Day 1048 : My favorite early Fall pairing

Happy First Day of Fall!
It's time for apple picking, Oktoberfest, leaves changing color, crisp air and much much more.

Why not grab some of Vermont Farmstead's Governor's Cheddar, crisp apples, pecans, honey and a nice bottle of red wine to ring in the new season?

Governor's Cheddar is aged for over a year and is nutty and buttery yet warming and full bodied. This cheddar has that classic crystallization and a nice butterscotchy caramelly fruity tang. The Governor's Cheddar is the perfect welcome to Fall cheese.

Served with crisp fresh apple slices, pecans and maybe a drizzle of local Wildflower honey, this will be an excellent Autumnal pairing.

I'd suggest a nice glass of French Cahors -- medium bodied, fruit forward and great with the Cheddar!

Enjoy!

Day 979 : New Cheeses from Vermont Farmstead

Located in Woodstock, Vermont, Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company is one of my favorite Vermont creameries. Why you might ask? Well, to name a few reasons --- for their attachment to community growth and socio-economic stimulation in this corner of the Green Mountain State; their ingenuity and innovation in terms of their cheese production and their end goal of increasing recognition of locally crafted cheeses.

This past weekend in Vermont, I had the opportunity of trying two of their new cheeses -- Sage Windorsdale and their newly released blue cheese.

My first thought of Sage infused cheese was wow, I don't really love sage as a seasoning so how will I like this cheese? It will be too overpowering and just all herbaceous sage-y notes that will take center stage. But no I was completely wrong -- this was delicate and refined - dynamic and developed -- milky, cheese-y, round, nuttiness notes from the Windsordale base went hand in hand with the tangy, bright, herbaceous notes of the sage infusion that comes from dried sage and sage oil. Great with some rosemary crackers or baked into a mac n' cheese perhaps. I can be a big fan of infused cheeses but I never took to the firm herb infused cheeses until this one, what a treat!

And what of their new blue?

Vermont Farmstead starts with the same Windsordale base, a raw cow's milk cheese inspired by the traditional English cheese, Wensleydale. What comes next? The cheesemakers over at Vermont Farmstead blend in some of the Amablu Gorgonzola from Fairbault Cheese in Fairbault, MN. Aged for a minimum of 90 days, this stunning blue is sweet and piquant yet flavorful and forceful. By combining these two cheeses, what one gets is the best of both worlds -- spicy piquant tang and a round warming nutty milkiness. Delicate and devine -- this is a cheese that appeals to those of us who adore blues as well those of us who are timid around a blue cheese. What an exciting new development for Vermont Farmstead! I am so thrilled to see a new dynamic and unique blue coming out of Vermont!

Stay tuned for pairings coming up in the coming days!

Day 946 : Announcing a new exciting partnership!

Just recently announced - Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company has purchased Castleton Crackers forming an awesome Vermont-y food partnership. This is the first time that a cheese company has partnered with a crackers company to collaborate on cheese and crackers and on the advancement of small production Vermont food businesses.

How exciting to see this interdisciplinary foodie partnership -- who knows where it will lead, but all I know is that it surely will be someplace absolutely totally and completely fabulous!

Day 943 : Bright Greens for a Bright Day

Inspired by the Tuscan Kale Salad at Boulud Sud that I had the pleasure of enjoying this weekend, I decided tonight we should feature a rustic warm kale salad recipe.

I like to use Satur Farms mixed kale as a base for this recipe as I like the difference in kale textures and I think it adds a nice flavor dynamism to our salad. So what else goes into our salad?

Roasted Butternut or Kabocha Squash
Roasted Almonds - sliced
Roasted Carrots
Lemon
EVOO
Shallot
Garlic
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Smoked Paprika
Vermont Farmstead's Governor's Cheddar - featured on day 928, this is a 1 - 2 year old cheddar that has been crafted in the traditional style. Round, dense, and buttery, yet with caramel butterscotchy nuances and a sweet, floral grassy and rustic finish.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cube butternut squash and carrots. Toss with EVOO, a garlic clove, sea salt and black pepper. Roast for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile toss your kale with EVOO, sea salt, a slight drizzle of lemon, your sliced almonds, a dash of smoked paprika for a spicy aromatic kick, and a diced shallot over low heat in a saute pan. Cook the kale for just a few minutes as you want it to maintain a nice crunch. Combine the roasted veggies with your kale and top with a drizzle of lemon and EVOO. Of course some sea salt, black pepper, and smoked paprika as well. Finish off with a nice amount of crumbled Governor's Cheddar.

