Almost all of us dream at some point of living in the country and growing our own food. Few of us achieve that goal but Hilary Elmer made her dream come true. Now, she has a cabin in the woods with a large garden, a few cows and hogs and chickens and a good, healthy life for her family.
Of course, she also makes cheese. She told us, “When I moved to Vermont for my first job out of college, I became friends with an old dairy farmer and was able to buy raw milk from him. I found the New England Cheese Making Supply Company and a passion was born.”
Hilary’s Story
I’m from Ohio. Growing up, I always wanted to live in a place that had longer winters, got more snow and was colder. Be careful what you wish for! I definitely got it.
We love it here though, it’s very wild. Our closest neighbors are moose.
How I got here:
Growing up, I always used to feel like a weirdo. I never fit in. I wanted to live in a cabin in the woods and grow or hunt my food.
My dad taught me his love of the outdoors and American history. He took me hunting from a young age and taught me how to responsibly harvest and prepare animals for food.
I shot my first deer when I was 10 years old.
I’m so grateful that during this past year when industrial meat was shut down due to Covid, and families that raised their own meat were on waiting lists for months, waiting for custom butchers to process their animals, I have been able to take care of my own, whenever I want.
My family moved to Utah the summer before my senior year of high school.
I graduated a semester early and, that January, got a job with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources at a lake up in the mountains.
For the next four years, I went back and forth between seasonal jobs with the UDWR at lakes and an elk refuge, the National Park Service as a ranger, the US Fish and Wildlife Service as an environmental education intern, as a reenactor at a living history farm and getting a degree in fisheries and wildlife at Utah State University.
I made plans to start a small farm while I was in college and I wanted dairy animals to be part of it. I started dabbling with cheese making during college.
I love the mountains out west, but I missed the green back east. My dad’s family had a summer home in New Hampshire when he was a kid, so I grew up hearing stories about how beautiful northern New England is. Upon graduation, I applied for several jobs across New England.
I had known my husband since our first year of college in Utah, and we got engaged literally days before I was supposed to move to Vermont! Thankfully, he followed me and the rest is history.
My husband Kevin is the best. He currently supports our lifestyle by working full time for the Vermont Army National Guard. He deployed to Afghanistan back in 2010, which was the hardest year of my life.
I can’t wait till he retires in a couple of years and we will be full time farmers, plus his woodworking business. He’s the one who encouraged me to get my endangered breed of cows when my goats weren’t working out. I have the passion to be a farmer, but he’s the muscle on the farm.
Now:
We live on 43 acres of maple trees, black bears, and old stone walls. When we bought the land thirteen years ago, I was pregnant with Ephraim, our second child. I remember clearing the land for our house with a very big tummy!
We’re about 15 miles from Quebec. Funny story … Once when my daughter was about four or five, she went exploring in the goat pasture behind the house. I was watching her from the window. When she came back in the house, she said, “Mom! I went to Canada today!!”
We built a log cabin. Because we had a toddler and another on the way, we were in a hurry to get the house built so we hired a crew to build the shell.
When we moved in, two weeks before our son, Ephraim was born, there was only a subfloor, a single sink running cold water, and the windows were not quite all in place. It was rough!! It gave me an all new appreciation for the pioneers who settled the country.
When we bought land and built a house, I couldn’t wait to get goats!
When my kids were younger, I had a thriving goat milk soap business.
During my goat years, I dabbled with hard cheeses with spotty success. I stuck mostly to quick and easy cheeses like chevre back then.
I love goats, but they jumped the fence one too many times, and my husband convinced me to give cows a try. I also wanted dairy animals that could be grass fed, no grain. We realized that what we needed was a heritage breed of cows.
Our herd:
When we were researching heritage cows, we found a critically endangered breed in Canada – Lynch Linebacks. There were less than fifty breeding females at the time. There is a Facebook page about them and soon there will be a website – https://lynchlineback.ca/.
They are a great pre-industrial breed that thrives in a low input system. We were able to import a small starter herd of them – the first in the states.
I got my herd as young heifers and a bull. They will freshen their first time in late spring, 2021.
I tried a couple of other breeds before we got them – a Dexter and a Milking Devon. I like my Linebacks best. They are calm and sweet.
I was scared to keep a bull, which we had to do because we need to breed true to help conserve the breed. But so far, at a year and a half old, he’s a puppy dog. I’m hoping to have heifers, bulls, and semen straws to sell in a few years to establish the breed here in the states.
