A Special Dispatch from Jasper Hill Farm

Editor’s note: A few weeks ago, we posted about our recent visit to Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, Vermont. After our visit, we made our way north to Greensboro, home of Jasper Hill Farm. We were going to do a write up on that too, but a young lady at Jasper Hill asked if we’d post something she wrote. So instead, we will be featuring her as a guest blogger. Her post is below.

Hello.

My name is Maple, and I like you. A lot. Please pet me.

I am, how do you humans say? Ah yes, The Best. And the prettiest. And the humblest too. Also, I am very young. Just six months! It’s so lovely to be young and pretty, isn’t it? It can easily go to your head. At least I’d imagine. I’m too humble for that. Tee hee!

I am the first heifer to be raised at Jasper Hill. It’s a great place to grow up! If you’d allow, I would like to give you a tour of my home.

Great!

This is where I live:

Beautiful, no? I spend most of my time hanging out in the open space between the two barns. Well, it’s much more than just hanging out; I suppose I was being humble again. Really I spend most of my time in that open space studying. I want to learn to make the best cheese possible, and I take my duties very seriously. And I’d probably be much more productive if I didn’t share the space with a pair of frenetic goats. There’s always kidding around. That was a pun. They are teaching me a little how to joke. Ha ha!

Most of my mentors live in the blue barn. My goal is to one day grow up to provide milk as rich and flavorful as theirs. And I tell ya, the folks at Jasper are doing a real good job turning it into incredible cheese. Just look at what’s happening in their caves!

 

Such wonder in those cellars! That’s Bayley Hazen right when it’s pierced, and then as it’s getting its blue on. And then stacks on stacks of Cabot Clothbound Cheddar. And finally, my pal Joe wrapping green Harbisons in spruce cambium. When you walk into his cellar, there’s soothing folk music bouncing off the walls, with the most pleasing acoustics. I certainly do not take for granted that I get to live at one of the most state-of-the-art, innovative, standard bearing artisanal cheese facilities in the whole country. I’m a real lucky duck. Joking again! As you know, I’m actually a cow.

At the very end of January, some humans from Murray’s came up to visit. They were tasting through all that Cabot Clothbound, selecting the batches that they want to sell. One of the things I’ve learned in my studies is that we here at Jasper actually have four distinct flavor profiles for our Cabot Clothbound. For example, one profile is Umami & Roasted, and it has a spidergraph that looks like this:

You can, in fact, read all about those flavor profiles here.

Murray’s, however, hand-selects their own wheels, not based on our profiles but rather on their own. They look for a deep, caramelized, almost candied sweetness. And they come up to the farm every quarter to do just that. Which is exciting for me, because everyone who visited was so great! Especially the copywriter, who is so cool and fun and has toned muscles.

I’d love to tell you more, but I want to hit the books some more before the sun goes down. Better get a moo’ve on. Ha ha! I had a lot of fun writing this letter to all you fine people and hope to get invited to do another one soon. Thanks for reading!

Curdiously,
Maple