Day 673 : Shaved Brussel Sprouts

Last night I had the most fabulously simple preparation of shaved brussel sprouts, aged parmesan and walnuts with some EVOO, sea salt and black pepper. The brussel sprouts truly were the focus of this rustic and seasonal ode to this Fall vegetable so I was inspired to make brussel sprouts the focus of tonight's dinner. I decided to make a warm red quinoa, parsnip, shaved brussel sprouts, and roasted almond salad -- an late autumnal comfort meal as a midweek pause from the hussle and bussle of the holiday season.

While cooking your quinoa, dice up the parsnip and almonds and toss them into a saute pan with some EVOO, sea salt, and black pepper. Then dice up your brussel sprouts so you are able to thin small shavings of brussel sprouts. Toss those into the saute pan as well and cover. Cook over low heat till the parsnip and brussels are golden brown. Once the quinoa is done mix the veggies in and top with a few shavings of Cabot's Clothbound cheddar to dial up the rustic nuttiness of the dish. Enjoy with a glass of Zweigelt.

Day 672 : A recap of last night's Holiday Wine and Cheese

It's the holiday season and I'm sure you are frequenting plenty of holiday parties stocked with the requisite Proseccos, Pinot Grigios, Merlots, Bries, Cheddars and more. In last night's class, we looked at how one could do that with a focus on local products -- Vermont cheeses and New York state wines. So lets get going!


Pairing Number # 1 - Onabay's Blanc de Blancs with Vermont Butter and Cheese's Cremont
A holiday party is not complete without some bubbles in my mind, it just gets you in a festive mood. Blanc de blancs unlike champagne is crafted with 100% Chardonnay grapes whereas champagne is made with a blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. Onabay's Blanc de blancs is crafted in the traditional style with a second fermentation in the bottle. However folks this is truly a North Fork product, as Onabay hand picks their Chardonnay grapes two to three weeks before the regular harvest so that this bubbly can embody that classic Long Island minerality and light notes of acidity. For under $20 this wine is definitely an affordable and local bubbly. To go with the crisp and refreshing green apple and lemon notes of the bubbly one wants a creamy but not too heavy cheese which is why the mixed milk Cremont from Vermont Butter and Cheese is the obvious choice. This little disc of goat and cow's milk also known as the Cream of Vermont is a soft ripened creamster. Slight nutty notes with a lactic, grassy, and citrusy goaty tang and the roundness of mouthfeel of a cow's milk cheese will be the perfect counterpart to our refreshing and light bubbly.

Think what an upgrade this pairing is to your traditional Brie and Prosecco!

Pairing # 2 : Millbrook's Tocai Friulano and Consider Bardwell's Manchester

Located in the Hudson Valley, Millbrook's Tocai Friulano is an excellent example of an old world wine thriving in new world conditions. A light to medium bodied white with notes of lemon, pineapple, clementine, and pear this wine has a refreshing finish with a nice burst of acidity. Instead of your traditional Pinot Grigio or non-descript white wine, this $15 wine will delight and excite the palate. To go with this how about raw goat's milk tomme from Consider Bardwell in West Pawlet, Vermont. A firm aged goat's milk cheese with a rustic goaty tang this cheese mirrors the citrusy notes of the wine with a nice farmsteady hay finish.

Pairing # 3 : Shinn Estate Red NV and Cabot Clothbound

Shinn holds a place near and dear to my heart because of their sustainable wine practices and diverse varietal production while staying true to their region's roots. Their estate red is a blend of Merlot, Cab Franc, and Syrah and is the perfect balance of easy drinking with a depth of flavor. Red berries, slightly oak and a sensual smoothness make this an excellent holiday party choice. Paired with the nutty, butterscotchy, and caramelly ten month aged Cabot Clothbound cheddar aged in Jasper Hill's Cellars. Its firm and dry with a nice biting sharpness to it. Perfect with the juicy smoothness of the wine.

Pairing # 4 : Eve's Cidery's Autumn Gold and Jasper Hill's Bayley Hazen Blue

Cider is the new in thing, haven't you heard? Well if you haven't get thee to your local wine and spirits shop or farmer's market. This semi-sweet sparkling cider is rustic and yeasty with a roundness of mouth feel. Great with the spicy punch of our Bayley Hazen Blue. An aged cow's milk blue that is a delight for those of you who like blue cheese.

Overall a lovely time was had by all. Thank you to everyone who helped out putting last night together. Happy Holidays all!

Day 671 : Jasper Hill Farm

 On to our last and final cheese stop on this trip and definitely the most remote. I arrived in Greensboro, Vermont to recognize that whoops I had only written down the PO Box address of Jasper Hill, not the actual address of the creamery, great planning on my part. After some attempts at googling where I needed to go, a nice woman drove up next to my little Chevy and inquired if I needed help. Thank god, I thought! After following this woman down a series of icy snow covered dirt roads definitely not the sort I could have navigated on my own, I arrived at an unmarked set of buildings which my friends was Jasper Hill Creamery.

