The crew strives to develop, nurture, and safeguard the microbial cultures in each room. This difference is essential, even existential, said Kehler. As we progressed vault by vault, each one exuded a unique and distinct fragrance: pungent for the blues, mild and milky for the bloomies, nutty and savory for the Alp-style wheels. The room was radiant with the mushroomy, brothy aromas of aging wheels. He speaks in complete paragraphs while making theatrical gestures with his hands he might have been a Shakespearean actor had he not found his way to milk. The tour began in the one of the larger vaults built specifically for cheddar affinage. Kehler is an animated guide, knowledgeable and profoundly engaged with his craft. Then they plowed the earth back on top. At 22,000 square feet undergroud, the Cellars at Jasper Hill is one of the largest cheese aging facilities in the U.S. They blasted open the stony hillside and built seven concrete vaults, each dedicated to aging a different style of cheese. The success prompted the brothers to expand their affinage program, and along with it, their physical plant. ![]() ![]() The results were superlative: Cabot Clothbound Cheddar won Best in Show at the 2006 American Cheese Society competition. ![]() Would the Kehlers be interested in aging Cabot’s new experiment, a small-batch cheddar made solely with milk from nearby Kempton Farm? A wheel of Cabot Clothbound Cheddar finished wheels weigh 32 pounds Aging cellars at Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont By 2003, their small herd of Ayrshire cows was beginning to crank out cheese, and their project soon caught notice of Cabot Creamery, one of Vermont’s oldest farm cooperatives. My host, Mateo Kehler (above), co-founded Jasper Hill Farm with his brother, Andy Kehler, in 1999. But last month I had a rare opportunity to tour the caves in Greensboro, Vermont, where the company ages its own cheeses and provides affinage and sales support for local creameries that lack the expertise, the space, or both. The Cellars at Jasper Hill are not open to the public, for reasons that should, by now, be obvious. Mateo Kehler, co-founder, Cellars at Jasper Hill And anyway, with no pockets and no backpack, how was I to juggle all of the tools of my craft: notebook, camera, recorder? Regretfully, I ditched everything but the camera, choosing to relying on a mix of memory and the mathematics of imagery, each picture worth a thousand words. I was allowed my camera, but my notebook and pen would have to be sterilized. Advance through a shallow tray of sanitizer to purify your shoes - yes, the shoes they have just loaned you - and proceed to the sink to wash your hands with antimicrobial soap. Thereafter, touch nothing, especially not the cheese. Snap on a Tyvek lab coat, and crown yourself with a hair net. Now, step over the short threshold that separates Out There from In Here and step into whichever pair of loaner rubber boots fits best. Put it someplace safe, because it is not safe for the cheese. Remove your parka and hat, scarf and gloves. First remove your boots, tiptoeing around the slack snow pooling at your socks. Stow your backpack wherever there’s room. When you visit the Cellars at Jasper Hill, you must shed your outer self. Stay on this side of the barrier, for now, while we explain. Victoria, charged with bringing our cheeses to peak ripeness, turns every piece daily for the first two weeks, after which they are turned twice a week until they are ready to ship.My visit with co-founder Mateo Kehler offered a rare look inside Jasper Hill’s remarkable cheese aging vaults Then it’s down to the cellar where over the next weeks they will really come to life, developing a living rind and beginning to ripen. The curd drains in the moulds for a couple of days before being turned out onto racks and being hand salted. Angie hand ladles the curd from eighteen five-gallon buckets into approximately 200 perforated cups over the course of the morning. ![]() The slow lactic fermentation that takes place overnight renders the milk yogurt-like by morning, when Angie arrives in darkness to prepare turning curd to cheese. Mateo adds starter culture before Andy is finished milking. "Every other evening, Constant Bliss is made from fresh warm milk right out of the cow. Here's how Jasper Hill Farm describes the process of making one of their most famous cheeses, Constant Bliss, a raw, whole milk cheese based on a Chaource recipe: It's important to this family that they are living examples of how it is still possible to prosper on a rocky hillside farm in Greensboro, Vermont. Jasper Hill Farm takes pride that their cheeses represent not only the highest quality, but that they come from the milk of their own farm.
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