Northeast Cheesemakers
Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Cabot Creamery - Waterbury Center, VT
The farm families who own Cabot Creamery Cooperative love what they do. And they’ve been doing it for a long time—every single day since 1919. Over 100 years later, they’re proud of their thriving farms, strong communities, and happy, healthy cows that produce the rich, buttery milk that they use to make Cabot’s award-winning cheese and dairy products. Every morning since 1919, when 94 families from Cabot, Vermont, formed a cooperative to ensure their livelihood. They knew that they were stronger together than they were apart.
Great Hill Dairy - Marion, MA
Unlike most blue cheese varieties, the milk we use to produce Great Hill Blue Cheese is raw and non-homogenized. This results in a fully flavored and creamy-tasting cheese. Upon coagulation, the curd is cut and stirred until reaching the desired consistency, at which time the whey is then drained off. Each cheese form is hand-filled, using traditional cheese-making techniques. These forms are turned frequently throughout the rest of the day before being salted and heading into the aging process. At Great Hill Dairy, they make 6-pound wheels out of fresh milk from our local farms as well as other packaging options. Consumers love their minimal processing, holistic process, down-to-earth love of nature, and their small-batch techniques that result in a truly gourmet blue cheese product.
Jasper Hill - Greensboro, VT
Jasper Hill is a working dairy farm with an on-site creamery in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. An underground aging facility maximizes the potential of cheeses made by the creamery, as well as those made by other local producers. Leftover whey from the cheesemaking process is fed to heritage breed pigs, roaming the woodlands beyond the cows' pasture. The Cellars at Jasper Hill ripens cheese made by Jasper Hill Creameries as well as those made by several other producers. Each cheese in their collection is made from a single herd of cows. Fresh wheels are introduced to one of seven specially calibrated vaults, where they receive customized care until perfect ripeness.
Maplebrook Farm - Bennington, VT
In 2003, while visiting Manchester, Vermont, Johann had a flashback to her college years. A cluster of fresh mozzarella balls sitting on the counter of an Italian specialty shop reminded her of a groceria she and her mother had visited while traveling in Italy. These cheese artisans produced genuine, Old World mozzarella. Johann could not find that level of quality in Boston and bought 20 balls of mozzarella on the spot. She asked Mike Scheps the owner's son and third-generation cheesemaker, if he would be able to supply her with small quantities. Little did they know, a business was born. After sampling those 20 balls, 5 out of 6 gourmet shops in Boston wanted more of this genuine mozzarella. Johann and Mike were onto something. Business boomed as the operation moved from a kitchen to a small store to the purchase of a building. They developed an apprenticeship program to teach new employees the art of making perfect mozzarella. The program started with 3 local Vermonters and has grown to include 20 employees who are making small batches of cheese and wrapping them by hand every day of the week. From those first 20 mozzarella balls to the current 20,000 produced weekly, Maplebrook Farm has established itself as a premier artisan cheese producer distributing products up and down the East Coast.
Nettle Meadow - Warrensburg, NY
Nettle Meadow Farm is a 50 acre goat and sheep dairy and cheese company in Thurman, New York just below Crane Mountain in the Adirondacks between Gore Mountain/North Creek, New York and Warrensburg, New York. It is owned and operated by Lorraine Lambiase and Sheila Flanagan. Both have a great love of animals, artisan cheese and the unique challenges of farm life. The farm is run with the assistance of Sheila's mother, Joan Flanagan. Nettle Meadow Farm was originally founded in 1990 and is the home of over 300 goats, several dozen sheep and a variety of farm sanctuary animals. Nettle Meadow is committed to the principles of natural ingredients, happy and healthy animals, and carefully hand-crafted artisan cheeses. They make several varieties of soft goat cheeses.
Smith's Country Cheese - Winchendon, MA
At Smith’s, old-fashioned family traditions and hard work are combined to produce their Farmstead Cheeses. Their Gouda rivals any made in the Netherlands. It has the same mild taste, creamy texture, and small, bubbly eyes. An excellent dessert cheese, it is also great for cooking and melts beautifully. Anyone who recognizes the appeal of farm-fresh milk will enjoy the rich and creamy flavor of their Gouda, Havarti, and cheddar cheeses. Unlike factory-produced cheese, their farmstead cheeses share much of the same characteristic quality, distinction, and appeal as other hand-crafted culinary products or beverages.
Old Chatham - Old Chatham, NY
The story of the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company really begins with a blue ribbon 10-year-old Tom Clark won for his Hampshire sheep at the Dutchess County Fair in upstate New York. At the time, he told a local newspaper reporter when he grew up he wanted to raise a flock. His career path took him elsewhere, but then Tom and his wife Nancy bought 600 acres of lush grassy fields in Old Chatham, New York. They now own the largest sheep dairy farm in the United Sates. Since the beginning in 1993, Tom and Nancy have been involved in every aspect of the operation from helping design the barns and creamery to cheesemaking.
Spring Brook Farm - Reading, VT
Spring Brook Farm is a traditional dairy farm located in Reading, Vermont. It covers 1,000 acres and is home not only to a herd of 100 registered Jersey cows but also to the Spring Brook Farm Cheese operation. The cheese-making operation at Spring Brook Farm is the manifestation and translation of many hundreds, if not a thousand years of European Alpine cheese-making tradition to a dairy farm in Vermont. The end result is the Tarentaise, Reading, and Ashbrook cheeses found at cheese counters around the country.
Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company - South Woodstock, VT
The Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company began as a community effort to save a local farm and it’s surrounding rural landscape in South Woodstock, Vermont. In very short order, the dairy farm has been transformed into an award-winning cheese company that is creating an entirely new generation of unique farmstead and artisanal cheeses. Farmstead’s multi-breed herd, sustainable dairy farming practices, and creative cheese makers have put a delicious Vermont twist on traditional world cheese recipes. The Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company remains firmly dedicated to its founding principles to produce a variety of unique and excellent cheeses, gently care for its herd of cows and farm land, foster Vermont’s farming communities, and elevate the state’s dairy industry.
Vermont Creamery - Websterville, VT
Consciously crafted in Vermont’s green mountains, Vermont Creamery’s line of fresh and aged goat cheeses, cultured butter, and crème fraîche have won hundreds of national and international awards. In their 35th year of business, Vermont Creamery supports a network of family farms, promoting sustainable agriculture in the region. B Corp Certified in 2014, Vermont Creamery is committed to using business as a force for good.
Yancey's Fancy - Corfu, NY
Following World War I, Leo Kutter emigrated from Bavaria, Germany to New York State, home of North America's first cheese factory. He brought his cheese-making knowledge and skill to a small factory in Cowlesville, NY where he made Limburger cheese. In 1947, he built a new factory in Corfu, NY, and began making Swiss, brick, cheddar, and Limburger cheeses. They create the highest quality of full-flavored cheeses, each packed with a big, bold taste. Yancey’s Fancy is Your Trusted House of Flavor and they are here for all of your snacking and entertaining occasions.
Beecher’s Handmade Cheese - New York, NY
In Seattle’s Pike Place Market and New York City’s Flatiron district, visitors to Beecher’s glass-walled cheesemaking kitchens witness firsthand the crafting of their signature favorite, Flagship cheese, as well as many of the other award-winning cheeses we offer. By starting with fresh, pure milk from local farms and applying the traditional methods used by cheesemakers for thousands of years, their cheeses are free of artificial ingredients - making them just as delicious as the milk they are made from. In 2003, Kurt Beecher Dammeier opened his first Beecher’s Handmade Cheese in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. For Kurt, Beecher’s fulfilled an ambition beyond just making great cheese. He has long felt passionate about eating food free of harmful additives and preservatives. That’s why everything they produce, from the handcrafted cheeses to the delicious side dishes and crackers, is authentic, original, full-flavored food made with ingredients they trust and are proud of.
Calabro Cheese - East Haven, CT
In 1953, Joseph Calabro and his father, Salvatore, tilled the first shovel of hope into their American dream and Calabro Cheese was born. They began delivering to the "mom and pop" Italian grocers, as well as individual families in the Fairfield, New Haven, Waterbury and Hartford counties. Today, Calabro has distribution in 27 states and counting.
Cato Corner Farm - Colchester, CT
At Cato Corner Farm raw farmstead cheese is made by hand from the delicious milk of their 45 Jersey cows. The cows are humanely raised on a pasture-based diet without growth hormones or subtherapeutic antibiotics. They feed a small amount of grain to complement the nutrition in the grass and hay. For the past ten years, they have bred their cows for A2:A2 milk production, and the majority of their herd produces the A2 milk that many people find easier to digest. Their cheeses are their unique recipes, based on traditional cheese-making styles and highlighting the flavor and terroir of their pastures and their farm. Cato Corner Farm is owned and managed by the mother-son team of Elizabeth MacAlister and Mark Gillman.
Firefly Farms - Accident, MD
Firefly Farm’s farmers are their most important partners. Starting out with their own goat herd in the early days taught them that what happens on the farm is just as important as what happens in the creamery. Today they source fresh goat and cow milk from family farms in their community, standing on the shoulders of these hardworking farmers as they work together to achieve mutual success. They test every load of milk from every farmer; and as the components and quality of their milk improve, so does their cheese.
5 Spoke Creamery - Goshen, NY
5 Spoke Creamery believes anything is possible, including getting caught in the rain in some out-of-the-way European village and having no place to sleep. That’s also how they view cheese making – you need to be able to see what’s going on, which means only working with small batches where you can react to what’s happening in front of you. You also need to start with superior-quality raw milk. Believing in possibilities was key for allowing 5 Spokes to follow their passion to make superior tasting, small batch raw milk cheeses (that happen to be kosher), let alone thinking it possible to buy and restore a 100-year-old dairy farm and build a cheese-making operation from the ground up.
Plymouth Artisan Cheese - Plymouth, VT
The Plymouth Cheese Factory was built in 1890 by Col. John Coolidge, a dairy farmer, looking to extend the shelf life of his milk. Not much has changed since those days. The cheese factory is the same today as it was back then. Recipe and all. In 1960, President Coolidge’s son John revived the cheese factory which had been closed since 1934. The Coolidge family still owns about 500 acres of the surrounding small hill farms. In 2009, cheesemaker Jesse Werner submitted a proposal to revive the Plymouth Cheese Factory and the original 1890’s granular curd cheddar recipe. Jesse had attended the Vermont Institute of Artisanal Cheese (VIAC) at the University of Vermont, and also apprenticed with the renowned Québécois cheesemaker, Marc Andre St. Yves. When his proposal was accepted, Jesse jumped at the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream.
Shelburne Farms - Shelburne, VT
Shelburne Farms is an education nonprofit on a mission to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future. The products we make on our working farm campus help learners connect to the landscape and understand their role in sustainable food systems. We practice regenerative agriculture to craft farm products. Everything we produce connects learners to the working landscape and helps them better understand their role in sustainable food systems.