students and previous class participants.


The Vermont Institute For Artisan Cheese Classes

April 5 - 6, 2010
Cheese Chemistry Short Course
This 2-day short course presents the chemistry of cheese in relation to the manufacturing steps responsible for transforming milk into curd, as well as, the biochemical changes that the initial product experiences during the ripening process.

April 7, 2010
Starter Cultures

An overview in the use of starter cultures in cheesemaking, with the main focus on the history of starter cultures, strain selection, methods of propagation and rotation. Phage control and new advances in starter cultures will also be discussed. Prebiotics and probiotics for use in cultured dairy products will be reviewed. The course also covers secondary and adjunct cultures, for example, affinage cultures

April 8, 2010
Basic Sensory Evaluation

A basic overview of the principles of sensory evaluation, with special emphasis on descriptive analysis techniques and their application to the evaluation of cheese quality.

April 19, 2010
Advanced Sensory Evaluation

Comprehensive advanced workshop is designed to assist cheesemakers and other dairy producers to understand sensory evaluation methods used in product development, marketing and quality assurance to evaluate and understand the sensory quality of your product.

April 20, 2010
Risk Reduction Practices for Cheesemakers

Risk assessment is a technique used to achieve food safety based on the principles of hazard identification, exposure assessment and risk characterization. Using VIAC data collected from microbiological surveillance of farmstead cheesemaking operations, we will review specific microbial pathogens of concern to farmstead cheesemakers, and their incidence in milk and the cheesemaking environment.

April 21, 2010
Cheese Defects: Origins and Troubleshooting

Provides comprehensive knowledge of cheese defects and troubleshooting techniques to improve cheese quality.

April 22 - 23, 2010
Affinage: Behind the Scenes

This two day course will demystify the process of aging cheese.


See their website for many more classes



The Fairfield Cheese Company has an extensive Spring 2010 schedule at their Cheese School in Connecticut, visit their website for a complete listing.


Become a Friend or Associate Member of the
Vermont Cheese Council

As a Friend of the Vermont Cheese Council, we welcome your donations to assist us with our endeavors to improve the production and advancement of Vermont cheese. Your generous support helps us to continue to grow and expand our technical support for members, while providing you with delicious Vermont cheese. Learn more about the benefits of becoming a friend of the Council or sign up now!

As an Associate Member of the Vermont Cheese Council, we welcome all industry related businesses and individuals who see the value in having a strong cheese industry in Vermont. Learn more about the benefits of an Associate Membership on our web site.

For more information, you may contact our main office at: (866) 261-8595 or visit www.vtcheese.com

This newsletter can also be viewed on our website.