“Vermont Dandy” Peaked Mountain farm, Townshend VT- – Anne and Bob Works are pioneers of VT sheep milk cheese. Their Vermont Dandy is a well regarded and rare New England farmhouse cheese that has been enjoyed for decades by discerning palettes and adventurous eaters alike. Sheep milk cheese is prized for its characteristic depth of flavor: Cheese from sheep milk has a distinctive mammalian or “farmy” tang that is prized by dairy enthusiasts. Vermont Dandy presents a stunning mix of lactic sweetness, spice of grass and clover, melt in your mouth texture, balanced salt, and its signature “trampled hay” finishing flavor.

“Coomersdale” and “Moss End Blue”. Bonnieview Farm, Craftsbury Commons, VT – - Neil Urie is a 4th generation farmer who raises sheep in the Northeast Kingdom. His Scottish heritage and love for raising healthy and vital animals has informed his cheese making process to the point of his making some of the most desired and hard to find cheeses in New England. Coomersdale is his signature aged sheep wheel, which stands as a US interpretation of the great sheep cheeses of the Pyrenees. Sweet, nutty, milky, and with the signature robust slighty sour farmy finish, this cheese makes for an excellent appetizer paired with stone fruit jam and whole grain crackers.

Moss End Blue takes its inspiration from the tangy spice and cooling sweetness of the greatest of the world’s sheep milk blue cheese: Roquefort. It maintains a rustic cave aged rind, which imparts a delicate mustiness to its balanced salt, grass and mineral character. Try this one with figs and almonds after the meal, paired with great conversation and a warm hearth.

Vermont Shepherd, Vermont Shepherd farm, Westminster West, VT. Another very special and classic aged sheep milk cheese from Vermont. This wheel maintains a good amount of cream and moisture, lending a wonderfully curdled almost yogurt like acidity to its paste. Paired with a good salt balance and musty finish, you get a cheese that is extremely versatile yet not easily overwhelmed by competing food and drink notes. Room temperature cubes of this great wheel, paired alongside a sparkling beverage and friends is a match worthy of your most cherished company. Good alongside the RJR from Westport Rivers.

Bonne Bouche, Vermont Butter and Cheese, Brookfield VT. This tiny ash covered goat cheese may be the next big thing to come out of Vermont. Already cleaning up national cheese awards (ACS 1st place), the quality of the milk, consistency of the wheels, and inhibition-paralyzing texture is a match that is literally, irresistible. Spice, acid, salt and cream all mix in your mouth with a wonderfully chewy bite that makes devotees out of skeptics. This is the flagship cheese of one of the pioneers of US cheese making. Not to be missed.

