Dairy farms find cheese renaissance

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WEST PAWLET, Vermont — Standing in a 144-year-old Vermont dairy farm making goat'smilk Romano cheese in a 150-gallon stainless-steel mixer, PeterDixon is at the heart of a revolution in American cheesemaking.
The 50-year-old dairy farmer is monitoring the stirring of themilk, which gets heated and mixed with a starter to separate thecurd from the whey. Eventually molded into 20-pound wheels, thepiquant product will command $22 (U.S.) a pound in high-end foodshops and farmer's markets.
“I like to bring out the real character of the milk, ratherthan add a lot of cultures,” explained Mr. Dixon, who willscrub the cheese periodically with salt water to help its flavouralong as it ages three to four months in a cave-like room.
The Consider Bardwell farm is one of a growing number ofsmall-scale farms in Vermont and across the country that aremeeting demand for high-end farmstead cheese, a business model somefind far more profitable than selling commodity milk.
Mr. Dixon knows all too well the need for new financial modelsafter the collapse of his family's dairy farm under crushing debt.He works for Consider Bardwell's owners, a couple who split theirtime between New York careers and the growing cheese business.
The 300-acre goat farm is one of 40 artisanal cheesemakingoperations in Vermont, up from five a decade ago, and reflects anational trend of expanding U.S. production of handmade, specialtycheeses from California to Maine that seek to rivalEuropean-produced varieties.
Membership in the American Cheese Society has more than tripledfrom 426 in 2001 to 1,418 currently, and includes retailers,importers and even food writers.
A variety of factors are behind the surge of interest in farmsteadcheese, ranging from a more discerning American palate to concernsabout the safety of mass-produced foods.
A surging European currency has also helped by making high-endAmerican cheeses – which can sell for $25 a pound, six timesthat of supermarket varieties – more competitive with thoseimports.
For some, like Mr. Dixon, the appeal is simple: The interest incheese helps small-scale farmers like him stay in business.
“In addition to what this farm produces, we're buying milkfrom four other farms, which helps sustain them,” Mr. Dixonsaid at the farm, which lies outside a town of 1,436 people alongVermont's picturesque rural border with New York. “That'spart of my goal here, to keep the farms in the landscape.”
Vermont has seen 333 dairy farms fail over the past five years,with 1,100 remaining according to state figures, down from 11,019in 1950. The main competitive challenge is massive Western dairyfarms that milk hundreds of animals.
Farmstead cheese operations like Bardwell represent a sliver of the9.7 billion pounds of cheese the United States produces and the$387-million worth of cheese it exports each year. There are noofficial statistics measuring U.S. production of specialty cheesesbut evidence from farmers and industry officials suggests steadygrowth.
“As the quality of the cheese improves, the consumer says,‘Wow this is really fantastic, I love this,”' saidCathy Strange, global cheese buyer for Whole Foods Market Inc, thelargest publicly held U.S. natural food chain.
Artisanal cheese sales have grown steadily, she said.
For farmers, cheese making offers a clear economic advantage. Fluidmilk sells for about $18 per 100 pounds , but when made into cheesecan bring in about five times as much revenue.
“You just have so much more control over your destiny,”said David Smith, 62, who started making cheese 23 years ago toimprove profits at his dairy farm.
Mr. Smith's farmstead Gouda, cheddar and havarti are made on theWinchendon, Massachusetts, farm using milk from its 200 cows. Itretails for about $8 to $13 a pound – a price Mr. Smith saidmeets less resistance today than it did when he started CountryCheese, his cheese business.
“With cheese you have a lot more flexibility,” Mr.Smith said. “With fluid milk you have to sell it or smell it,but with cheese the older it gets, it has more value.”
U.S. cheesemakers have also been helped by the euro's rise –up 17 per cent against the dollar over the past year.
“American cheese once seemed quite expensive,” saidMatt Rubiner, owner of a cheese shop in Great Barrington, Vermont,whose stock of American cheese has grown from nothing to about aquarter of its selection just in the past few years.
“Those days are gone, at least for the time being,” Mr.Rubiner said. “American cheeses ... often seem something of abargain compared to some European cheeses.”