I take pride in moving my cows to fresh pasture each day, building the soil and keeping my herd naturally healthy. Regenerative farming is good for the environment, the consumer, and the animal.
My relationship with my Lineback cows is beautiful and symbiotic. Honestly, they don’t really need me. I believe that if they roamed freely, they would do just fine.
But, with my stewardship and management, their grazing causes the pasture to improve each year. I am using them to turn young woodlands into silvapasture, which is the most productive biome not only for livestock, but also for wildlife.
Bears, deer, rabbits, foxes will all benefit from my cows’ presence. Each year of grazing increases the organic matter in the soil and the depth of topsoil. Water penetration and retention improves.
Every acre of rich topsoil pulls tons of carbon out of the atmosphere. All of this while providing nutrient-dense food for my family and community. And the cows are happy to do it!
Because we want to help preserve the breed, we decided that we will keep a larger herd than we need for our family’s use. Therefore, we are going to open a micro dairy within a few years.
Our dairy:
We’ve already got the building mostly built, and a milking machine and a 33 gallon bulk tank. I plan to sell raw milk, and eventually scamorza cheese, butter, and yogurt.
The outer walls of the dairy aren’t finished, either, as you can see.
We are going to build the outer walls with cordwood masonry, which is essentially using wood as bricks with mortar between. The cheese room is still very far from finished. Currently, it houses my husband’s woodworking tools.
Our cheese:
Now that I have cows, and I have more time to devote, I have had lots of fun perfecting hard aged cheeses. I have developed my own Alpine style cheese.
I have made some cheddar, some washed curd cheeses, brie, and even Hispanico in an esparto grass mold I got from a Spanish Etsy seller.
I try to make the ones I like over and over again to work out all the bugs.
Scamorza is the one I plan to sell when I go commercial.
Scamorza has a mild, Provolone type flavor. It melts like a dream.
We smoke it in an electric smoker that we normally smoke pork in. Sometimes, I melt a slice and just eat it gooey and dripping.
We tend to eat scamorza a week or two after make. Hanging in my kitchen which is warmer and drier than a cave, it dries out if aged over a month.
For such a young cheese, it has a developed flavor and texture, probably because of the stretching process.
Reasons to sell scamorza are that it doesn’t require a state inspected cave or long term aging. The downside is that because it’s aged less than sixty days I will have to make it with pasteurized milk. But honestly, the curds get hot enough during stretch that they are pretty close to pasteurized anyway.
I really enjoy making and shaping scamorza, but boy there is a learning curve! I’ve probably made a dozen batches, with four per batch, and I’m still learning!
My son Ephraim (13) likes to help me on the farm. Most of the cheese that I make is for him. He prefers scamorza because it has a less complex flavor than my aged cheeses which develop mold on their rinds.
When I open the dairy, he is going to work for me – caring for the cows and processing milk into cultured products.
Ephraim is in the seventh grade at Lowell Graded School, a great little school with about 100 kids from pre-K through eighth grade.
What everyone loves about him is that he is a sweet kid who always asks people how they are doing and tells them to have a great day. He makes everyone feel good about themselves.
Ephraim: My mom makes cheese, and I really got interested in it from watching her make it. I like to eat cheese. I like eating fresh curds. People who don’t make cheese don’t get to eat curds fresh. My most favorite kind of cheese is smoked scamorza because it’s a small cheese. Bigger cheeses don’t taste as good toward the middle. I like it’s texture. It’s fun to make because you stretch it.
Our milk:
My Lynch Linebacks are not quite milking yet. Currently I am buying unhomogenized milk from a small local dairy to practice making cheese every week.
It’s pasteurized, which allows me to play with “clean slate” milk, but I will use raw milk once my girls are producing.
Our cave:
I have several LEM meat totes and lids with holes drilled for ventilation. They are in my basement, which hovers in the high 40’s during the dead of winter, to about 60F in mid summer.
The cheeses age differently depending on the season. They tend to grow more diverse molds when it’s warmer, but they always taste good.
My husband really wants to build me a cheese cave in the side of a hill someday. If we ever get to that point, you can bet I will make some pretty awesome Alpine cheeses in it!
