First Vermont Snow Fleurie

Well it's unbelievable but even with our attitude, not altitude, we had snow today. October 22nd!
Actually it IS our altitude. We are at approx 1200 feet above sea level, so when there is rain down in town there is snow up here. Just the other day Cobble Hill was covered in a light fog and gorgeous leaves.

Then the colder air moved in and boom! It looked like something in mud season (spring here in Vermont) when there is light snow and the roads are soft and warm and easily damaged by vehicle wheels or even cow's hooves........


But wait! Vermont Snow Fleurie? This is not a misspelling of 'flurry' it's the name of one of our delicate cow's milk cheeses, La Fleurie. This means 'bloom' in French and is in itself a play on words as it is a cheese of the 'bloomy rind' style, like Brie or Camembert. What's new? It has been chosen by Williams-Sonoma for an American Farmstead selection for the holidays. It is a unique cheese as it begins like a rich Chaource with its inherent cheesecake-like texture (a very good thing) and then ripens more silky thru the middle into a buttery creamy decadent event! La Fleurie can be consumed at all stages of its maturation which makes it widely appealing to all at a party or holiday meal. With two out of the four cheeses in this collection from Vermont, this is a fantastic gift for the holidays. Click here to order Williams-Sonoma

Whey Fed Pigs Rooting Heaven

As I looked behind me while taking some fall shots of our farm I heard some happy soft grunts (which are the cute sound relaxed pigs make) and lo and behold there were the pigs up in a field toward our old Christmas tree operation! First they came toward me thinking I had some treats for them


Then after realizing I was just hanging around on this beautiful day taking pictures they went off and continued rooting.


A few seconds later, something strange happened! The pigs began to make an alert sound and I looked to my left and whoa! An otter running across this upper pasture right by me!


Then off he went back into the woods.


Back to rooting heaven........."Wait! I think I got a grub. Yum!"



"Come on guys, someone's here with some whey. Let's go!"


"Yay. They brought cheese too."
Happy pigs rooting heaven.........Hmmm. Why was the otter there? Did he want cheese too? What a sighting... Ewe otter try Willow Hill Farm cheese too!

Perfect Pickler

Now ya'll know ( I can say this-my mom is Southern) that I am into all things fermented, so when I spied a gadget on TV on a show that rated kitchen thingys, I said "Hmmm. I'll check out their website and see what's up." Well I did, and was enamored.

I adore lacto-fermented vegetables and preserved meats, and oh heck I'm a cheese maker for goodness sake! Each and every day I deal with what someone once coined the 'controlled rotting of milk'. Haha! So when I saw a new rig for making pickles without a canning setup or a cold basement, I decided to go for it. Every culture in the world has a propensity for consuming some kind of fermented foods, be they vegetable, meat, dairy (i.e, cheese, yogurt, kefir) or fruit. Done properly, raw fermented foods are a huge benefit to the digestive system, which begins to change for the worse as we age.....

This item called the Perfect Pickler is a large bucket with a lid, spacer and primary fermenter (like I use in home brewing). All you add are the vegetables, some celtic sea salt and water. In 96 hours you have fantastic raw fermented pickles that are crunchy, a bit spicy (if that's what you want) and oh-so healthy. My first batch with this thing I used River Berry Farm cauliflower, carrots, garlic, ginger, green beans, fennel and red pepper I had on hand. If you look closely you can see the 'spacer' which is merely a ramekin set inside the brine. So if you have never had your own raw fermented pickles some good books to get you going are: Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. This thing is fun!

Willow Hill Wins at World Cheese Awards

We are excited to announce that our new cheese, Butternut, (which husband named due to its butter-y and nutty flavor profile) just won a medal at the World Cheese Awards in Dublin, Ireland. With 2400 entries from every cheese making nation, Butternut made its long trip from Milton, Vermont to New York where it was consolidated with others en route to Dublin. There it was most likely lifted, sniffed, tasted while the judges chewed along thru the other 2399.........

