Get checked in and settled at the beautiful, historic Hildene.

Award-winning, nationally-recognized food science scholar Paul Kindstedt, author of Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and its Place in Western Civilization, discusses the history of cheese through the lens of climate instability. In many ways, understanding the history of cheese begins with an understanding of the Holocene and the ways in which climatic events shook cheesemaking communities to the core across Europe and Asia over the last 10,000 years and ultimately sculpted the vast diversity of world cheeses that we take for granted today. Time and again, dairying and cheesemaking became the fallback survival strategy when all else failed in the face of climatic stress; and time and again cheesemakers rose to the challenge and built resiliency into communities facing dire environmental collapse. Much can be learned from this past about the role that dairy and cheesemaking can and must play in building resiliency into our global community.

Andi Wandt of Shelburne Farms facilitates this discussion about the daily lives of cheesemakers and what makes Vermont unique compared to other cheese-producing states. Featuring panelists Molly Semler of von Trapp Farmstead, Zoe Brickley of Jasper Hill, Suzy Kaplan of Fat Sheep Farm & Cabins, and Laura Ginsburg of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Farms and Markets.

Enjoy a tutorial from cheesemonger extraordinaire Mary Tuthill on creating a gourmet cheese board. Talk about different styles, flavors, textures and techniques. Learn how to blend them all together to create a show-stopping and delicious cheese board! Featuring a tasting of Vermont cheeses and accoutrements.

Paul Kindstedt returns to discuss the history of cheese through the lens of humanity’s enduring yearning for the spiritual. In many ways, understanding the history of cheese begins with an understanding of humanity’s spiritual yearnings from the beginning. Extending back almost to their origin some 10,000 years ago, cheese and butter have been objects of spiritual and religious veneration–symbols of life, purity, divine favor and hope for the future. To sever cheese from its spiritual roots, even today, is to fail to understand that the reach of cheese extends far more deeply into the human condition than simply “filling up the tank with gas.”

Join Peg Galloup, Hildene’s Head Cheesemaker, for a tour of the on-site dairy, including meeting the Nubian goat herd that makes Hildene’s cheese possible.