Boggy Meadow Swiss. Raw Cow’s milk. Boggy Meadow Farm, Walpole NH. Sweet and sour swiss style, aged in wax for a distinct tang! $11.99/lb.
Timberdoodle Raw Sheep & Goat Milk. Woodcock Farm Weston VT. Semi Soft Washed rind, with a great chew, great mix of sour cream, funk, and spice. A Center St best seller for years. $26.99/lb.
Lindy Hop Raw Cow milk. Dancing Cow Farmstead, Bridport VT. This is like a mini Stilton, albeit one with the flavors of the Vermont pasture. Flavors of sweet cream nuts, clover, herbs, and smoke.
Oregon Blue Raw Cow milk. Rogue Creamery, Central Point, OR. A classic for crumbling on a salad with dried fruit and nuts, or enjoying with a Shakespeare stout. Fresh and lively. $17.99/lb.
Great Hill Blue Raw Cow milk. Great Hill Dairy, Marion MA. Tangy like a pickle, this New England classic is a consistent favorite. $14.99/lb.
Moss End Raw Sheep Milk. Bonnieview Farm, Craftsbury Common, VT. When young, this blue is mouthfiling and fudgy, with an austere sheepy bite. As it ages, it grows spicier, with a flaky, at times crispy texture. Only available for a brief while, and made on a multigenerational farm nearly in Canada, this is a must taste wheel! $27.99
Riley’s Coat Raw Goat milk. Blue Ledge Farm, Salisbury VT. This tasty goat wheel is mellow, with a good sweet and salt balance with a mellow musty cave finish. Also gets bitterness and spice from the rind. $25.99/lb.
OMA Raw Cows milk. Von Trapp Creamery, Waitsfield VT. One of the most serious cheeses ever crafted in the verdant hills of Vermont, this raw semi soft s\stinker is replete with sweet cream and butter, with a pungency and spice that harkens back to a farmhouse munster. $24.99/lb
Tobasi Raw Cow milk. Cricket Creek Farm, Williamstown, MA. This is based on the famous washed semi soft known as “Taleggio”. Streaky ridged rind hold spice and pastured sour cream flavors. Cheese enthusiasts blood gets pumping when they see these wheels. $25.99 / lb.
Goat Tomme Raw Goat Milk. Twig Farm, West Cornwall VT. This stacked curd goat cheese is very special, with it slightly chalky texture and perfect balance of sweet and acid, made in small batches and aged with care. $29.99 / lb.
Landaff Raw Cow’s Milk. Landaff Creamery, Landaff NH. Made in the Welsh style of a young and excited cheddar. Tang and spice. It can make you pucker. Classic with a nut brown ale. $23.99 / lb.
Atwell’s Gold Paseurized Cow. Naragansett Creamery, Providence RI. This cheese teases you into thinking it is a New England Cheddar, until you chew it for a few seconds, after which it reveals its sour and tangy finish. A really wonderful choice, shaved over grilled veggies, or broiled over potatoes, let alone, its versatility on sandwiches, on cheese platter, etc. Real winner at $16.99 / lb.
Hot Pepper Gouda Raw Cow. Taylor Farm, Londonderry VT. Playful and hot, this serious gouda is a winter warmer of the highest degree. Versatile, snackable: this is one of those wheels that once you start, you tend to eat until it is gone. YUM! $29.99/lb.
Ascutney Mountain Raw Cow. Cobb Hill Farm, Hartland, VT. This wonderful Alpine tomme is expressive and delicious. Easily one of the best wheels made in New England, its caramel sweetness and grassy spice is genuinely complemented by its magical texture, firm with protein crystals, which yields to a melting smoothness under tooth. $27.99 / lb
Maggie’s Round Raw Cow. Cricket Creek Farm, Williamstown, MA. This sweet alpine style tomme is creamy and tangy, while holding good pasture flavors. $22.95 / lb
Maggie’s Mini. Raw Cow. Cricket Creek Farm, Williamstown, MA. Same receipe as Maggie’s round. Interesting because it is made in a smaller mold, which makes it firmer, chewier, and spicier. $22.95 / lb
Chin Clip. Raw Cow. Mt Mansfield Creamery, Morrisville VT. Sweet milk in a sour and grassy wheel. An impressive new cheese from the Vermont cheesescape. $31.99/lb.
Vermont AYR Raw Cow. Crawford family farm, Whiting, VT. Sweet lean and articulate Ayrshire milk makes this a memorable wheel. Cooked sugar and nut flavors. $23.99 / lb.
Inspiration Raw Cow. Mt Mansfield Creamery, Morrisville VT. Washed with beer, and inspired by the herbaceous wheels of Corsica. $31.99 / lb.
Moses Sleeper Pasteurized Cow. Jasper Hill Farm, Greensboro VT. This semi soft wheel has forest floor and mushroom notes to complement the milky sweetness and wonderful chewy to runny texture. $26.99 / lb.
Bijou Pasteurized Goat. Vermont Butter and Cheese. Websterville, VT. The teeniest goat cheese in the game. Fudgy and chewy with a pleasant goaty tang.

Taylor Farm Smoked Gouda, Chase Hill Farm Queso Viejo, Organic Cherries, Sesame Ak-Mak, Oat Cakes.

Tonight I made a platter for an event at the Sam Adams brewery in JP. They have a neat promotion where some talented home beer brewer submits an original beer, and if they deem it best, it is the special on tap brew at Gillette Stadium, for the entire season of Pats games.  Wow!  They wanted me to pair cheese with the beer for an event celebrating this years winner.

