Shelburne Farms Raw Milk Cheddar at the Deli
A Vermont classic since 1980
I’m very excited to announce that we have this great American cheddar back in stock at the Deli. It was one of our earliest artisan offerings back in the ’80s, one of the only farmstead American cheeses one could find anywhere back then, and we were very loyal to it for years. As I said about those Bianco di Napoli tomatoes above, the loyalty grew out of the consistent high quality of the product, and out of friendship with the marvelous, magical man who made it—the Paraguayan immigrant, Mariano Gonzalez. When Mariano left Shelburne after many years to pursue other projects, to my taste, the quality suffered. Consequently, sadly, we stopped carrying Shelburne. In recent years, the flavor seems to be well intact again! And so, happily, Shelburne Farms Vermont Cheddar is once again a deli staple. (Mariano continues to make cheese, currently at Grafton Village Cheese, which we also work with. He remains as kind, gentle, and skilled at cheesemaking as ever!)
In the spirit of Rebecca Solnit’s belief that trying to decide where a story begins is like dipping a cup in the ocean, it seems sound to say that before there were any cheese-loving Europeans on what is now Shelburne Farms, the Abenaki people had been living on the land for centuries. Europeans began arriving and taking the land in the 18th century. The town of Shelburne was formally incorporated in 1773 and by the turn of the century had about 400 people living in it. The lake the Abenaki had known as Bitawbágók was named Lake Champlain, in recognition of French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, Shelburne had about 1000 residents and a stunningly large sheep population of about 17,000. Cheap western wool coming back east on railroads pushed Shelburne farmers to trade sheep for cows. A large amount of the money made on those railroads went to the wealthy Vanderbilt family. Later in the 19th century, the youngest daughter of William H. Vanderbilt, Eliza Osgood “Lila” Webb, took her inheritance and bought up the land of what had been 33 different farms, totaling nearly 4,000 acres. The Webbs brought in hundreds of laborers to clear the lands, tear down the old farmhouses, and build a grand new estate. They engaged Frederick Law Olmsted to do the drawings and began building and laying out the grounds. While Rocco and Katherine Disderide were building the little 1300-square-foot corner grocery that, in 1982, would become the building in which we opened the Deli, the Webbs were constructing the New England equivalent of a summer palace on 1300 acres.
Lila Webb died in 1936, and over the following decades, the land began to degrade. Finally, in 1972, a fourth-generation set of siblings set up the Shelburne Farms nonprofit, to which the entire estate was later given. They started making cheese in 1980. Today, the land is worked regeneratively, with very high regard for natural ecosystems. The cheese is raw milk, a handmade cheddar crafted from the milk of the farm’s pasture-raised herd of Brown Swiss cows, starter cultures, a small bit of rennet, and salt. What we have in-house now has been aged for over two years. Nutty, floral, dry, and slightly sharp—for me, it’s a classic American cheddar. Great with everything! Fresh fruit, in macaroni and cheese, on grilled cheese, with whatever array of condiments tickles your fancy. And there’s a whole lot of history—both of Shelburne Farms and of Zingerman’s, in every bite.
Feelin’ cheesy
