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Cheddar for a Change We just want to remind you that when you order our cheddar or other farm products, your purchase directly supports all of the Farm's education programs that are helping to create a more sustainable future. So thank you. New evening call hours! For the first time, you can place your holiday mail orders until 8:00 pm, EST, Wednesdays & Thursdays, December 2-16. Call 802-985-0333. Bread and breakfast at Burlington schools
Introducing our cheesemakers
For 29 years now--since 1980--we’ve been making farmhouse cheddar. Our first make room was at the Dairy, and it was about half the size of our current digs in the Farm Barn. Bill Clapp and Marshall Webb, our first cheesemakers, practiced and experimented with our recipe. Bill developed our first cheddar rating system based on variables measured in the milk and during the make process. We still use a rating system to determine which batches of cheese we will age for 6, 12, or 24 months. Bill also managed the entire cheese operation, selling cheese wholesale at first, then later developing a catalog and mail order business. Today, we have three cheesemakers and three staff coordinating sales and shipping. Although the operations have changed a bit, the recipe and practice for great farmhouse cheddar remains the same: start with great fresh milk! Marshall Webb (L) & Bill Clapp (R) hooping cheese in the Dairy make room, mid-1980s.
“You can never really figure bees out." -- Rick Drutchas, beekeeper Rick has been a beekeeper in Vermont for more than 30 years, and has supplied Shelburne Farms honey for nearly 20. His 27 bee yards (about 500 hives) are scattered across Chittenden County and all the way up to the Islands. “I have some on the border, too, so I probably have some Canadian honey.” Some hives are at Shelburne Farms, where he originally placed them to help pollinate Market Garden crops for David Miskell. According to Rick, a few honey crops predominate here: Dutch clover (“this little white clover grows so thick in the pastures it looks like snow”), honeysuckle (“this honey has a real candy flavor”), and sometimes locust trees. Overall, he says, “Vermont has really nice honey. The flavor is really nice.” Rick’s year starts by early April and runs into the fall. “I try to hit the bees every 10 days or so through the season,” he says. “Hitting the bees” may mean spring cleaning, seeing how the queen is laying, equalizing a hive, or controlling mite and pest diseases. He begins harvesting honey in August, and sometimes gets a fall crop, too. Rick brings full honeycombs back to his honey house, where a machine “uncaps” each comb, shaving off the layer of wax to expose the honey. A centrifuge spins the honey out of the combs and into barrels. Then the honey is heated slightly so he can pump it through a nylon filter, ready for bottling. “It’s farming,” he says frankly. “It’s hard, physical work, but I’m outside, I feel involved in nature, and I’m constantly learning.” He adds, “You can never really figure bees out.” After 30 years, he probably comes as close as anyone. With thanks to our community This year we’ve had the pleasure of expanding our enduring relationships with local stores. They now carry our bulk cheddar (all ages), tractor cheddar, mild slicing cheddar for the deli, and odds & ends. We’ve also been able to visit many stores throughout Vermont to sample cheese, meet customers, and share stories. Community support for the Farm is tremendous, and our cheddar sales in Vermont have increased from about 44,000 to 54,000 pounds over the last year. We hope you enjoy every bite. And thank you for supporting our work. |
Fri. & Sat., 
Book event & evening hours at Welcome Center
Dear Friend of Shelburne Farms,
Thanks to Doug Davis, Food Service Director with the Burlington Schools, we have a new collaboration with 
Andy Johnson has been cheesemaking here for over two years. Originally from Illinois, he came to Vermont via Washington, DC, and was experimenting with soft cheeses in his kitchen before joining Shelburne Farms. “I learned everything here,” he says. His favorite stage in the process? Coagulation. “It’s the point where the milk really transforms into cheese. There’s no going back.” He also enjoys making a farmstead cheese: “The whole chain is right here: from the milking to the aging,” he explains. And when he hauls milk in the morning, he likes “hanging out” at the dairy a bit, learning anything about the milk or pastures that might affect his cheesemaking that day. At Shelburne Farms, Andy is in a unique position to teach and share his profession. “People really want to know what I'm doing. No one ever asked me about my work when I was an accountant.” 
Paul Hartnett, a Nashua, NH native and Green Mountain College graduate, came to the Farm after answering our job post in the local paper. “I was into farming and local food, and a friend and I had talked about doing our own cheese thing one day. This seemed like a good place to start.” Three seasons into it, he’s still hard at work. “It’s a long day," he admits. "You’re here for 10 hours. But it's pretty mind-blowing when you see the whole process: first milk, then the yogurt-y milk, then the curds and whey, then just the curds, and finally the cheese. People don't realize the science behind it," he continues, "how we're constantly measuring the acidity, or controlling the salt level." The process still intrigues him, although he appreciates an occasional mechanical breakdown or two to add drama to his days. He also clearly appreciates his fellow cheesemaker, "Andy steals my stashes of candy," he says grinning, "but he usually replaces them." We hope so.
Cheesemaking thru the years
Rick Drutchas, Bee Haven Farm
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Shelburne Farms cultivates a conservation ethic by teaching and demonstrating the stewardship of natural and agricultural resources.
We are a nonprofit environmental education center, 1,400-acre working farm, and National Historic Landmark.