.The Beer.
I am no beer expert, which is sad, because I have consumed plenty.  I received in the mail two twelve ounce bottles of the 2010 winner.  Everyone was saying I was getting a “smoked” beer, which sounded like an oversimplification of something, so I just waited.  The label said Rauchbier.  Didn’t know it.  Pounded the virtual pavement of the internet and seconds later came upon “malted barley dried over wood fire”.  Makes sense.  Malted barley means it is sprouted and then dried by heat.  But it doesn’t specify where the heat comes from, wood fire, forced hot air, or something wilder.  (Volcano?  Car exhaust?  Friction?)  Wood fire is a must for Reichbier.  (Kinda like Gruyere alpage, anyone?)

Cooled it down and tasted it; the bier’s got some smoke, a honeyed sweetness, gradually giving way to a pleasant and mellow “a little sweeter than bittersweet” flavor.   A smattering of mellow soft round bubbles greets you when you swish the brew around in your mouth.  Cool.  I didn’t get huge smoke notes myself.  Mighta been too cold.

Went through a few cheeses, picked ‘em Taylor Farms Smoked Gouda and Chase Hill Farm Queso Viejo.  Here the scoop on those…
- -

Name:Taylor Farms Smoked Gouda
Milk:Raw Cow (Their own Holstein and Jersey)
Origin:Londonderry VT
Cost at Store:$22.99

I remember Leslie, an old cheesefriend of mine handing me my first taste of this cheese ever.  She said she couldn’t decide if it was good or gross.  I think I felt judgemental right away because I was going through a phase where I thought smoked foods were stupid.  She had a point.  It’s is overtly smoky, and it is kinda sticky, and rubbery and gooey.  It doesn’t seem honorable.  Like, cartoon smoky.  So Leslie and I, we weren’t sure, and some folks really ragged on that little wheel, but in the end, it would sell alright, and she’d order another wheel, which’d sell, and we’d always nibble on it and say stuff like “They should use this at Friendly’s!”  And it was clear that we were enjoying it and even better; we were enjoying how much we were enjoying it.  So, in a way, (and I know this can be interpreted as damning praise) this is the definition of a “fun” cheese.

Now don’t get me wrong; this is a serious wheel.  Taylor farm is a wonderful story, and I strongly urge you to at least visit their website, but Dick Wright, who I believe is their cheesemaker, has really taken a good thing with their Gouda wheels and made it even better, by expanding their line to include the smoked, the spiced, (cumin and caraway) and the hot (habanero).  (I hear there is a garlic though I have yet to try it).  It is also a neat example of breaking the mentality that cheese with “stuff” in it (mustard seeds, caraway seeds, herbs or spices, brandy soaked raisins), is stupid or is masking the flavor of bad milk.  It is its own distinct expression of cheese making, and as such should be treated with respect and enjoyed con brio.  We generally carry their full line at City Feed, and it generally sells well, and we get lots of wow moments for the smoked.  Cool!

I thought the pairing worked because of the different flavors of the smoke.  It is pretty fun to eat a big hunk of the smoked Gouda, get my mouth all fiery and smoky, and lap down a healthy glug of the reddish amber brew.  You got a good weird beer smoke note up your nose, that gives way to a powerful honey punch with the mellow and delicate bubbles exfoliating the caseus from your primary orifice.  (So to speak)…

The other cheese.

Name: Queso Viejo
Milk: Raw Cow (Normande)
Origin: Warwick MA.
Cost at Store: $24.95/lb.

This wheel is actually sorta an exclusive for us at City Feed, insofar as they do not deliver or distribute, so you gotta go pick it up.  Fun.   A friend suggested I carry one of their wheels as he was planning on featuring it in a magazine article, and wanted to have the opportunity to shout out City Feed, and it was a good taster and hard to find cheese to boot.  I am pretty sure I gave David a specific list of what I was looking for from their selection, but it is possible he made the call to bring in this wheel.  Suffice to say I had never tried it.  It was first described to me as a Manchegoey, which, once you say cow’s milk, is totally never gonna be even close to true.  (Right?)  (Which, I get it, everyone wants Manchego, because they for some reason can remember the name / sheep’s milk really razzed their palette, but seriously, if we are going to get anything close, your going to need an olive ranch combination sheep farm in Cali on the coast, otherwise, your really not going to get an American Manchego anytime soon.)

