Create a Vermont Appetizer Cheese Plate

For a true summer treat, create a cheese plate of Vermont artisanal cheeses. Feast on cheeses created from the milk of cows that feed in beautiful Vermont pastures in the summer and may listen to great jazz in their winter barn stalls. Many of these cheeses are available only on a seasonal basis. Check out seasonal spring and summer goat cheese with a European history and a unique Vermont flair.

Champlain Triple Cream, Champlain Valley Creamery: Vergennes, Vermont

Champlain Triple Cream from the Champlain Valley Creamy with its rich, mild and slightly earthy flavor will attract the attention and comments of your guests. The beautiful slightly mottled white ring opens to a soft creamy interior. The cheese is handmade in traditional small round crottin molds where it ages for about 10 days. . Champlain Triple is a must-have for any cheese plate. The Champlain Valley Creamery operates out of a building, built as a creamery in the early 1900's, on Vergennes Vermont Main Street.

Lazy Lady BiPartisan, Lazy Lady Farm, Westfield, Vermont

BiPartisan is a soft goat and cow milk cheese with a butter cow's milk outer layer that surrounds a more tangy goat milk inner core. The variation in color and diversity of textures make the cheese a beautiful addition to a cheese plate. It is a great combination of smoothness and full flavor.

Lazy Lady Farm in Westfield, Vermont, is a small organic goat dairy that produces on a seasonal basis. These cheeses are made in small batches on a schedule that coincides with the birthing of the kids in early March. The mother's are then milked until early December.

Weybridge, Scholten Family Farm: Middelbury, Vermont

Weybridge, is soft and creamy wheel with a light brie-like taste and texture. It provides a nice introduction to soft flavorful cheese. One of our more novice cheese tasters characterized it with the complements a "beginner's brie", making it an excellent selection for a cheese plate serving a group with varied tastes. The cheese is made with organic milk from Dutch Belt cows, the white cows with the black belt around their center, who roam the summer pastures on the Scholten Family Farm in Middlebury Vermont.

Lakes Edge from Blue Ledge Farm: Salisbury, Vermont A beautiful tome of goats milk cheese with a sharp tangy flavor and a hint of mushroom. A thin streak of ash through the center and the molted white and black rind makes this a wonderfully attractive addition to your cheese plate.

Dunmore, also from Blue Ledge Farm in Salisbury Vermont, is a new cheese from Blue Ledge this year. It is available only in the late spring, summer and fall at the farm and at retailers. This raw goat milk cheese is brie-like, creamy with a runny center and soft rind. The wonderful flavor is strong enough to take on whole wheat crackers.

Lakes Edge and Dunmore are produced by Blue Ledge Farm in Salisbury Vermont in the Champlain Valley in Southern Vermont using the milk from their herd of goats with year round access to the farm's pastures. Blue Ledge is a seasonal dairy that does not produce cheese during the winter month while the goats are giving birth.

Pawlet, Consider Bardwell Farm: West Pawlet, Vermont

Pawlet, an Italian style toma cow's milk cheese with a creamy texture, not too hard and not too soft. This cheese is bright and appealing to a range of tastes. Consider Bardwell Farm was founded in 1864 as the first Vermont Cheese cooperative. Today it produces unique cheeses, from soft and young to semi-hard aged that reflects the characteristics of Vermont.

Ascutney Mountain, Cobb Hill Cheese: Hartland, Vermont

Ascutney Mountain is a slightly sweet cheese with a nutty flavor and a firm but not hard texture.Cobb Hill Cheese is a partnership formed by Cobb Hill Co housing in Hartland Vermont. The cheese is produced from organic milk from their herd of grass-fed cows.

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar Cheese: Cabot, Vermont

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar. This small batch Cabot Cheddar stands with the great Cheddars of the world. This cheddar has a medium hard texture that nicely crumbles. Its flavor is both buttery and sharp and goes well with crackers and apples. It is aged for two years in the aging caves at Jasper Hill Cellars, in Greensboro Vermont. The Cabot Cooperative Dairy, in Cabot Vermont, has been in operation since 1919.

Sources
Susan Brink, Create a Vermont Appetizer Cheese Plate, Associated Content