The Vermont Cheese Trail

Attention cheese lovers!  Vermont should hold high rank on your travel bucket list.  With 45 different cheese makers scattered across this small state, you'll surely find a new favorite snack at one of these farms nestled in New England's mountains.

In early April, Chris and I decided to embark on an impromptu self-guided tour of Vermont's cheese trail.  For years we have enjoyed Vermont cheeses sold at local markets in Boston, but we have never ventured out on the cheese trail to taste freshly made cheese directly from the source.  

The Vermont Cheese Trail map along with some pamphlets we picked up along the way. You can print your own map here or see it in Google Maps: 

I quickly learned two lessons from our cheese tour experience:

1) Early April is not the best time to go. Many of the cheese makers are closed for the season and the weather is unpredictable. The first day was sunny and a balmy 70 degrees F. The second day was freezing,windy and snowy.  Early May might have been a better choice. 

2) Going on a cheese tour while pregnant can be a bit...well...tortuous.  Much of the cheese is freshly made with raw milk - a no-no food for pregnancy.  Luckily there were a couple of options made with pasteurized milk so I could partake in sampling.  A tip for the pregnant ladies: you can eat raw milk cheese as long as you heat it up. So bring on the grilled cheese! 

During our two day tour, we visited three cheese makers:

1. Plymouth Artisan Cheeses
2. Cabot Creamery Cooperative
3. Shelbourne Farms
   

We would have been able to squeeze in two more had we planned our trip beforehand and called ahead to arrange a time at those creameries that are appointment only.  But this was a last minute get-in-the-car-and-go trip so c'est la vie! 

Not only is it fun to taste the cheese, but the drive through Vermont is beautiful and each property has a really fascinating history.   Here is a brief recap of each:

Plymouth Artisan Cheeses: Presidential Roots

• Operating for 124 years, it's the second oldest cheese factory in the USA. 
• The factory was founded by the father of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the USA.
• The factory's location has not changed since it's inception in 1890. There is a little museum above the shop where you can see the original cheese making equipment. 
• Here we purchased the Sage & Herbs cheese and two bags of our favorite almonds from The Mapled Nut, a Vermont owned gourmet nut company.  These almonds are so good that we finished them in a matter of minutes!

The charming and tiny town of Plymouth, VT. It's the birthplace and childhood home of USA President Calvin Coolidge and long time home to Plymouth Artisan Cheese.  The former President is buried across the street.

Above the store is an exhibit of old fashioned cheese making tools and the history of the factory. 

Present day cheese factory. Unfortunately, they weren't making cheese while we were there. 

Our favorite snack -The Mapled Nut gourmet almonds!  I also loved the unique design of each cheese label. 

Cabot Creamery Cooperative: Strength in Numbers

• Cabot isn't just one cheese maker, it's actually a cooperative of over 1,000 dairy farm families! 
• In the early 20th century, there was an excess supply of milk so farmers from the Cabot region joined forces and combined their extra milk to make butter under the Rosedale brand name. 
• Although the number of Vermont dairy farms shrank in the mid 60's, Cabot retained hundreds of members supplying milk to make their increasingly popular cheddar cheeses.
• We sampled all the cheeses on display at the Visitor's Center just outside of Stowe and our favorites were the horseradish cheese and the chipotle cheese. I love the horseradish cheese so much that I've begun purchasing it regularly at my grocery store in Cambridge. 

Chris sampling various Cabot cheeses at the shop. There had to be at least 20 different types!

Three cheers for pasteurized cheese! We purchased the horseradish (my favorite) and chipotle cheeses. 

Shelburne Farms: A Vanderbilt Legacy

• Situated along Lake Champlain, just south of Burlington, this 1,400 acre working farm is a National Historic Landmark.
• In the late 1800's, Lila Vanderbilt Webb (Cornelius'' granddaughter) and her husband acquired this land and hired the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to develop it (the same Olmsted that designed New York's Central Park).
• The farm is MASSIVE and consists of several stunning buildings designed by R.H. Robertson. 
• During the summer, visitors can stay at The Inn at Shelburne Farms. It's seasonal because heat was never installed at this summer "house". 
• The farm is currently a non-profit organization that helps educators and children learn about sustainable living and farming.
• While the highlight of this visit was definitely touring the grounds (even in the brutal snow and wind), the cheese was also very good. Here we purchased a 6 month aged cheddar and a horseradish mustard that pairs nicely with Chris' sautéed brussel sprouts. 

The Shelburne Farms tasting room and shop. The woman working here was very helpful and knowledgeable, but too shy to pose behind the counter for the picture. 

This is the Farm Barn - home to the bakery, cheese making facilities administrative offices, an elementary school, the children's farm and more. It's the most spectacular barn I've ever seen! 

The backyard of the Inn, facing a frozen Lake Champlain.  I'm looking forward to coming back here when the lake has thawed and everything is green.

This concludes our very first experience on the Vermont Cheese Trail.  There are still 42 more cheesemakers to visit so I know we'll be back on the trail again soon. 

If you are curious about where we stayed, we played it by ear knowing it was shoulder season in Vermont and demand would be low. We ended up getting a deal via Priceline at  The Essex Resort just outside of Burlington. We booked the room on our phone a few hours before checking in. Our room was very cozy and comfortable and we were only about 20 minutes from Burlington where we spent the evening and dined at Church & Maine.  Check out more photos from Burlington here.