A late afternoon sun pops through the clouds after a rainstorm on the grounds of Shelburne Farms in Vermont. Many cheesemakers will cite weather, geography, and vegetation as the ingredients that give the state’s cheeses their distinctive flavor. They call it “a taste of place” borrowing the term from the French terroir. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
Local cows provide the raw milk that will eventually become the operation’s “farmhouse” cheddar, meaning it is produced entirely on the premises. The cows graze on Shelburne Farm’s postcard perfect pastures. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
The term "cheddaring" describes the process of turning raw cheese slabs over at regular intervals to control fermentation, temperature, and moisture content. It is based on an old English recipe. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
Nat Bacon, cheesemaking manager, measures the acidity of the fermenting cheddar cheese before proceeding to the final process of making cheese blocks that will be aged for six months to three years.
Cheesemaker Paul Hartnett feeds slabs of the cheddar through a grinder that cuts the portions into smaller cubes for salting. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
Nat Bacon vigorously stirs the cubes to ensure the salt is distributed evenly.
Visitors can watch the entire cheesemaking process from a viewing room.
Once the cubes are salted they are poured into forms that make 40 pound blocks. The forms will be pressed overnight to remove the last of the whey.
Richard Lednicky trims a block of three-year-old cheddar before cutting it into smaller portions for packaging. Shelburne Farms ages it cheese between six months and three years. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
Steven Hammond dips blocks of one- and two-year-old cheddar into vats of wax to preserve it for delivery to market. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
Calley Hastings, co-owner of Fat Toad Farm, heads for the goat barn for afternoon chores. Fat Toad Farm is a small family-run dairy farm that produces farmhouse goat cheese, plain and flavored, and cajeta – caramel made from goat's milk.
Hastings shoos an errant goat out of the milking barn. A herd of 40 Alpine and Saanen goats produce the milk necessary to make small batches of Fat Toad goat cheese. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
The goats are reluctant to be herded off the milking platform due to a fierce thunderstorm outside. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
Maeve Mangine works the afternoon milking. The goats graze on nearby fields between the early morning and late afternoon milkings. Their diet is supplemented with alfalfa hay and grain.
Once the curd is separated from the whey, the curds hang in cheesecloth all day to drain the rest of the liquid.
Farm intern Lily Carone weighs the contents of a cheesecloth filled with fresh soft chevre, or goat cheese. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
Goat cheese is seasonal. The animals are bred in the fall, with gestation lasting five months. When they give birth in the spring, the season of cheesemaking begins. Joanne Ciccarello / Staff
Hastings leads the goats out of pasture just before a thunderstorm.
Artisanal cheesemakers represent a new version of an old American dream: people making living doing what they want, where they want, on their own land. An MIT anthropologist looks inside the growing world of do-it-yourself American cheesemakers.
Note to Stir It Up! readers: This is an article from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) about a new book that delves into the state of artisnal cheesemakers in the United States. I found it interesting, as it reflects culinary themes and trends that we have explored at CSMonitor.com, and I trust that you will find it informative, too.
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