This past weekend I had the chance to attend the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, and it was an experience I’ll be savoring for a long time. Vermont is known for its artisanal food culture, and cheese is right at the heart of it.
We have more cheesemakers per capita than anywhere else in the country (with 1 cheesemaker for every 13,000 people), which means the quality and variety here are truly unmatched.
The event was held at Shelburne Farms, right here in rural Vermont, and the drive in set the tone for an unforgettable day. As we turned onto the property, spanning more than 1,400 acres, winding lanes led us through a shaded maple sugarbush.
The road opened onto wide hayfields, where neat rows of golden bales dotted the green expanse. Under a brilliant summer sky, the scene was warm, open, and unmistakably Vermont.
At the end of the drive stood the show-stopping Breeding Barn, an immense and absolutely stunning structure that seemed almost too grand to be called a barn.
Napping calves and a pair of lively goats greeted us in the parking lot, which was really just a giant hayfield, alongside half a dozen Vermont-based food trucks serving handmade ice cream, wood-fired pizza, and dairy-inspired drinks.
I was invited to the industry preview, a quiet window before the crowds arrived when cheesemakers could talk about their craft and offer samples without interruption.
I brought my dairy-loving daughter along, which made the day even more special. She spends a few weeks each summer at 4-H cow camp, tending to the animals and learning the ins and outs of dairy management, and this was the perfect capstone to her summer.
Meeting the people who take that milk and turn it into something so complex and flavorful gave her a whole new appreciation for the process.
And, of course, allowed both of us to try some of the world’s best cheeses!
The cheese itself was extraordinary. There were tangy, soft-ripened wheels, aged cheddars with crystalline crunch, and rich, buttery blues that lingered on the tongue. Each table offered something new—sometimes from a farm I already knew, other times from a cheesemaker I’d never met before.
Sampling them one after another made it easy to appreciate just how much variety can come from the same few simple ingredients, shaped by place, method, and skill.
I introduced my daughter to the makers at Jasper Hill, the team behind the iconic Cabot Clothbound Cheddar. The flavor of that cheese is what first inspired me to start making my own years ago, so much so that I even wrote a copycat cheddar recipe.
For a long stretch, I made wheel after wheel of raw milk cheddar, hauling home five-gallon buckets of fresh milk straight from a local farm on milking day, always chasing that unforgettable taste.
Beyond the cheese, there were so many “cheese-adjacent” treats to discover. Charcuterie makers offered everything from paper-thin slices of artisanal salami to rustic farm made hot dogs.
Local brewers were pouring beers chosen to match the cheeses on display, and jam makers had jars of pear, cherry, and maple blends that transformed a simple wedge into a perfect bite.
I met the owners of Side Hill Farm, a local Vermont Jam Company that makes jams the old fashioned way without added boxed pectin.
I’ve tried to explain this before, what a difference it makes when you cook jam with little more than fruit, sugar and patience. The thing is, it’s hard to explain in words, sometimes you just have to let the fruit do the talking. If you would like to taste them, they’re their jams are spectacular, and they ship for online orders too.
There were even whimsical baked goods, like delicate blue cheese macarons that somehow managed to be both sweet and savory in a single bite.
(Seriously, if you have a chance, you should check out Small Oven Pastries! They ship, and they even teach baking classes!)
After sampling enough cheese to make a cow blush, my daughter crowned her favorite, a washed rind cheese from Lazy Lady Farm, a small off-grid goat dairy near the Canadian border. It surprised everyone, since washed rind cheeses are often considered the “stinky” ones, reserved for so-called mature palates.
But my girl is growing up a little more every day, and she’s already dreaming aloud about the goat herd she’ll have of her own someday.
On our way out, we stopped to scratch the goats, brought to the festival by Sweet Doe Dairy, a Goat’s Milk Ice Cream maker here in Vermont. We’ve sampled their treats at fairs and farmer’s markets over the years, and it was nice to get a quick snuggle with the production team, in this case, Waffle and Sundae.
With ice cream on our mind, we made one last stop on a hot summer day at the Sisters of Anarchy food truck for a simple cone of handmade vanilla.
They have some truly exceptional flavors, things elderberry, aronia and golden raspberry…but after a day of dairy overload where our taste buds had been working overtime, it was nice to smooth things out with one of the best vanilla cones I’ve had in a long time.
All in all, it was the perfect mother daughter dairy date, savoring our shared passion. Mine, for the craft of cheesemaking, and hers, for the love of the animals that make it all possible.
She's already making plans for all we'll see and do at next year's festival, and if you find yourself here in Vermont next August, it's well worth the trip.
Until Next Time,
Ashley at Practical Self Reliance
I loved your article. It took me right into the festival. I’m a cheese, animal, ice cream, country, and people lover too. I was fascinated by the name Von Trapp, as I was reminded of The Sound of Music. Lord willing, maybe I can go one of these years.
I also enjoyed hearing about your daughter’s dream of having her own goats. How wonderful.
Thank you for my arm chair trip 😁
That is exactly what Life is all about!