Other interests:
I used to think that I would have to do lots of canning and freezing of food to preserve the harvest, but between my root cellar and fermenting in Fido style jars (with clamped lids), the only thing I can is ketchup and maple syrup.
(If you are wondering, no, we don’t make our maple syrup. I have several times, but until my husband retires in a few years from the army, and can help with doing a larger amount, I’m happy to buy it wholesale from a neighbor.)
Fermenting is easier than canning because there’s no boiling water bath involved. Just shred the veggies, pack them in the jar with salt, close the lid and you are done.
Fido type jars do the best job of preserving ferments that I have found. Their solid, air tight seal doesn’t allow oxygen in, so they last through the next spring.
I even ferment tomatoes into tomato paste, which is lots easier than making tomato sauce.*
We raise pigs and a few chickens for eggs. Last year I raised Mangalitsa-cross pigs for the first time and I loved them. Mangalitsas are also called sheep pigs because they have a uniquely curly coat – they look like sheep with a snout.
Not only do they have more fat – and it’s the most DELICIOUS fat you have ever tasted – but because they are slower growing, they don’t require the same high octane diet that faster growing breeds require.
I’ve always grown my pigs in the woods, moving them every few days, requiring them to forage for a large amount of their food. Other breeds acted like they were starving (even though they weren’t), but the Mangalitsa crosses are perfectly happy foraging.
Last fall I bought a full Mangalitsa boar, and two Idaho Pasture Pig gilts (young sows). IPP’s are another breed known for being good foragers. We are going to start breeding our own pigs and selling Manga/IPP crosses.
My art:
The job that first brought me to Vermont in 2002 was working for the Vermont Institute of Natural Science as an artist, upgrading educational materials. I even illustrated a book for them, called Small Wonders.
During the quiet of winter, I still do art.
I plan to sell paintings of my farm someday, when we have a farmstead store.
For NECS:
Over the years of my cheese making adventures, I’ve had a lot of questions. Jim Wallace (your technical advisor)* has taken the time to answer every one. I like to research cheeses from around the world, and compare recipes by different makers. I frequently visit your website (cheesemaking.com) to read Jim’s detailed recipes and instructions. It’s proven to be a valuable resource. (Note: Jim is always there to answer your questions at jim@cheesemaking.com).
*To make fermented tomato paste:
Chop tomatoes in halves or quarters and toss them in a bucket.
For every two pounds of tomatoes, add one tablespoon of non-iodized salt.
Stir the salt in, then cover with a 5 gallon bucket paint strainer such as you can buy in the paint section of a hardware store. This will keep bugs off.
Every day for at least a week, stir the tomatoes. You will notice something that looks like white mold on top. It’s not mold, it’s kahm yeast and is harmless.
Once the tomatoes have bubbled and the bubbles subside, and it’s more of a slurry than chunky, it’s time to strain them.
Run them through a blender, then a food mill, to remove seeds and peels. Even if you don’t mind seeds and peels, you still need to do that. The one time I didn’t, that whole batch bothered our tummies.
Finally you can drain it, just like draining a soft cheese.
Put the strainer in the bucket and have a helper hold it in place while you pour the tomato slurry in.
Rig it up so that it is suspended above the bucket and let it drain for at least 24 hours.
Once it has finished draining and has a nice pasty consistency, spoon it into 8 oz jars.
Make the surface as smooth as possible and leave at least a half inch of head space. Top with olive oil to keep air from contacting it.
Store in a cool place like the basement. It will keep at least a year.
Be sure to add water when you use it because it’s thicker than sauce. It’s also a bit tangier than unfermented sauce, but it’s good. You can add garlic and herbs during the ferment if you like.
Amanda says
What a wonderful life!
We are on the other side of the world in Australia but could relate to your story. I too had goats for a while but bought a Jersey cow 6 months ago. I had the intention of cow sharing but was naive of cow and people behaviour . The cow does not like strangers and people do not want to get up early to milk cows.
It is illegal to sell unpasteurised milk in Australia so i started making cheese. It is so rewarding when you get a good one. I will try your Scamorza, thank you for sharing your story, i loved your art and the pictures.I find it fascinating what you are able to grow in such a harsh climate.
Amanda from Australia
Franta says
Hi Hilary.
