Visiting Sugar House Creamery

In upstate New York, close to the Canadian border, lies a magical place called Sugar House Creamery.  I got in touch with owner/operators Margot and Alex who invited me, a complete stranger, to come stay for a few days during their annual green grass get down when they let their small herd of 12 Brown Swiss cows out to pasture after the winter.  I drove over from Vermont and was immediately impressed with the tranquility of the farm, quality to of the milk and cheese, and legitimacy of the operation.

The cheese above is called Lil Dickens.  It is a scrumptious Geo rind cheese with a delicate satiny texture.  

The cows, the cheese, a little farm store where raw milk and farm products are sold.  Promotion of other local farms and participation in a small scale economy.  They have it all dialed in.

Cheese Maker at Jasper Hill

After spending a few months at The Cellars I moved over to begin making cheese in the Cheese House. Bayley Hazen Blue, Harbison, and Moses Sleeper are made here and then aged at The Cellars.  I was trained to make Moses Sleeper, a brie like bloomy rind.  The milk is cultured in a pasteurizer then pumped into ten plastic coagulation vats on wheels where it is renneted in 5 minute intervals.  All the steps of cheese making are staggered so that you can tip them one at a time over a table of molds, then stack these up and tip the next vat. 

The make room has gorgeous view out onto the rolling Vermont landscape of forest mixed with pasture.  The cows milked here are Ayrshire which have traits making them uniquely suited for cheese making.  They are hardy enough to weather Vermont winters.  Their milk has a high protein content and small fat globules that resist cream separating and binds easier to protein so you trap more fat in the matrix, increasing yield.  

During my time at Jasper Hill I became a much more informed and practiced Cheese Maker.  I learned to take moisture samples and to adjust the cheese make to try to fit the parameters of moisture and Ph targets.  Doing this is a combination of precise measurement, intuitive feel, and experience with past batches of cheese.  I got to work with very experienced, knowledgeable and serious cheese makers and my skills grew immensely.  The cheese scene in New England is the most advanced I have been exposed to and the quality of the products shows this. 

The Cellars At Jasper Hill

In April I began a new job at Jasper Hill Farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.  I started in The Cellars doing affinage in this amazing facility.  Seven Vaults are build in the side of hill and buried to maintain temperature through Vermont's barbaric winters.  The cheeses above are Alpha Tolman an Alpine cheese that develops a smear from constant brine washing.  

The washed rind vault houses Willoughby and Oma.  Oma is made by Von Trapp and the model of The Cellars is to buy and age cheeses not only from Jasper Hill, but also of other nearby producers, mimicking the European model of affinage.  Cheeses are kept on wire rack towers with rolly bases and washed frequently.  It smells very good in this Vault, each has its own aroma as well as temperature and humidity. 

Bayley Hazen Blue is a fascinating cheese to watch age.  It starts in a warmer wetter Vault then after the blue covers it is moved to a cooler dryer vault.  Each wheel is hand pierced with a single hole piercer giving it a varied less mechanical look inside.   Naturally rinded blues are a favorite of mine and getting to see this cheese develop and taste it as it did is a valuable experience.  

My experience the Cellars has widened my  knowledge of cheese exponentially.  I have gotten to learn so much about affinage, sensory evaluation, rind care, and the logistics of managing cheese aging/selection/shipping.  Affinage is my favorite aspect of cheese making, this is where the magic happens.  The cheese comes in fresh virgin white, a blank canvas.  Microbial artists comes in  and are steered by human hands into an artistic symbiosis of human, animal, land, and microbes.   There is really nothing else like it in the USA and I am glad to say I got to dive into this amazing place.  

Visit to Cricket Creek Farm

I visited Cricket Creek Farm in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and got to see the cheese making facility there. It is a gorgeous diverisfied farm with an onsite store and bakery.  I had a blast meeting everyone who works there, tasting farm products, and making cheese.   

The aging room is my favorite part of any cheese tour.  All aging rooms smell similar but slightly different.  They all smell like musty cellars but each has a unique aroma probably due to the particular balance of microbes, the climate and humidity, and the amount of airflow.  

Gorgeous Jersey cows on pasture. 

The quaint farm store where you can buy cheese, raw milk, bread and other goods baked onsite, meat, and products from other surrounding farms.  A strong community farming spirit in the Berkshires.