Here’s what the Queso Viejo is.  Raunchy and raucous, this cheese arrived with a sticky black and white rind and a really weird flat spot.  Sorta like it fell at some point in its life.  I thought “how charming, they sent us their ugly baby”.   It smells yoghurty and sour, tastes sour, has a bitter and strangely addictive rind, balanced salt, and firm fudgy paste that has a few little slits and holes and is actually still pretty creamy and curdy in the center.  I don’t believe it to be a cooked curd, more that I think in the aging it got a little gassy, hence the slits and eyes.  Not necessarily my top pick out of the case for “most perfect cheese”, I liked it with the Sam Adams choice because the aged sour and cave flavors I thought were bold enough to hold up to the smoke and fermenty flavors of the beer.  It has a firmer texture than the gouda, and I think folks are going to say “wow” when they try the cheeses, and again when they try them with the beer.

It is really late in the night, and I should really be getting to bed, but I thought I would say one more thing.  The crackers are for in between the bites of cheese.  It really is most fun that way.  Also, I was at this fancy NYC dinner with press and socialites not too long ago, and this food writer for “Yankee” or “New York” or something like that was (totally decked, dressed, accessorized and made up eyes),was eating her baby green salad, piece by piece with her fingers, practically flinging the tender greens into her mouth, laughing and saying how much she “LOVED” lettuce. It was totally awesome!  Eat with your hands!  In front of stuffy people.  Make it seem like that is how they should act.  Did you know Catherine de Medici brought Spinach and the fork to France, when she married King Henry II in 1547?  That is why eggs Florentine means spinach, because the rich and poweful de Medici family was from the Italian city of Florence!  So, I mean, she was really trendy when she came to France, and France was really trendy about food then, and she brought the fork, which helped distinguish the table manners of the privileged (ie the folks who could afford a fork), from the commoners (those pathetic, forkless, masses), which in turn undoubtedly exacerbated and exaggerated the cultural difference between the rich folks and the poor folks, aggravating and inciting mutual bitterness, presumably.  So, I mean, that is really the only reason you are so hooked on your fork.  One person trying to look cool.  Did you know they used to inject paraffin wax in to womens faces to make them more beautiful?  See, people make mistakes.  OK, getting weird.  Peace, Love, MonsterMongerMorgan.

Great article in the Rutland Herald about Taylor Farm

Great article in the ProJo about the Reichbeir and the guy who won this year.

PS dear readers, I am closing in on my review of the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, which will include my humble list of “Best in Show”  Word.   Stay Tuned.

Hey’a'll – -

I got so much to do in the world of my life this afternoon it is sorta beyond funny.  Here is what is cool so far…

Name: Boucher Bleu
Milk: Raw Cow
Origin: Highgate Center VT
Cost at Store: $39.99/lb.

- – Boucher Bleu.  I spell the word blue as bleu because my dad told me that was how you spelled blue when it came to cheese.  I was around five years old at the time.  I was really excited because I had found a spelling error on the menu of his restaurant, and I know he probably felt a little bad letting me down, and so he turned it in to a learning opportunity.  Neat.

Anyways, the Boucher Bleu is a special wheel, noted most principally for its mild sweetness and fudge-like texture.  However, digging in to it a little bit, we find a pretty cool story.  I am compelled to copy and paste here, but I will touch on the good points and paste in a link for the full story.

- – The Boucher family came to the St. Lawrence River valley over 400 years ago and farmed the land with great success.  They were eventually granted land that is now modern day Quebec.

- – Pierre Boucher was a pivotal figure in the history of French involvement in modern day Canada, so much so that there is to this day a town you can visit, Boucherville, which, in the 17th century, was named in his honor.

- – Two brothers, Denis and Daniel Boucher have kept the farming tradition alive in their family, and have undertaken the production of cheese from their dairy in Highgate Centre in VT.

