April 2024

Parish Hill Creamery

Essays by Chris Loughran

About Parish Hill

It is a short drive but maybe a little confusing, we’re told, to get from the cheesemaking facility at Parish Hill to their cellar where the affinage magic happens for a handful of their aged cheeses. Anaïs and I get in our car and follow Rachel Fritz Schaal, co-owner and cheesemaker, out onto the Vermont country roads. It turns out that the confusing part is only the last bit, when Rachel’s turn signal flashes where there is no intersecting road. We follow her car straight into the woods, where they have fitted a root cellar built in the 1950s with a few modifications to make an ideal space for aging cheese. Well, ideal for certain cheeses, that is. Rather, certain cheeses at certain times of the year, because everything at Parish Hill is a conversation that goes much further into the woods than the repurposed root cellar.

In fact, at Parish Hill Creamery, a small family business which began in 2013 and is co-owned and operated by Rachel and her husband, Peter Dixon, along with Rachel’s sister, Alex Schaal; conversation, or teaching, might be the core philosophy alongside their commitment to natural cheesemaking. In addition to the creamery, Peter Dixon operates a consulting business and workshop that has been influential to the success of countless cheesemakers from all over the world. Our visit to Parish Hill lasted eight hours, and if we had not had such a long drive to and from Burlington where we were staying on our trip, it could’ve lasted the whole day. Every little detail has an explanation, every tangent has a lesson somewhere in the woods.

At Parish Hill, there is a bit of mad-scientist to the place, quirky on the surface, genius and practicality beneath. For example, peek inside “the mobile”, the temperature controlled trailer parked behind the cheesemaking room, and you’ll see wheels of cheese aging on slanted wooden shelves looking like they might slide right off, while other cheeses hang strung from poles overhead. But the chaos is controlled and the trailer is efficient and relatively inexpensive, a method Peter first saw being used in California, and which afforded them the opportunity to expand their affinage capacity beyond the root cellar.

This is but one piece to an odd puzzle, but the creative problem solving at Parish Hill fits squarely into their vision, where everything revolves around natural cheesemaking, “the lens through which [they] view the world.” They are on a mission to prove that natural cheesemaking, which requires the use of natural cultures (made from the soured milk of specific cows from the herd), is possible and viable. It is not a simple mission in an industry reliant on laboratory cultures, predictable ingredients that allow a cheesemaker to achieve specific results. Want to make a Gruyere-style cheese? Buy a packet of freeze-dried Gruyere culture. But natural cheesemaking is a risk that the folks at Parish Hill believe to be vital to produce cheeses that are a true reflection of terroir. Since natural cultures are unique to a specific pasture and dairy animal and not dependent on an industrial ingredient, it can be argued that natural cheesemaking is the only way to produce a truly local cheese.

Perhaps it’s a bit romantic, but natural cheesemaking is also a logical extension of all the things we value about artisan cheese. Flavor, of course, but also what’s good for the animals, the environment, and our gut health. And it all starts with the milk, which Parish Hill sources from the Elm Lea Farm at The Putney School, a progressive day school (that Peter attended in his youth) with an agriculture program that includes a working farm managing a mixed herd of mostly Holsteins and Jerseys, along with a Dutch Belt, a few Brown Swiss. The milk from Elm Lea Farm is ideal for Parish Hill’s style of cheesemaking. The farm practices (and teaches) intensive rotational grazing, moving the herd through segments of pasture to graze on fresh grass. The benefits of such practices, nevermind including them in a high school curriculum, are irrefutable, and if sourcing or producing this type of high quality milk is crucial for all artisan cheesemakers it is even more so in natural cheesemaking, which simply would not be possible without it.

Yet, with all the variables involved in natural cheesemaking, even sourcing ideal milk is just a starting point. Parish Hill only makes cheese when the cows are on pasture, typically from May through October, and in order to maintain the necessary lively microbiome of the raw source, they never hold milk below a certain temperature or for longer than 24 hours. In practice, this requires they make cheese six days per week during the season, producing cheese in small batches. With thirteen different cheeses on their roster and the seasonal ebbs and flows in the microbiological qualities of the raw milk, almost every day at Parish Hill seems like a new adventure where they have a saying that “cheesemaking doesn’t always happen on time but it always happens at the right time.”

