There’s a new dairy in town and they’re making cheese!
Lisa Cross, Jesse Pomeroy and David Johnson have joined forces to bring an old, tired farm in the Green Mountains of Southern Vermont back to life. With the hard work of Mario Lanzilotta, the head cheese maker and Eric Cross, carpenter extraordinaire, they have created a “silk purse from a sow’s ear.”
The Team:
The Beginning:
When the partners began work, the farm had been unused for so long that trees were growing in the building which now houses their make room! Their first job was to rebuild it and prepare it for cheese making.
Now, less than 2 years later, they have a beautiful building, inside and out.
The Farm Store (Open 10am-7pm)
This room will be an actual store in the near future, with Vermont maple ice cream being served. (The goal is to have an opening on Memorial Day in 2018.) Until then, you can come there and buy their meat, eggs, raw milk and cheese. There is even a viewing window, so you can watch the cheese being made.
A Destination Spot:
Hay rides, sleigh rides and petting the baby goats! There is a lot going on at the farm, so you might want to take a trip to see how it all works. There are all kinds of livestock to see, hay rides in the summer and sleigh rides in the winter. The owners want to educate folks about where their food comes from.
The Milk Room
In many states, when you sell raw milk, the milk vat must be separated from the cheese vat.
The Make Room
Lysa and Mario Lanzilotta make the cheese.
Mario first became interested in making cheese when he took a trip to the Italian Alps while in college. He slept in chalets there and he tasted the wonderful Alpine cheese and butter they made.