Jasper Hill Farm was purchased by Andy and Mateo Kehler in the late 1990s but it wasn’t till 2002 that they decided to turn the land into a full fledged dairy farm.  This is a story of two brothers looking to make a living off of the land in a part of the world that was near and dear to their hearts. Could they stimulate this rural region of Vermont by giving back to the community through their cheesemaking and also support both of their families?

The Greensboro area when the Kehler brothers began to toy with the idea of building a creamery had only seven dairy farms and had recently witnessed the sale of 30% of the town’s cows. In 2002, the Kehler brothers bought fifteen cows to the region which was a huge improvement for the area’s agricultural economic growth.

2002 saw the construction of their original creamery building with space for aging cheeses in the basement. On May 16, 2003, they made their first batch of cheese. Today they make Constant Bliss, Bayley Hazen Blue, Harbison, Moses Sleeper and Winnimere. What is interesting about their operation is that instead of starting with one cheese and going from there, the brothers started manufacturing a few different cheeses at once to maximize their revenue and stimulate their profits.

In 2006, their next big break came when they received a call from Cabot, would Jasper Hill be interested in aging some of Cabot’s artisan cheddar to help introduce a higher end product to the market place? Of course they would! This phone call changed Jasper Hill forever. Now because of that initial call and their partnership with Cabot on this one cheese, Jasper Hill has a state of the art cellars area, unrivaled in the region.

In 2008, as told to me by Andy Kehler, the brothers went out and raised $400,000 to blow a hole into the ground across from their current cheesemaking facilities and then they approached the banks to receive the necessary approximately 3 million dollars to build their seven cheese aging caves or cellars that are each individually temperature stabilized depending on the cheeses that will live in the space. Currently they are at 30% occupancy and that is with hundreds of their cheeses and the cheeses of Cabot and eight other smaller farms that simply do not have the resources of facilities to age. The caves are designed to hold up to close to 5,000 cheeses per room.

Walking into the first cellar that was lined with rows upon rows of approximately 35 pound wheels of Cabot Clothbound, I was blown away. This was aging unlike anything I had seen in this country, let alone on the East Coast and in such a small town like Greensboro. It was in that moment I realized that I was witnessing the dream of two brothers, two families, and a community come true and they aren’t stopping there.

Down the road a bit, into Hardwick, the Kehler brothers are helping create the Food Venture Center, a food incubator. By that I mean, a shared space where small food companies can rent out kitchen or baking space to get their company off the ground. There are services to help you with your business plan and to help you design your business cards and more. The Kehlers plan to start producing some of their cheese in this space and then aging it back at the farm. In fact today was their first day of cheesemaking there. In the future they hope to begin to craft an Alpine style cheese at the Food Venture Center as well, a departure from their current cheese line. Also on their calendar is the introduction of goats on their currently all cow farm. But that’s a bit down the road.

Overall my visit to Jasper Hill was totally awe-inspiring. This is really what it looks like when you follow your dreams and you are able to succeed. In their own little corner of the world, the Kehler brothers are stimulating the agricultural economy to its fullest and encouraging their community to think outside of the box when it comes to food and wine production and ultimately work towards the end goal of having Vermonters eat and produce local as much as possible.

Day 670 : Next Stop Cabot.

Did you know that the name Cabot comes from a Revolutionary Era romance? Yes folks, a man named the town of Cabot after his wife, if that isn't the most grandiose of gestures right?

Yes Cabot Cheese is named after the town of its birth place in 1919 when 94 farmers joined together to form the cheese co-op. Now, almost a century later, Cabot has close to 1300 farmers in its co-op with on average 75 cows each. Now, Cabot has three retail outposts in Vermont along with a production plant in Cabot, in Middlebury and then plants in Massachusetts and New York. This is a big time operation folks with with a focus on the farmers, sustainability, giving back to the economy, and of course producing their award winning fabulous Cheddar cheeses.  I find it is always a good sign of a company when its employees have been there forever and a large percentage of their employees have been there for decades.

Cabot as we all know is well known for its Cheddars crafting close to thirty different varieties from 75 % reduced fat to smoky bacon to five year aged ones to even spreadable cheddar cheese. Apart from their Cheddars, they make a few types of Monterey Jack, Muenster, butter, Greek yogurt, a variety of dips, cottage and cream cheese, whip cream, and cheddar powder. In 2006, Cabot teamed up with Jasper Hill to craft an artisanal clothbound cheddar that is aged in Jasper Hill's cellars for ten months and then is sold both by Cabot and Jasper Hill. Elegant and smooth, this is a refined cheddar.