This theory extends to the affinage facilities, where each cheese has its own peak window for when it’s at its best, something that the people at Parish Hill have identified through trial and error and tasting. Vermont Herdsman, for example, inspired by Asiago and aged for a minimum of twelve months, did not set out to be a “1-year Asiago-style”. It found its way there.

In fact, Parish Hill relies more on trial and error than almost any other artisan cheesemaker in the United States, something that requires scientific expertise, experience and intuition, and immense amounts of creativity. In the context of our capitalist, factory farm based economy, this may prove to be daunting for many cheese makers to follow. But Parish Hill welcomes and encourages many cheesemakers to pursue natural cheesemaking, obvious on our short visit and evidenced in the consulting work and through the Cornerstone Project – a collaboration in natural cheesemaking that includes Cato Corner Farm and Birchrun Hills Farm.

Fresh off two Super Golds at the 2023-2024 World Cheese Awards (for the currently sold-out Idyll and Humble) perhaps the time is now right for Parish Hill and natural cheesemaking in the United States. But it is not awards that we love so much about them, it is their commitment to their values, their willingness to share. The cheeses in this box are as much an expression of the Westminster West/Putney, Vermont terroir as they are a reflection of the people who’ve put their whole hearts into making them.

Hear from the Cheesemaker: an Interview with Rachel

Q: Why did you choose to source milk from Elm Lea?

A: Wow… that is a huge question. Short answer: we were unbelievably lucky. Elm Lea was the only farm making cheese milk, within a 30 mile radius, on grass, at the scale we were looking for, that was (potentially) available. Longer answer: there are fewer and fewer dairy farms each year, and fewer still that make milk in a manner that is matched to the methods of cheesemaking required at Parish Hill. All milk is not the same, and most of what is out there is destined for fluid milk or other fresh products where quality = shelf-life (+ profit…). In order to do what we do, the cows have to be doing cow things, grazing diverse pastures, ruminating and roving the changing hillsides of southern Vermont.

Q: How much cheese do you make per year?

A: We’ve made as little as 11,000 pounds (Covid?) and as much as 22,000 pounds.  We’re trying to get to 28,000.  

Q: How often are each of your cheeses being made (weekly, seasonally, etc.)?

A: We start as soon as the grazing is good, some years as early as late April, some years not until mid-May.  Grass has lasted to late October or even early November.  During the season we make Sunday through Friday.  On Saturdays our neighbor takes the milk for his cheese.  

Q: What’s your favorite part of cheesemaking?

A: I actually love it all.

Q: What’s your favorite type of cheese? 

A: Not a fair question!  

Q: What’s your perfect bite?

A: The one handed to me by the maker! Or a monger who wants me to taste a cheese that plucks at their heartstrings…

Q: Who is your biggest influence?

A: My husband… and the other makers doing magical things, and the folks who believe in what we’re doing and share their love and curiosity with the people who eat the cheese!

Q: What’s your favorite thing about the cheese industry?

A: Camaraderie, learning with and from one another, the heartfelt appreciation of what it means to choose to make the best possible cheese…

On Natural Cheesemaking & The Cornerstone Project

Peter Dixon’s eagerness to learn about cheese has led him all over the world, but his professional journey started in 1983 with his family’s small herd of 15 Jersey cows. At Guilford Cheese Company, Peter set out to produce bloomy rind cheeses that resembled the real French ones, Brie and Camembert. When the burgeoning artisan cheese market did not develop quickly enough for the business to survive, Peter stuck with cheesemaking as his career, earning his M.S. in Dairy Science at the University of Vermont. He has since made a profound mark in the artisan cheese world, first as a cheesemaker and later as a consultant. In addition to helping develop recipes and solve problems for countless creameries, Peter has made cheese at Shelburne Farms, Consider Bardwell Farm, and Vermont Creamery.