- – OK, so there is a lot to consider here.  I can’t help but have pangs of pain as I read about the story of the Boucher line, and how they brought French culture to the new world, seemingly at the expense of the culture that existed before their arrival.   It is funny, because I love cheese, in America, which was brought here by Europeans.  I have French Canadian in my blood, and yet I sort of feel bad for the the folks who were displaced in this story.  That is pretty much all I can say about that, I feel sorta sad.  That said, the world is a wild place, and I don’t know why folks feel compelled to spread out and fight and conquer each other, but I know it still goes on today, so we all do our best.

- – So to the cheese, I said sweetness and texture, but let us think a little about bleu cheese and how this one is cool.  I would like to talk about your tongue for a second.  It is covered in taste buds, which are arranged in five sections, and have seemingly evolved in us as a way to help us determine what we should / shouldn’t put in our mouths.  So, if you were to say, try to eat a rhubarb leaf, maybe the intense tartness of the potentially lethal dose of oxalic acid contained therein would deter you from consuming it.  But it’s not like a little print out pops out of our ear saying “dude C₂O₄H₂ alert, spit it out and seek medical attention”.  We just sorta know, or, some folks do and some folks don’t.  But it is in playing with this sensory pathway that the rush, the clarity, the epiphany, and holy moly moments of flavor combinations are possible.  So, what the heck are we talking about here?  Simply, when we wake up in the morning, our taste buds are at their most articulate.  We haven’t eaten, smoked, drunk, licked, or sucked on anything in many hours.  So, like a story my mom told me about oversleeping in middle school, which ends with her skipping breakfast, and in a desperate rush of hunger eating her tuna salad sandwich at 7AM on the school bus, and not eating another tuna sandwich for 15 years, the wild weird and woolly flavors are generally not the best thing to consume first thing in the AM.

But, dear readers, what do we do pretty much first thing every morning?  (Excuse the generalization here), We suck down a cup of coffee with all our might!  How smart you think those taste buds feel after those 16ounces of an acidic extraction of practically burnt inedible beans are unceremoniously washed over their peacefully renewed and recently rested chemosensors?  Not as smart as they felt before you tried that!  Add to that the egg and cheese for breakfast, bento box for lunch, soup snack at 3PM, Rice beans and greens for dinner with wine, mini chocolate cake for dessert…Whatever snacks you snuck in that you prefer we not mention here, etc, those taste bud guys get railed all day!   You can imagine that they really appreciate a good nights sleep.

So anyways, on the website for the Boucher Bleu, they claim that it can be enjoyed as an amuse-bouche with a drop of Amaretto, on a spoon.  What does that really mean though?  (Aside from some fancy way to say “our cheese tastes good”.)  Well, amuse bouche in French, as far as I understand it, means, “Invite your mouth to taste”.  Or “Tickle your tongue”.  It generally describes a single bite of food that you consume at the extreme beginning of your meal, to engage the gustatory juices.  Bleu cheese as an amuse?  Usually leaves a bitter and pungent aftertaste, that lingers until about the salad course.  I would call it a “faux-pas”, or “boneheaded-move” in general, for a chef to choose a bleu cheese as an amuse.  So that is what makes this subtle sentence profound or interesting, and does a good job of describing the remarkable nature of this remarkable local cheese.  As I said at the top of the page, the Boucher Bleu is renown for its “mild sweetness”.  A bleu cheese that comes and goes with grace and elegance among your palette is sure to be a memorable and, dare I say it, a fleeting pleasure.  And if you wanna skip the amaretto I won’t tell, although if you toast a few almonds (has anyone ever toasted just one nut before?), crush them and place them atop your spoonful of Boucher, you will I am sure, be hungry for more.  So, come on down to CF and ask for a taste.

That’s it for now, Thanks for the comments and keep ‘em coming, and please, don’t be afraid to call BS from time to time.  Love, MorganMongerMonster.

- – Obligatory ad for City Feed, courtesy of Brian S. Ellis – - “Take a Break from wireless, eat your lunch in peace at City Feed” – - Sweet.

