A Tale of Two Tarentaise, Vermont Cheesemaker's Festival and More

Farms for City Kids Foundations' Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise won 1st place for Open Category Cow's Milk Cheeses (aged 60 days or more) in the farmstead cheese category a few weeks ago at ACS. Please go to the website and read about the program that's helping kids get in touch with the land and their food. Learning lessons that can be taught in the classroom, but stay with you longer and mean more after "doing" instead of just reading.

So second place in the same category was Thistle Hill Farm Tarentaise. Both farms use the same breed of cow. They both use copper vats. The recipe is the same. Thistle Hill Farm licensed their recipe to Spring Brook Farm to use. They are located 20 miles away from one another. They should taste the same right? Bah! The two cheeses couldn't be more different in flavor. I'm going to start by saying that they're both good. They both have a nutty acidity which is modeled after Beaufort. For me however it's the Spring Brook Farm cheese. The Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise tastes wild. It's sharp and acidic and slightly bitter, a bit nutty and green like artichoke petals. I love it.

After touring the farm and cheeseworks Tom sent me off with a seriously generous piece of cheese. 14 months old it was absolutely glorious. I brought it home with me and we had it three ways. Straight up in the mouth, whittling pieces off to put in our gobs, cheese sandwiches and topped our burgers with it as well. Sooo good.

I seriously love Vermont.


Racks and racks and racks of Tarentaise.


Yup, it's a zebra. Nope, I'm not at a zoo. On our way to Spring Brook Farm we passed a still-in-construction plot of land with a barn and pen with a zebra in it. In a blatant act of trespassing we went over the private covered bridge and onto the land so we could take a look at the zebra. You just don't anticipate the Vermont zebra. Or the Spanish inquisition. Come on you were all thinking it.


Happy little goat at Fat Toad Farm yes, they have lovely cream cheese, but that's not why I went. They have goat milk caramel sauce. My folks are sending me the 3 jars I bought up there. I just didn't have room for all the cheese, caramel sauce and ice cider. CURSES! Now I really want caramel sauce. Badly.


One of the things I was most looking forward to was going to see the Water Buffalo people. Cool right? I mean they make mozzarella and yogurt and have water buffalo. I called them for weeks and kept getting different answers. Yes they would give me a tour, no they couldn't. They aren't making mozzarella anymore. They have no yogurt. I was frustrated but then I heard that they're moving. To Canada. CURSES! Well, that didn't deter me. I'd never seen a water buffalo before so we went. They're super cute. Almost cuter than cows.

Little buffalo


Big buffalo


Why look! It's Tom doling out samples of Tarentaise. Both cheeses were together at the stand so you got to do a side by side comparison. Awesome!


Oh look, it's my tasty friend Tarentaise. Along with other tasty treats. mmm...Vermont Shepherd. I bought one of the Sarrabande, and she made it to Chicago okay. I can't wait to eat her tomorrow!


I have no idea what the top cheese is, but the Vermont Ayr is delicious and I think I've mentioned my hardcore love for the Ascutney Mountain before.


Twig Farm makes ridiculously tasty cheese. One of my favorites is the Square. Unfortunately we don't get it out here in Chicago, so I only get it when I go back East.

Now, part of the festivals goal was to get cheesemaker's to meet their customers and for the customers to see the face behind the fromage. I really really really wanted to chat with the cheesemaker and ask him about the experimental cheese. Unfortunately it was too crowded.*



Shelburne Farms is sitting on some gorgeous land right alongside Lake Champlain.


Happy and hungry cows at Shelburne Farms.


Yesterday I spent a whole bunch of time at Jasper Hill Farm listening to Mateo talk about cheese, and show me cheese, and have me taste cheese and it was so frickin' rad. That post will probably be coming in the next few days.

*Update on 8/26 @8:57pm: Some of you may have noticed that I changed this post slightly. I never change the post. Usually after writing something I check for spelling errors and once it's posted I don't look at it again except for reference. This post, and my super cranky paragraph bothered me all day today. In the interest of being a happy wench instead of an angry prickly one, I have deleted the rant.