But the natural cheesemaking practiced at Parish Hill really developed through his consultant work in the Balkans where their traditional methods of cheesemaking were more rustic than anything being produced in the United States. The production environment, often without refrigeration and relying on traditional, wooden tools, developed milk with “a lively microbiology”. These were raw milk cheeses with more lactic acid producing bacteria, so much that the cheesemakers did not use starter cultures at all to make them.

This is all but impossible in the United States with sanitary production regulations that feature stainless steel and chemical cleaning – regulations that are necessary to ensure the food safety of industrial cheese, but disruptive and counterproductive to ensure artisan cheese food safety –  which results in a much less lively milk that needs help to turn into cheese. In steps starter cultures, produced in laboratories by biotech firms, to fit that need. These industrial starter cultures, which first became commercially available in 1893, and have since become the near universal way of producing cheese in the US, heavily influence the profile, the flavor and texture, of the final cheese. Even in the best case, where the artisan cheesemaker still uses the raw milk of a closed herd, this muddles the idea of terroir, the sense of place. The factory model obliterates it entirely.

Of course, cheese has not always been made like that. A hundred years ago, everyone was eating natural cheese, either from the no-culture-needed type methods or from ones that used natural cultures made from intentionally soured milk, something like a yogurt. To this day, some of the biggest names in imported cheese, from Parmigiano Reggiano to Comté to Gruyere, are made using homemade in-house starter culture.

In the US, like so much of our traditional foods, natural cheesemaking has become something of an art lost to industrialization. But not at Parish Hill Creamery, where they practice natural cheesemaking, using their own starter cultures made by hand milking specific cows, specifically four cows –  Helga, Abigail, Clothilde, and Sonia – chosen for “their health, their components, and their disposition.”

The Cornerstone Project, which began in 2016 “in response to John Greeley of the ACS Judging Committee’s call for American Original cheeses,” expands this vision of natural cheesemaking in the US beyond a single creamery. An idea started by Brian Civitello of Mystic Cheese, the project evolved into a collaboration between Parish Hill, Cato Corner, and Birchrun Hills; three creameries that set out to develop their own American Original, a cheese to be called Cornerstone.

The goal of the project is to explore the elemental nature of American terroir with each Cornerstone produced following a specific set of rules. Among them, using autochthonous cultures developed and propagated by the cheesemaker from the milk of the herd. Aptly named, Cornerstone follows a simple recipe (a cooked curd lightly pressed in a square form) that emphasizes the traditional foundations of cheesemaking.

These three creameries are spread out across three different states; Vermont, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Their herds are made up of different breeds feeding on unique pastures. But the recipe ensures something of a similar style, the only variables attributable to place and aging. It is an ambitious project that has drawn interest not only from cheesemongers such as ourselves, but from scientists at research institutions studying these differences under a microscope. I am not a scientist, but from the cheese lovers perspective, the results so far are marvelous. We hope to see more producers of Cornerstone in the future.

The Rules of Production:

Raw cow’s milk — never heated above 104 F prior to renneting.
Milk from a single herd on one farm. (No commingled milk.)
Milk produced from cows grazing on pasture.
Autochthonous cultures are developed and propagated by the cheesemaker from this milk.
Coagulant must be traditional calf rennet or caillette 
Cheese is dry/surface salted using salt produced by the nearest saltworks to the cheesemaker
Cornerstone is aged on wooden boards, 
Wild rinds: turned & brushed, but never washed
Cornerstone is produced is in accordance with the recipe & techniques as defined in the Cornerstone Project. 
The same square form is used to shape the cheese
The cheese is aged for a minimum five months
Cornerstone production may not exceed 3,000 pounds annually

… and now onward to the cheeses!