I'll leave you with two fun Cabot facts:

Did you know that their Cheddars are completely lactose free?

And that they hold the world record for the largest Mac N' Cheese?

Day 669 : Vermont Excursions Part One

Last time I was in Vermont, the temperatures were warm, the grass was green and the leaves were plentiful, it was late July and time for the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival. In the following months, Vermont witnessed one of the worst storms in the state's history leaving to this day many roads closed, businesses shuttered and life completely changed. Coming up this weekend I knew that I'd be arriving to a changed state, not simply because there would be snow on the ground obviously. I had three creamery visits lined up along with a mini sojourn in Killington followed finally by a winery stop. Each creamery visit will be covered in a separate blog, so lets get going in chronological order. All of my photos will come this week.

Visit number one was Vermont Butter and Cheese in Websterville founded in 1984 by Allison Hooper and Bob Reese. Now twenty seven years later, VBC is working to open a fully operational goat dairy farm in Randolph along with renovating their cheese production spaces in Websterville with a pretty sizable staff of forty-two.  VBC currently sources its milk from seventeen different farms throughout the state and Ontario. Once the milk arrives at VBC, the magic starts to happen. What's made with all that milk? They make: the best cultured butter stateside, excellent creme fraiche, fresh chevre, fromage blanc, mascarpone, feta, and a line of aged cheeses -- Coupole, Bijou, Bonne Bouche, and Cremont. Over half of their profits come from that fabulous creme fraiche, with a pretty decent percentage from the chevre and butter as well. Although you hear me talk primarily about my love of their aged cheeses, they by no means are their money maker yet. One day definitely but for the moment they are some of the best aged goat's milk cheeses crafted on this side of the pond.

So lets break down a few fun facts learned yesterday :

1. Did you know that up until two years ago they used to churn all their butter by hand? Not wanting to compromise the butter's quality, they stuck to the old fashioned method of production. When it no longer made sense to hand churn all of their butter, where did they go? They sourced and custom designed a butter producing machine from France and a butter packaging machine from Italy. In fact their packaging machine was the first of its kind in the US made by this company. Did their butter suffer? Not at all! It is still fantastic and the best of its kind here.

2. It takes 100 pounds of milk to make 14 pounds of cheese and goat's milk which is what the majority of VBC's cheeses are composed of is the most susceptible to seasonality. So how do you deal with that as a cheesemaker so your product maintains a consistency of flavor profile? Not only do you adjust the conditions of the cheese aging room, you also change the scale of the cheese molds utilized to craft some of their cheeses. In case you were curious, yes they are beyond successful!

Overall my visit to Vermont Butter and Cheese was both educational and informative but fun and exciting, allowing me to learn more about one of my favorite Vermont creameries and get an in depth look behind the scenes. 2012 will be a very exciting year for them with the grand opening of their farm and with their facilities renovations they will greatly increase their efficiency of cheese production allowing them to churn more of their delish cheeses.

Day 668 : Healthy Living

Destination - Burlington, Vermont's largest independently owned natural and organic supermarket. Not to compare, but think Whole Foods but owned by one family focused solely on the best and healthiest foods possible with a goal of stimulating and giving back to the local economy. This feels like the ultimate in a community supermarket -- the local apples and pears were calling my name as was their entire gluten free section; a well-stocked row of wines and beers; prepared tofus and salads; a selection of locally baked goods, you name it, you could find it here! But what I loved most was something that you rarely see at any of our highly stocked, over crowded New York City supermarkets -- miniature individual samples of cheeses. Hey you could grab tastes of five different artisanal cheeses and barely spend five dollars.

Yes their cheese selection was excellent as well -- an ode to Vermont cheeses, hard to find local favorites were the name of the game here.

This is the sort of place I could spend hours wandering around and easily walk out with bags upon bags of things that just caught my eye or struck my fancy. But for this evening, a small bite of Tarentaise and a prepared quinoa and black bean salad and some maple ginger Vermont soy tofu.

Healthy Living
222 Dorset Street
South Burlington, VT

Day 667 : How to Save / How to Splurge Dispatch # 40

The holiday season can get to be expensive, that's for sure! So why not save on a sale of one of my all-time favorite cheeses at Murray's? Coupole!

Image courtesy of http://www.murrayscheese.com/

Coupole is made by Allison Hooper and the wonderful folks at Vermont Butter and Cheese who I will have the pleasure of visiting this weekend. An aged pasteurized goat's milk cheese with a natural and crinkly soft rind and an ivory chalky lactic interior modeled on the great Loire Valley goats but with that Vermont "je ne sais quoi." Creamy and milky with a nice burst of citrusy grassy fabulousness, great paired with a light white wine or with a nice glass of bubbly if you're feeling especially festive today!


Coupole is currently marked down from $15.99 to $10.99 at Murray's making it quite the deal!