Butternut is an Alpine style semifirm cow's milk cheese plank aged in our underground cave here on the farm. Quite an honor as it was included with other Alpine style cheeses in Europe where they reign in this category!

Paniolo Cheese in the News

Well maybe not headline news but surely an honor-for me. I come from 10 generations of cattle ranching in Hawaii. This, many people know about me. How I ended up in Vermont is a long story with a circuitous trail. The family ranch, currently the 5th largest in the United States, was at one time the largest privately owned ranch in the country, with 250,000 acres and 50,000 head of Hereford cattle. Its history goes back to the late 1800's wherein an unfolding saga of Hawaiian kings and queens and a chieftain's daughter marrying a New Englander ensued and wrangling of hundreds of freely breeding cattle and horses to be tamed-to chronicle but a bit of its story. (for more info www.parkerranch.com)

And the working Paniolos. This word, paniolo, word historians do agree is a 'corruption' of the word 'español' whom the Hawaiians were trying to describe when speaking about the Vaqueros, or Spanish cowboys, that came to the islands to manage the wild cattle.

Vaqueros, were those master cattle wranglers who cruised thru Texas on to California and thru Mexico centuries ago. Well some settled on our ranch and became the very fabric that made things happen. And this is a generation before there ever was an American cowboy. Now, now. Texans please do not contact me for libelous content. Look it up. It's on record. Anyway, back to my honor.

This year was named the Year of the Paniolo and marks the centennial wherein a renowned Paniolo, Ikua Purdy, "shocked the Western world with his unprecedented win" in Wyoming competing against the best cowboys of the time (Paniolo Preservation Society). So in August of this year they held lots of celebration at the ranch with rodeos, trail rides, luaus, Old Hawaii (a parade in period dress on horseback) to commemorate a moment in time hopefully not forgotten.

We released a new cheese we called 'Paniolo' in Aug of 2007. And it was fine time to donate some to this event. After several snafus with DHL shipping (!!) it arrived in ok condition and was served at a fundraising event. To my surprise and honor, a bidding war ensued and in the end someone won a small wheel of cheese for several hundred dollars! And to boot, the real honor was working Paniolos in attendance ate my cheese and loved it. Talk about history. What a circuitous route.

New Winter Farmer's Market

It seems like just about a year ago at this time I was announcing our acceptance into a new winter farmer's market about to open in Montpelier, Vermont. It was held once a month in a college gym and we attended each one. Well now the market has expanded so as to add another Sat to its roster, the 3rd Sat of each month thru April. SO that makes the 1st and 3rd Saturdays each month thru April to make 10 winter markets to attend!

NOW Burlington Farmers Market has jumped onto the localvore bandwagon and is planning a winter farmer's market! I say? "It's about time!" So do many others of my clientele from years gone by at the summer market. This market is planned for the 3rd Saturday of each month beginning November 22, 2008 thru April. It is going to be in the Memorial Auditorium in Burlington, Vermont. Should be great as far as products represented-my last check, 40 vendors are committed!

Willow Hill Farm's commitment? We are attending both Burlington and Montpelier Farmer's Markets. We will be bringing our award-winning cheeses, grassfed lamb, whey fed pork and blankets to both markets. See you there! And thanks for your patronage!

Cooking For 50

Well I haven't written in my diary in a bit since we have been so busy trying to keep ahead of the rain, breaking equipment and a slew of cheese orders. Last weekend I had pre-planned a party for myself and husband for approx 50 people-many near and dears and many "haven't seen in 15 year" types.