Kashar

Milk: Raw cow
Rennet: Traditional calf rennet
Age: Minimum of 2 months
Ingredients: Raw cows’ milk, salt, traditional calf rennet, and native cultures
Texture/profile: Semi-firm,
Pairing idea: Olympia Provisions Petite Pierre Pepperettes

Kashar is a cheese influenced by cheesemaking techniques learned in the Balkans and takes its name from the town of Kashar in Albania. This is a pasta filata style cheese, meaning the curds are submerged in hot water and stretched by hand immediately before forming the cheese. It is a very labor intensive practice. We have a little experience with this in our shop, where we stretch mozzarella curd from Caputo Brother’s Creamery, which we hand form into balls to sell fresh. By contrast, Kashar is formed in a basket mold and rubbed with olive oil. Aged for a minimum of two months, typically about six months. The flavor is buttery and tangy with something of a peppery kick. If you are fan of provolone, this might be your new favorite cheese. Enjoy with the pepperettes, French-inspired smoked pork stick flavored with juniper and sea salt.  

Cornerstone

Milk: Raw cow
Rennet: Traditional calf rennet
Age: 6 month minimum
Ingredients: Raw cows’ milk, salt, traditional calf rennet, and native cultures
Texture/profile: Semi-firm, sharp, tangy
Pairing idea: Dried Apricots

We’ve talked a lot about this one already, enjoy the sharp tangy flavor profile with some sweet dried apricots.

Hermit

Milk: Raw cow
Rennet: Traditional calf rennet
Age: Minimum three months
Ingredients: Raw cows’ milk, salt, traditional calf rennet, native cultures, beer
Texture/profile: Semi-firm, nutty, fruity, smooth, with a nice grassy bite at the finish
Pairing idea: BRINS Strawberry Lemongrass

A large format monastic tomme named after the brewery that makes the beer used to wash the cheese. To make Hermit, the curds are lightly cooked a few degrees while stirring. A higher moisture cheese, whey is drained off only until level with the curd in the vat. From there, the slurry (of curd and whey) is pitchered into forms. Wheels are brined and then washed with Rowdy Monk, a limited release Belgian quadruple ale from Hermit Thrush Brewery in nearby Brattleboro, VT. The folks at Hermit Thrush are as into native cultures as Parish Hill, all of their beers are brewed using wild Brattleboro mixed culture yeast, letting terroir drive the style of beer they produce.

Enjoy Hermit with BRINS Strawberry Lemongrass, which should bring out some citrus notes in the cheese.

Vermont Herdsman

Milk: Raw cow
Rennet: Traditional calf rennet
Age: Minimum 1 year
Ingredients: Raw cows’ milk, salt, traditional calf rennet, and native cultures
Texture/profile: Firm, bold nuttiness and pineapple fruit
Pairing idea: L’Epicurien Pineapple Confit with Penja Pepper

Vermont Herdsman is a Vermont alpine cheese, an Asiago-inspired recipe that Peter Dixon originally created at Westminster Dairy and later made under the name Rupert at Consider Bardwell Farm. This iteration just took home a Bronze at the World Cheese Awards and we can see why! The flavors are bold and savory with flavors of hazelnut and pineapple. Pairing with the pineapple confit amplifies the fruitiness while the penja pepper (grown in the volcanic soil of the Penja Valley in Cameroon) lends a subtle spice to match the warmth of Vermont Herdsman.

Jack’s Blue

Milk: Raw cow
Rennet: Traditional calf rennet
Age: Minimum 2 months
Ingredients: Raw cows’ milk, salt, traditional calf rennet, native cultures, penicillium roqueforti
Texture/profile: Semi-firm, smooth, buttery, earth and hay, cream
Pairing idea: Overdale Honey

Jack’s Blue is a natural rind, rustic blue named for a good dog, Jack, Rachel’s beloved Aussi. Originally, Jack’s Blue was made from extra curds from the production of their larger format Gorgonzola-inspired West West Blue, but is now part of their regular lineup. Dense but buttery, notes of earth and hay with a pleasant meatiness and subtle spicy bite. Another Bronze medal at the World Cheese Awards for this one! And as the saying goes, “If you’ve never liked blue, Jack might be for you.” This is especially true with a dash of the Overdale Honey made close to our shop in nearby Forrest Hills, although the Vermonters would recommend maple syrup.