Enjoy!

Day 928 : Getting ready for Thanksgiving?

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is a little over a week away?

I know I sure can't! 

This Fall surely zoomed by -- it feels like almost yesterday I was leisurely relaxing with my toes in the Majorcan sand at a peaceful beach on this rugged and rustic Balearic Isle. But back to the present grey British-esque conditions here in Manhattan on this Tuesday afternoon. 

Leading up into one of Fromagical's favorite holidays of the year, Thanksgiving, I thought we would present you with a series of seasonal pairings perfect for celebrating with the family, enjoying with friends or with loved ones.

Let's start off with the classic but always fabulous -- Cheddar and Chardonnay pairing. 

Before we get into the specific wine and cheese I chose for this pairing, lets discuss why this pairing is so successful. This pairing is all about similar body structures and complimentary flavor and taste nuances. In terms of the body -- the round, buttery, and robust flavors of the wine will find their equal and counterpart in similar flavors in the cheese. Both medium bodied for the most part, the weight of each will play off of the other. In terms of the flavor profile -- the honey, peachy, apricoty, apple, mineral-y, butterscotchy bouquet of the wine will go with the densely buttery rich creamy rustic tang of the cheese.

So which wine did I choose?

How about Channing Daughters Envelope crafted with 66% Chardonnay, 22% Gewurztraminer and 12% Mavasia Bianca grapes. Yes folks this is a white wine but it has the most fantastic deep warm orange-y hue. Dry yet full-bodied, aromatic and juicy yet bright and robust -- this wine does a fantastically exciting dance on the palate. A unique local wine perfect for your Thanksgiving celebration!

And what cheese?

How about Vermont Farmstead's Governor's Cheddar?

Aged for anywhere between one and two years, this Cheddar was originally crafted with the assistance of the Vermont Governor, Shumlin. Crafted in the traditional style, this aged cheddar is tangy and biting yet dense and milky with a butterscotchy, caramelly bent and a floral yet grassy and rustic finish. A crowd pleaser of a cheese excellent for next week's Thanksgiving table.

Stay tuned later for our next pairing with an aged goat's milk cheese!!

Day 913 : American Cheese Celebrations : Day Three - Lille

I apologize my dear friends for being slightly radio silent for the past few days - I'm finally playing catch-up today and things will get much more consistent...so let's get back to day three in our American Cheese Celebrations wrap up from last week's tasting with Lille. No folks, I'm not talking about the city in France, I'm talking about the soft ripened Coulommiers inspired cheese crafted by the folks at Vermont Farmstead.

Coulommiers, in case you are not familiar is a cousin of the more well known Brie.

Lille is a fabulous bloomy rinded cheese -- full of buttery round notes and a nice clean mushroomy finish with faint hints of nuttiness and grassiness. A crowd pleaser of a cheese -- this is a sumptuous, unctuous, mouth coating cheese moment! 

Lille for me is the embodiment of Vermont summertime -- bright and full of life!

Instead of pairing Lille with the obvious options of either bubbles or a light crisp white wine, why not pair Lille with a cocktail? In honor of the summertime spirit what about an Elderflower Prosecco Cocktail? 

What do you need to make this cocktail

1 chilled bottle of Prosecco / Champagne / Blanc de Blancs -- your bubbles of choice, the crisper the better. 

St Germain Elderflower Liqueur 

1 Persian Cucumber

Mint Sprigs

Squeeze of Lemon

Ice

Add a few ice cubes to a tumbler style glass. Add a decent amount of Prosecco and a splash of St Germain followed by a few paper-thin slices of cucumber and a dash of lemon. Top with a mint sprig or two for crisp freshness. This refreshing cocktail will cut through the round buttery-ness of the cheese in the most elegant of fashions, it will bring out the hints of grassiness in the cheese and is a different route for Lille.

