Climate-controlled cave helps Vermont cheesemakers

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(Host) Tucked in the hills of Greensboro, Jasper Hill Farm is the picture of serenity.

But below ground, it’s become the latest enterprise to boost Vermont’s agriculture industry – a series of climate-controlled caves where cheese can be stored as it ages.

VPR’s Amy Noyes recently paid a visit.

(Noyes) Jasper Hill Farm is a small dairy operation with some big ideas on how to take Vermont’s artisan cheese industry to the next level. Brothers Mateo and Andy Kehler run the farm, which is home to 40 dairy cows and a line of artisan cheeses. It’s also the site of a new 22,000 square foot state-of-the-art cheese aging facility dubbed the Cellars at Jasper Hill.

The cellars are built right into the hillside, with a concrete and glass façade flush to a grassy slope. Underground, beneath a grazing pasture, seven vaults fan out like a half wagon wheel. When filled, the cellars will be able to hold up to two million pounds of cheese a year for aging.

The farm recently hosted an open house, so curious neighbors could come see the facility that the Kehlers hope will open doors for Vermont farmers.

Open house tour guide and artisan cheesemaker Princess McClain is the type of client the cellars are designed to serve. She says Vermont’s earning a reputation as a haven for artisan cheesemakers, as California’s Napa Valley did for wine producers a generation ago.

(McClain) "So each of these vaults will have different types of cheeses, and all coming in from different farms around the state, and mostly nearby.”

(Noyes) Mateo Kehler says the cellars will be able to provide ripening, marketing and other services to about 40 small cheesemakers. He hopes, by taking on the less urgent duties, the cellars will enable more dairy farms to diversify into making cheese.

(Kehler) "It’s one thing to make cheese every day, it’s another to actually take care of it because it really piles up on you. That’s where quality breaks down on a farmstead, because you have to milk your cows everyday and you have to do something with that milk everyday. So, if you’re going to cut any corners, it’s going to be actually in taking care of your product. The other major barrier is marketing and sales, and we’ve found that we’re pretty good at that.”

(Noyes) Kehler believes Jasper Hill can help keep other Vermont farms viable by enabling dairy farmers to diversify. A farm that makes cheese doesn’t have its profit tied to fluctuating milk prices. And Kehler has found Vermonters are seeking out local foods like never before.

(Kehler) "I think Vermonters are on the cutting edge in terms of defining a food movement that’s going to overtake the country at some point.///Industrial food and industrial eating is becoming a real problem for us as a society and I think Vermonters are choosing to eat differently and that’s creating a lot of opportunities for local ag-based businesses.”

(Noyes) Jasper Hill is promoting the farmstead model by offering an array of services to artisan cheesemakers. But the Cellars at Jasper Hill also works with Cabot, Vermont’s largest cheesemaker. Jasper Hill ages Cabot’s top-of-the-line cloth bound cheddar, an award winning cheese that earned Cabot boasting rights as "World’s Best Cheddar."

Spokesman Jed Davis says Cabot is proud to work with Jasper Hill on this groundbreaking project.

(Davis) "What Mateo and Andy Kehler have recognized, and have incorporated into their business model, is that a lot of these, especially the smaller, cheese makers may be very, very good at making cheese but they may not necessarily be as good and/or interested in selling, marketing, distributing, things like that. They see the Cellars at Jasper Hill as being a great solution."

(Noyes) Between Jasper Hill’s business savvy and Cabot’s reputation, Vermont cheeses are already making their way onto some of the finest cheese counters across the country.

For VPR News, I’m Amy Noyes.

 

Photo: Aging cheese made from raw milk sits on shelves at Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vt. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

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