Sent out invitations and planned the menu and schedule lists in order to prepare things ahead of time to enjoy the time with guests, albeit somewhat short. The best planning still doesn't cover it. I had menu planned, daily duties all lined up for myself and then...........we lost all water in the house. And at the same time, two, not one, but two walk-in coolers failed at the cheese plant. This means that cheese couldn't be kept cold. Not to mention throwing the daily list of duties 4 days in advance off completely! Without water, one cannot prep food. So I shifted gears, as any experienced farmer does, as we are well-versed on changing plans at a moment's notice due to weather, and decided to vacuum, straighten the house, and pickup old mags, papers and the like. Set up the tiki torches, arranged chairs etc. Tried to carry on. Like a farmer.

Come the day of the party water had been restored only about 12 hours before. So I was on a kamikazi mission to attempt to prepare everything and be ready for arrivals. Someone smart would have cancelled.......Low and behold I just about made it. As friends began to arrive, I greeted them with the best attention I could give however I was distracted because with that volume of food some of it needed to be kept in cold storage at the plant ( I don't have the fridge space for all that). So things were going along smoothly with children splashing in the pool, music blaring and folks seemingly enjoying themselves. And before I could pull the pork and roast up the shrimp or put on grass fed burgers, a huge storm, visible across the lake rumbled over. So although I had thought about the proverbial Plan B, I never entertained we would actually ALL have to move inside. And so it did. The party, that is. All of a sudden, I was on. About 50 people staring at me in my kitchen and surrounding area and had to finish preparing foods as well as figure out how to line up folks buffet style to access the pulled pork, which was lovingly 'pulled' by Dawn and meanwhile Kat frantically zested some lemons over the shrimp I was going to roast. It's truly a great get together when you can find local ingredients to boot:
basil I used from River Berry Farm for my pesto, as well as their fabulous sunflowers that graced a number of vases around the house and lettuce and tomatoes for all else! We also dined on some of our lamb in the form of kebabs. So all in all, it was a great time-and too bad I didn't get any photos after I made the Carolina style slaw




and other sides, and put the pork shoulders on the day before.



With this pork I made a fresh ground coffee, cumin, garlic and cayenne dry rub. The pulled pork was gone in about 5 minutes. So the storm blasted by and soon enough in shivering temperatures the kids were back again in the pool, and the core group of farmers stayed until midnight. Kat's blueberry tartlets were a hit-we needed about 100 more of them. A good time had by all! As Wolfgang Puck says, "Live, love and eat!" We did.

Bouncin' Blueberries!

Blueberry picking season has begun! After a much awaited harvest opening, and serious excess rain in the month of June and July, the plants are so loaded with berries that they bend over and almost touch the ground. To boot, the mower won't even fit between the rows that we haven't been able to mow in close to a month. So while the grass is long for now (I'll take care of that hopefully soon), the pickin' is easy. Stand in one spot for five minutes and there you will have about a quart of luscious organic blueberries.

We are the original U-pick Organic Blueberry farm in Chittenden County. And with about 9 varieties of blues we can pick 6, sometimes 8 weeks. We don't use a lot of bird prevention devices so if you come picking you can spot songbirds, oreoles, and other critters like turkeys and if late in the day, pheasants we previously released into the wild. They're probably picking blueberries as well!

We are always closed Mondays and Tuesdays (the blueberry fields only) which is often helpful as to allow some time for additional berries to ripen in the 'off-days'........Until further notice, our hours are as follows:
Weds-Sun 10-2
Directions: Coming from Main St in Milton, turn right onto East Rd. Make first left onto Hardscrabble Rd. Go approx 1.4 miles up the hill and we are on the right.
You can also call ahead for weather updates. 802-893-2963

No Pig in a Poke

Now everyone is aware I am fairly obsessed with good barbecue and the other day after another exhaustive farmers market (it takes much time and preparation to get ready AFTER making the cheese all of Friday-and then talk to approx 1000 people between 8am and 2), I decided to put on a pork shoulder to slow cook it on the Primo grill for pulled pork the next day. At the same time I put on a dry rubbed slab of pork ribs to eat later that night for dinner.



