About Our Cheese
Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise Cheese
At Spring Brook Farm, we follow a long tradition of cheese making which has its origin in the French Alps. Though our Vermont-made, raw-milk Tarentaise cheese was inspired by the traditional cheeses of the French Alps, its complex, rich flavor tastes like no other European or American cheese.
Several years ago John and Janine Putnam of Thistle Hill Farm in nearby Pomfret, VT traveled to France looking for a cheese that would suit the milk from their herd of Jersey cows and Vermont’s climate. After much research and help from a French Cheese maker, they developed a semi hard cheese and named it Tarentaise, after the valley in the French Alps which inspired it. As demand for their cheese grew, John and Janine collaborated with Spring Brook Farm and the Farms for City Kids Foundation to build on this Tarentaise cheese making process.
Much like the variation from one cheese maker to the next, within the regional cheeses produced in Europe, both our Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise, made in Reading, VT and that produced on our sister farm, Thistle Hill Farm in Pomfret, VT, maintain unique flavor profiles. This is the result of subtle differences between our two farms – the pastures, the Jersey herds and the cheesemakers. Our locations are preserved and even highlighted in our respective cheeses. The result is a difference not only expected but highly celebrated.
The Making of Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise
In the Spring of 2008 a state-of-the-art cheese house was built at Spring Brook Farm complete with custom cheese-making equipment from France, including copper vats, resulting in the production of, on average, 90 20 lb. wheels per week.
It is through a labor intensive process that our cheese is handcrafted, requiring the knowledge and feel of the cheese maker to insure proper handling from the first step to the last.
Milk Direct from Our Barn to the Cheese House: Farmstead Cheese
High quality cheese can only come from high quality milk. At Spring Brook Farm the milk comes from our herd of 40 Jersey cows making Tarentaise a true Farmstead cheese. Having the cows and the cheese at the same location allow the cheese maker and the herdsperson to work closely together in producing a truly unique and distinctive artisanal cheese. Gravity is used to flow the milk from the milk house to the barn. This is the gentlest way to handle the milk and avoid any problems that can occur with pumping such as contamination and excess turbulence which can damage the delicate structure of the milk.
From Milk to Tarentaise
Our Tarentaise cheese is a raw milk, washed rind, semi-hard, cooked curd cheese.
That is a mouthful. But the key things to know about our production process are that we do not pasteurize the milk before turning it into cheese. We take care to make sure that it is free of harmful bacteria and encourage the presence of cheese cultures beneficial to the flavor and maturation of the cheese over many months.
The cutting and cooking of our curd are critical to the final product. These steps in the cheese making process require the utmost judgment and skill in order to give the cheese the right start on its journey to maturation. A mistake here can lead to any number of problems with the end product.
After the curd has been cut and cooked to remove moisture, it is separated from the whey and we begin to form the round wheels of cheese. Forming the wheels will take many hours and several turnings. In fact, by the time Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise is ready for sale, it has been turned and washed at least 50 times. Within 24 hours the new cheese wheels will be in our aging room at a steady temperature of 50 degrees F for 5 months or more.
The Aging
The aging process will take from 5 months to a year, depending on when we select a cheese for sale. No preservatives, synthetic flavors, additives or waxes are used at any time.
The cheese wheels are turned twice a week and washed with a solution called morge, which contains beneficial culture for the ripening of the cheese. Great care is taken to encourage the growth and development of these cultures in the aging room. They aid in the proper maturation of the cheese, can out compete harmful bacteria while adding a complexity of flavor and impart a warm caramel color to the natural rind.
It is for these reasons that the aging room is carefully monitored at all times. Great care is taken to restrict access to this room and make sure that those who do enter have ‘cheese clean’ clothing on.
So from the day it is made and on through the five months or more of aging, the cheese makers at Spring Brook Farm have cared for each wheel of Tarentaise cheese with individual attention. It is truly an artisanal product in every sense of the word.
