Farm Life

Imagine life without cheddar cheese. What did you say? Yes, life without cheddar cheese. We always have a block of cheddar cheese in the fridge ready to be shredded or just cut up and eaten fresh. Memories of scrabbled eggs, melted grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade macaroni cheese come flooding back to my mind. Life…

The room was hot and steamy, and about to get salty, at Neighborly Farms of Vermont in Randolph Center. At about 9:30 on a late-summer morning, head cheesemaker Jason Jarvis had already been at work for six hours. It was raw cheddar day. After adding the starter to about 400 pounds of unpasteurized organic milk produced on-site,…

What is raw cheese? First we begin with milk fresh from the farm. We have had visitors ask us if it is legal to sell raw cheese or raw milk. That is a great question.  FDA requires all of our raw milk cheddar to be aged 60 days. The acidifying process that happens during aging…

Nestled in the rolling hills of Randolph Center, Vt., Neighborly Farms, with its red barn and white post and beam farmhouse has established an organic dairy and cheese processing facility on the farm. Through one side of the viewing room, visitors can watch the 48 black and white Holsteins cows being milked or turn to…