Vermont Cheesemakers Festival Recap

At the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival last weekend, it was when a girl wearing a cheese hat walked by -- we were nowhere near Wisconsin, and there were zero Packers in sight -- that we realized the extent of cheesemania 'round these parts.

The sold-out festival took place on the grounds of a farm, appropriately -- Shelburne Farms -- and its primary sponsor was Vermont Butter & Cheese. And the 50 cheesemakers present, who had lured chefs, locals and fromage freaks from far afield, delivered quite a variety of fare. From chocolate-covered cheeses to cheese-and-chili-stuffed breads, the gamut was on offer.

Tickets were cheap, too: $20 for all-you-can-cheese, with $10 for wine and beer tastes. The old and young ran amok over the verdant grounds (this one got completely lost while trying to walk from one part of the sprawling farm to another). Children sampled cheddar voraciously, farmers shook hands, and we observed more than one woman sipping beer cautiously while a baby slept nestled against her chest. It seemed like a family affair. Though panels were available on how to pair and make cheeses, it was the stuff itself that got our attention.

Our top 10 favorite cheeses and photo editor Rachel Been's attached photo gallery after the jump.

10. Vaquero Blue by Willow Hill. A dense organic blue cheese in which the "barnyard" elements too overpowering in other cheeses actually worked.

9. Chocolate-covered Jasper Hill Bayley Hazen Blue cheese by Laughing Moon. Though some cheesemongers claimed this was "overwhelmed" by the chocolate and didn't taste enough like the cheese they loved, we thought this 67-percent chocolate paired with Jasper Hill's seductive blue (worthy of making the list on its own merits) made for a brilliant, somehow smoky match.

8. Landaff. This is a meal of a cheese. Mild, semi-firm, and very hearty, it is aged -- as many of these cheeses are -- at Jasper Hill caves.

7. Olga by Seal Cove. This nutty contender hails from Maine, where goat's milk and cow's milks are combined.

6. Organic cream cheese by Champlain Valley. Four bucks and available at Whole Foods throughout much of the northeast, this cream cheese is a find. Incredibly creamy, it's practically ricotta.






5. Cheese-chile ciabatta from O Bread. Yes, we're cheating here. The cheese mellows the chile -- a serious chile you can taste a full minute later -- in that same way that one uses milk to coat the palate after ingesting something hot. It's a fluffy, textured bread we loved.

4. Rogue Creamery's Caveman Blue. A brand-new cheese, and the favorite of several affineurs roaming the premises. The sort of cheese that makes one go, "Unh," after sampling, this is a musky, deep blue cheese. (Call Rogue directly to order).

3. Anything from Consider Bardwell. You see this name on a cheese list somewhere, you order the cheese. From a raw goat's cheese to a washed-rind cow's-milk, they are incredible. Even the names (Dorset, Rupert) inspire trust.

2. Oma by Von Trapp. Yes, those Von Trapps. An unbelievably lush, buttery cow's milk fromage.

1. Sarabande by Dancing Cow. Super-creamy, pungent raw cow's milk cheese. We stopped in for three samples "just to make sure it was still our favorite." Oh, yes, it was.