VT Cheesemakers Fest

Last weekend we were invited to demonstrate the churn at the Vermont Cheesemakers’ Festival. A wealth of awesome cheeses, friendly warm-hearted people and a stunningly beautiful landscape created a magical scene!

We were one of four featured demonstrations for the day. During our demonstration, we made two batches of butter with fresh organic cream from the local Kimball Farms. The temperature of the cream was just right, right about 58 degrees F. Each batch took less than six minutes to churn from start to finish.

Kiki showed the crowd how to make three compound butters: sea salt and pink peppercorn, roasted garlic chive butter and maple walnut butter. Later at our booth, we whipped up another batch of compound butter using smoked maple syrup from our friends at Sugar Bob’s who were also at the event.

A visit to Shelburne Farms, a national historic landmark just south of Burlington, Vermont is a must do!  The working farm sits on 1,400 acres right on an unspoiled cove of Lake Champlain.

The Adirondack Peaks are towering in the background and the Green Mountains lie to the east. The bucolic grounds are landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted and the barns and meadows are home to about a hundred head of Brown Swiss, one of our most beloved breeds of cattle.  One of the most amazing sights is the breeding barn, a structure reminiscent of an English castle, which showcase W. Seward Webb’s famous horse breeding operation.