On the Vermont Cheese Trail

The  Vermont Cheese Plate:
Put away the bread and crackers in favor of balancing with sweet dabs of fig chutney or stewed fruits to offset the salty nature of aged cheese and highlight the nutty, caramelized notes. Serve soft ripened cheese with savory garnishes such as diced fennel and thyme, a single roasted cherry tomato simmered alongside sweet pepper, or a dab of braised endive with lemon and orange rind to enhance the gentle flavors of the cheese.

Given that cheese is one of the few products you can taste before buying, it makes sense to unwrap and sample. Enjoy the opportunity to nibble, taste and talk about the cheese with an experienced cheese monger to learn how to serve and how to select, so your cheese plate will look and taste it's very best.

With 38 members of the Vermont Cheese Council producing over 150 types of cheese, it makes it hard to know what to choose. Start with a cheese board featuring true farmstead cheese, which is made on the farm from milk produced on the farm.  Here are a few favorites to sample, because tasting cheese on the farm may be exciting, yet creating a cheese plate to celebrate a range of cheeses from Vermont is the best way I know to bring the farm to your own kitchen table.

The Vermont Farmstead Cheese Board: This range of goat, cow and sheep cheese represents a variety of Vermont farmstead cheese. To be savored from left to right, building from mild to strong in flavor.

1. "Herbal Chevre"   Blue Ledge Farm, Salisbury. Goat's milk.
2. "La Fluerie" Willow Hill Farm". Milton, Cow's milk.
3. "Sarabande" Dancing Cow Farm. Bridport.  Cow's milk. 
4. "Square Cheese" Twig Farm, West Cornwall. Goat's milk.
5. "Vermont Shepherd Tomme" Vermont Shepherd, Putney. Sheep's milk.
6. "Tarantaise" Thistle Hill Farm. North Pomfret. Cow's milk.
7. " Bayley Hazen Blue". Jasper Hill Farms. Greensboro. Cow's milk.