As cheese makers, we produce as a by-product, something called whey. It is a liquid serum that comes out of the curds and is rich in nutrients and some leftover calcium and proteins. And pigs love it, to boot! If you've never had whey-fed pork before, you are in for a treat. It has more flavor than supermarket bland ('brand'- tongue in cheek) pork and is very tender. Industry allows up to 10% added water and sodium, I believe, which is known as 'enhanced' meat. What this does is artificially tenderizes meat for the homeowner because when you add the sodium (salt) and water together, it holds moisture. This is not necessary with whey-fed and milk-fed pork products direct from your local farmer. The cuts are just plain juicier and moister!

So after 21 hours of slow cookin', the pork picnic shoulder was ready to take off.

And the 'pulled' pork was divine!
Had that nice pink smoke ring and was juicy and tender. Added to it, was Carolina style sauce, vinegar based so as not to blur the succulent flavor of the meat with a sticky sauce.


Why so much attention to pork, you ask? This is a dairy site, after all. Well after much anticipation awaiting a heritage breed order of piglets from a local pork producer, that never seemed to come to fruition (interestingly they are also brand new vendors at the farmers market I have attended for 16yrs), my good friends from the Boucher Farm saved the day. We make cheese every day thru the week and seriously need to utilize the whey or ship it off. It should not go down the drain. And we don't produce enough to ship off.........So a few days ago, they brought me some healthy piglets from their pork source. And it was no pig in a poke! These piglets are good size and very healthy and vigorous! They already, after just a few days, look at us askance if we come with other feedstuff and NOT whey. As if to say, "what are YOU doing here without our whey?"

Below is Dan from Boucher Farm holding a piglet when I yelled that I had camera in hand!



They are also vendors at our market and produce milk fed pork, veal, beef and cheese. They go out of their way to help others and are dear friends of ours -especially in a time of need-without the competitive paranoia that we are going to infringe upon their market. Farming like it used to be when everyone helped others......Thanks guys!

Back to pork. In the late fall we will be offering once again amazing whey-fed pork as found in parts of Italy and Spain. We had to take a hiatus as we were building our new barn and cheese plant and didn't have the infrastructure to accept pigs-or the labor. The famous Prosciutto di Parma is produced from the hams of whey-fed pigs from the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese making process (Parmesan). Likewise, ham in Spain is cured from whey fed pork from the cheese making process.
Notably, pigs are nature made to root up the soil and get nutrients from the grasses, tree nuts and wild herbs etc. Add to it the whey, and you will go hog wild! So please contact us for some whey-fed pork later this season, if you are local. Sadly we are not set up to ship our meats at this time....

Cheese. The Dirty Truth.......

Cheese makers. Nothing more than glorified dishwashers, I say! That's what we are. Most people think we lead glamorous lives, going to competitions and coming home with ribbons in hand. Or attending fancy food shows. The dirty truth is? All we do is clean! As farmstead cheese makers, by definition, the milk comes from the farm's own supply of milk from animals raised right on-site. As well by definition, this means dirt, mud and poop. Yes the evil poop word. As such the farmstead cheese maker must be a dirt vigilante and clean, clean, clean. When we arrive at the cheese room each morning, we begin by filling sinks. Lots of them. Sometimes, 5. With what? Chlorine detergent, acid rinses and then sanitizers.

Now what? Well, the forms that hold the curds must be washed, rinsed and sanitized. So must the tables that they drain on, and the floors too. All the while, simultaneously, keeping the curing rooms just as clean and the 'proper' molds growing in there. For in each curing room there are numerous molds that want to grow on every cheese in sight. And certain cheeses require particular surface molds, or bacteria for their proper development.

This week while awaiting milk to heat to its required temperature, we spent about 5 hours cleaning things before we even made the cheese! It's a very steamy, wet environment, a cheese making operation, so cleaning is top priority and arduous as well. And did I mention it must be done every day? Glorified dish washers we are, I say!