Albeit not particularly seasonal -- this is also a fabulous celebratory pairing!

Day 899 : A break from our Fall into Beer, for a Cider Pairing

Fall is the perfect time for hard cider and living in New York City, there are plenty of options for fabulous local hard ciders -- light and refreshing yet crisp and satisfying. There's something absolutely perfect about a frosty frothy pint of cider as the days get shorter, the leaves start falling off the trees, and the autumnal light glows.

One of my favorite Northeast ciders is Farnum Hill's Farmhouse hailing from Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, New Hampshire, right near my alma mater. Farnum Hill grows a mixture of American, English, an French apples and crafts seven different varieties of ciders, both sparkling and still. Their Farmhouse is reminiscent of classic English and Irish but crisp with less of a lingering sweetness. Pale golden in color with a fabulous bubbly effervescence -- Farmhouse balances a rustic earthy tartness with a round bright clean fruity sweetness. It has a bit tannic biting side to it which allows for a dynamic depth of flavor profile.

Image courtesy of www.povertylaneorchards.com

With our Farmhouse Cider, how about some of Vermont Farmstead's BrickHaus Tilsit? This washed curd cow's milk cheese from my friends in Windsor, Vermont is the perfect pairing partner if you ask me. Smooth, round and buttery with a nice bright sweetness to it with hints of grassy citrus. Enjoy your cider with some nibbles of BrickHaus Tilsit, roasted walnuts and some baugette! The perfect early Fall pairing!

Image courtesy of www.vermontfarmstead.com

Day 895 : Fall into Beer Pairing # 2 : Righteous Rye & Hot Pepper WindsorDale

Here's to our second pairing from our Fall into Beer Tasting - just the perfect combination of fermented fellows that awakens your senses!

Our beer today is Sixpoint's Righteous Rye hailing from Red Hook, Brooklyn. Spicy to the core, the Righteous Ale is a rye pale ale clocking in at 6.40% ABV. Grassy, rustic and earthy yet spicy, peppery, and warming, this deep copper hued beer is perfection for a late Fall day. Medium to full bodied, it warms you from the inside out.

So what to pair with it?

Think spice! My favorite pairing partner is Vermont Farmstead’s Hot Pepper Windsordale. This honest and milky raw cow’s milk cheese is infused with the most fantastic blend of jalapenos and chilis giving it a nice awakening kick of aromatic piquant notes. Spice goes with spice in this pairing designed to delight and stimulate your senses! 

Day 864 : Vermont Farmstead Trip

Following our stop at Spring Brook Farm, my next stop was at Vermont Farmstead in South Woodstock, Vermont. The site of an old water buffalo dairy, this is the first community owned dairy in Vermont with the goal of stimulating the local economy by bringing back dairy farming to the region and in turn producing wonderful farmstead cheeses. A growing company - it was such fun to see their space and hear about all of their plans to grow in the coming weeks, months and years.

The newest development in terms of growth is their new outpost right next to Harpoon Brewery in Windsor -- boasting a retail shop, a cut n' wrap area, aging caves and more. The retail shop opened a little over a month ago and when I was there, they were still working on the back areas. Stay tuned for updates as this space is finished. But for the moment, it is the perfect place to grab some local cheeses, preserves, breads, ice creams and more while you're at Harpoon Brewery.

But let's move back to their South Woodstock location which is home base for their current cheesemaking operations. Here they produce approximately twelve different cheeses and are constantly expanding and growing their cheese offerings. What I thought was very cool in my chats with the cheesemakers was that the original goal in developing a line of cheeses was to reinvent lesser known European cheeses and really make them their own -- putting a very unique and completely personal Vermont Farmstead spin on their cheeses.