- – OK, so here are some neat links to check out…

Wikipedia entry for Pierre Boucher.
The full story of Green Mountain Blue Cheese.
Boucher Family Farm Blog.  (A Wicked Awesome read)

Oh, and in my poking around the internet for interesting nuggets, I learned the word, “Riparian”.  Maybe you use it every day in casual conversation, but, just to be sure, the definition, according to m-w.com is “relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater.”  Yay!

Name: Vaquero Blue
Milk : Raw Cow and Sheep
Origin : Milton VT
Cost at store : $29.95/lb

Hey, so sorry about the crap picture.  I promise as time passes the image quality on this site will increase.  In the mean time, here is a little info on a well liked and at times mystical blue cheese known as Vaquero.  Produced by the dairy at Willow Hill Farm in Milton VT.  The farm, I swear, is located on “Hardscrabble Rd”.  So, right off the bat you know this is serious.  Also, the farm is Certified Organic, and in addition to creating cheese from the milk of their own cows and sheep, the also have certified organic u-pick blueberries.  Wicked.  So, this blue veined tomme is named after the Spanish word for “Cowboy”, which is a theme for some of the names they pick for cheese.  (Incidentally, cheese names, like cocktail names, are a a delicate and obsession worthy subject, deserving of their own blog).  It is briny, sweet and spicy, complex and long in the tooth, with an agreeable, more overt than coy finish.  (I imagine the lingering taste of this cheese somewhat analogous to a perfumed hankerchief left behind by a mysterious woman you spent the weekend with in Budapest, with a phone number pinned to it.  You want to call her back…)

So to the cheese.  To those who are interested, it is really important to taste your cheese at least at “cellar” temperature, or at “room” temperature.  When I say cellar, I imagine around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  Room is closer to 65.  What is the difference?  I put it to you, go ahead and try it.  At its most extreme, practically frozen cheese versus bubbling hot melted cheese is going to be a drastic contrast.  Flavor, but also, texture, aroma, acidity, sweetness, it is all bound up with temperature.  We store cheese at or below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, because the health inspectors require it.

The cave temperature is a subtle and complex issue.  In the beginning, cheese was created to preserve milk for the winter when the cows were dried off and there was very little to eat.  As a result, a great deal of cheese recipes are inherently tied to the places where the folks who first started making them established.  In some places, there were caves, which tend to have a high humidity and a temp around 50 degrees.  So, as civilization grew more adept at making, aging, and storing cheese, the role of affineur emerged.  In short, this guy (or gal) goes down to the cave, and tries to figure out if the cheese is ready to be sold / consumed, or if it needs some attention.  So much the affineur has done for the milk through the ages!  Through the invention of the cheese iron, a plug of cheese is extracted from a wheel, visually inspected and sniffed, and replaced in to the wheel.  It is at “cellar temperature” that all the decisions about the ripeness and readiness of the cheese are made.  To me, it is a fun and imaginative time to taste cheese, at a little cooler than room temperature, and pretend to be the affineur, tapping, looking and smelling the wheel, concerned with paying the best homage to the grass, the sun, the animals, and the human hands that together cooperate to bring such a high expression of civilization to fruit.

So, not bad for a first post, a little rambling and ambling, but, stay tuned dear readers, as I am planning on updating this blog as new cheeses are offered for sale, profiling neat cheeses that we often carry, talking about culture culture, being jokey and romantic in the same breath, and just trying to provide a portal that combines that stories of passionate cheese creation with a mix of stories that dedicate and bind the new American cheese revolution with the folks who produce and enjoy it.  Dag!  Morgan.

- – Oregon Blue
- – Bayley Hazen
- – Vaquero Blue
- – Great Hill Blue
- – Vermont Ayr
- – Maple Gouda
- – Parmigiano Reggiano
- – Queso Viejo
- – Fiddlehead Tomme
- – Rothkase Gruyere
- – Taylor Pepper Gouda
- – Farmstead Cheese
- – Italian Grace
- – Crottina
- – Weybridge
- – Maggie’s Round
- – Tarentaise
- – Cabot Clothbound Cheddar
- – Hartwell
- – Camembrie
- – Humboldt Fog
- – Nancy’s Camembert
- – La Luna
- – Truffle Tremor
- – Riley’s Coat
- – Blythedale Brie
- – Blythdale Camembert