NewEnglandTravelPlanner.com Where to Go Tours & Routes FAQ Search

Vermont Cheese

The proudly rural state of Vermont has plenty of dairy farms, and people hungry for good cheese. Local artisanal cheesemakers satisfy their craving—and ours.

Jasper Hill Cheese
Harbison and Alpha Tolman cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm.

Vermont has 46 artisanal cheesemakers producing delicious cheeses from the milk of cows, goats, and sheep. Below are some of Vermont's most prominent cheesemakers. For the full list, see the Vermont Cheese Council:

Plymouth Artisan Cheese

One of my favorites for decades, the fine Plymouth cheddars are made in the tiny town of Plymouth, Vermont, birthplace of President Calvin Coolidge. The Coolidge home, where Calvin Coolidge took the presidential oath of office (administered by his father, the village Justice of the Peace), is now preserved in a state park. More...

Grafton Village Cheese

Among Vermont's most prominent and productive cheesemakers, this is the one of the two most prominent industries in tiny Grafton, Vermont (the other is the Grafton Inn, among the oldest in the USA).

Jasper Hill Farm

Although the farm outside Greensboro (home to Circus Smirkus) in the Northeast Kingdom is not open to visitors, the cheeses are—and what a variety of cheeses! Products of many other Vermont dairy farms, including Von Trapp Farmstead, are sold under the Jasper Hill label, so whatever it is you're looking for, you'll find it, along with flavorful discoveries you didn't imagine.

Contented Vermont dairy cows
Contented Vermont dairy cows...

Sugarbush Farm Cheese & Maple Syrup

This working farm just outside Woodstock makes 15 varieties of Vermont artisanal cheese and five of maple syrup, and also sells many other Vermont food products. More...

West River Creamery

A 200-acre farm in Londonderry with several dozen milk cows, it ages its hand-made cheeses in its own cave.

Hildene Goat Dairy

Hildene, in Manchester, Vermont, was the estate of Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. The cheese showroom lets you observe the cheesemaking process, which may be to produce the Center's prized fresh Nubian goat chèvre.

Crowley Cheese

Reputed to be the oldest continuously-operating cheesemaker in the USA (1824), it makes a signature old-recipe cheese as well as others with olives, garlic and chives.

Taylor Farm

In operation for nearly two centuries, Taylor Farm in Londonderry, Vermont makes the only Vermont Farmstead Gouda with raw milk from its own Holsteins and Jerseys.

Shelburne Farms

A 1400-acre (567-hectare) working farm and forest on Lake Champlain in Shelburne, south of Burlington, Shelburne Farms is a non-profit educational organization that, besides making and selling its own cheese and other farm products, works to educate the public about sustainable agriculture.

Cabot Creamery

The brand you've probably heard of and which you'll see in shops and supermarkets throughout New England and New York State, Cabot Creamery is a cooperative of more than 1,200 family farms in the region. Famous for its cheddar—fresh, aged and flavored varieties—Cabot has a Visitors Center & Tour at its creamery in Cabot, Vermont, off US Route 2 west of Danville, in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

Vermont Cheese Trail

You can find these and other cheesemakers along the Vermont Cheese Trail of the Vermont Cheese Council, and at the annual Vermont Cheesemakers Festival. held annually in August in Greensboro VT, which is also the home of Circus Smirkus.