As of late they sure have been exploring their flavor creative juices with infused Windsordales modeled on the traditional English cheese, Wensleydale with cheese such as a Cranberry Windsordale, a Blueberry Windsordale, a Hot Pepper Windsordale, a Cracked Pepper Windsordale and even a Chocolate Stout infused Windsordale. They are constantly trying new infusions and are seeing what works and what doesn't -- for example a Peas and Carrots infused Windsordale unfortunately fell flat and tasted like chicken soup.

Apart from their Windsordale experiments, they are also working on producing more and more small Lille, their bloomy rinded ooey-gooey Coulommiers inspired cream-ster - going from approximately one to two pound wheels down to small, little, dainty seven ouncers -- perfect with a bottle of champagne for a night in.

The current sized Lille's aging

The newly developed smaller Lille's just after production.

Spending time at the Creamery and with the staff, their enthusiasm, excitement, and energy was totally contagious -- you see it in their fabulous new farmstead cheeses and in their plans for expansion in terms of their facilities. This is only just the beginning of Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company, stay tuned for the next steps.

A look inside the creamery....

The vats utilized to craft their cheeses

Their milking parlour

A look into their cow barn.

Thanks guys for taking the time to show me around! I look forward to seeing you all again very soon. 

Day 815 : Cheese Chat - Peter Mohn of Vermont Farmstead

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Peter Mohn, the VP of Sales for Vermont Farmstead to get to learn more about him, the cheeses and Vermont Farmstead as a company on the whole. It was such a pleasure to have the opportunity to chat with someone who loves his craft and his company so much -- what an inspiration!

Peter has been in the cheese world for over four decades -- starting as a cheesemonger at Darien's Cheese Shop in 1970 then working with ANCO foods, a cheese importer and distributor. In 1988, Peter began working with a small artisanal cheesemaker in Massachusetts who crafted a cheese known as Craigston Camembert. It was here where Peter first really catapulted himself and the creamery to the national stage and it did not stop with Craigston, Peter went on to Grafton Village Cheese Company in 1991. At Grafton, Peter put them on the national map -- helping win multiple awards for their cheddars and spring-boarding them from a small local cheesemaking operation to one that was really on the national map! In 2009, Peter retired from Grafton, thinking that his days would be spent relaxing. Boy was he mistaken!

In 2010 - Peter joined the Vermont Farmstead family and the rest from there my friends is history.

What makes Vermont Farmstead different you might want to know?

Well many things my friends!

They are trying to take farmstead cheese and bring it to the masses -- bringing Vermont to the nooks and crannies of the US.

Within the past year, they have gone from the first community owned creamery with deep-seeded roots in Woodstock, Vermont to an award wining cheesemaking operation on the national radar. How have they done that in under a year you might wonder as it tends to take most creameries years?

Thankfully for Vermont Farmstead they did not have to build their own facilities -- they took over a  water buffalo focused dairy farm that was originally designed by a fellow who adored water buffalo mozzarella and who wanted to craft his own cheese. Vermont Farmstead took over the facilities in 2010 after they had changed hands a few times in the process. Vermont Farmstead was the right choice -- why?

Well they have been able in their young existence been able to bridge the gap between tradition and innovation and in their years moving forward their goal is to take farmstead cheese to the masses! Stay tuned for further in depth blogs on each of their cheeses...Through Fromagical and your support, lets help them reach their goal!

There's plenty more to come from them and I'm excited to be witness and be a part of it!

Here's to their future!

Day 801: Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company and my newest cheese crush

Location - South Woodstock, Vermont

Farm details - Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company

Why are they awesome?

Because they were founded as a means to stimulate the community of Southern Woodstock by bringing people together with a shared goal of invigorating the local socio-economical climate through a dairy farm and its cheese production.

Have they been successful?

YES! And they are expanding to a new cheese facility, aging caves, and retail shop in July 2012.

They currently craft two Cheddars, one washed in ale; their version of a classic English Wensleydale called Windsordale; a fenugreek infused Edam; a soft ripened Brie style cheese; and my favorite -- the Brickhaus Tilsit.

What is the Tilsit?

Well it is a pasteurized cow's milk cheese that is a washed curd cheese giving it a more sumptuous round mouthfeel and a nice density. Buttery, milky and warming, this is a cheese that will win over many hearts as will the creamery who produces it.