I read Váč’s article far in Europe and specifically in the Czech Republic. I was interested in your description of the production of Alpine cheese. But could you describe to me more precisely what culture you use for its production. Your name in America is unknown to me. I would be very happy for your answer. Frantisek Machac
The culture that I use is a blend from Choozit, the French company. It’s labeled Kazu1.1000 I LYO 50 DCU. It contains L. Lactis lactis, l. Cremoris, l. Diacetylactis, and l. Helveticus. It’s nicknamed the Farmhouse Blend because it combines both meso and thermo cultures, similar to raw milk.
I would love to have your recipe for scamorza cheese, we raise Dutch Belted cows. Loved reading your story!
Sure! I use kazu meso/thermo culture, and calcium chloride because the milk is pasteurized. I add them while the milk is heating per packet rates. Heat milk to 95F. Incubate one hour. Add rennet at recommended strength, flocculate 45 minutes. Cut half inch curds. Rest ten minutes. Begin stirring while heating slowly to 104F over 45 minutes. Cover and let settle and acidify for 1.5 hours, maintain temp. After time, remove whey to level of curds. Gather curds into a form/colander. Put back in vat, with remaining whey, still maintain heat if possible, allowing to go as high as 110F. Acidify another 30 minutes. Begin checking for pH, either through pH strips, pH meter, or by melt test. If it isn’t there yet, check every fifteen minutes. Once pH reaches 5.3, remove curd and heat remaining whey in pot to 175F. Slice curd into desired size chunks. I slice one pound, one inch thick rounds, but some people prefer to cut smaller pieces. Put as many curds in hot whey as you want to work at once. Use a wooden spoon to stir and test for melted curd. When it melts, gather curds on spoon and begin shaping. I will refer you to google for shaping instructions. I think Jim Wallace also describes it somewhere, maybe under caciocavallo? Scamorza is basically a small caciocavallo. Brine according to size, I do overnight for two pound scamorzas. Good luck!
Thank you!
Hilary, your story and broad skillset is so impressive and inspiring that’s it’s hard to know where to start. Kudos!!!!!! Not to diminish your other great talents and knowledge, but as someone who originally planned to be in the art and design field, your beautiful artwork really stands out and speaks to me.
You had the guts and determination to follow your dream and use your talents to make a great life for yourself, doing what you love to do with a supportive partner. Thank you for making this planet a better place by raising kind children and through your uber-important regenerative agricultural practices!
I love alpine cheese and would love to try yours, along with the Scamorza. I hope that Jeri does a follow-up interview (hint-hint Jeri) with you when you have the dairy room set up and running, selling cheese and milk.
Question: for your wood slat harvest shelving — did Kevin build those units, or did you buy them pre-made? I’ve seen something similar on Gardeners Supply’s website, but I’m not sure about the quality, so I’ve been on the lookout elsewhere. If your husband built them, did he find a template/pattern somewhere online, and if so, would he mind sharing? And for Kevin: thank you for the years of selfless and great service to our country, both here and overseas!!!
Hi Susan, you nailed it! Those shelves are from Gardener’s Supply right here in VT. They are pretty good quality. There have been a few times that I have had something heavy enough on them that it tested their strength, but for most applications they are great. I load them up with a solid layer or two of onions, tomatoes, delicata squash, or other veggies, and they do fine.
Hilary, I’m so glad you have built your dream. We were bitten by the same bug in our twenties, but it took us thirty years to achieve.
Let me know about your cattle. I have kept Milking Devons and Dexter/Devons along with Alpine/ Nubian goats, and might be ready to simplify. Speaking of which, I can’t wait to try your fermented tomatoes: there’s a time saver!
Cheers to your wonderful life!
Hi Elizabeth, where are you? I’m going to start a list of people who are interested in my endangered cows. Of course priority will always go to those willing to breed true. Do you want to be the first on my list?
Hi Hilary,
We live in Jaffrey, NH, near the southern border of the state. You are a long way away (on the New England scale) but worth the travel for a cow. If you are going to set up a tank and ship semen, as well as providing a connection to other breeders, then breeding true is possible.
How many cows do you intend to keep for your micro-dairy? This is another way of asking how many years before you begin to sell your stock.
In any event, I am glad to broaden my acquaintance of people who eat well.
Elizabeth
My ipp gilts came from southern NH! Yes, it’s worth traveling a few hours for good breeding stock. My hope is that my bull will qualify for international semen export, which means that he has to be free of basically every cow disease known to man, even obscure, harmless ones, so that he can be shipped to canada. That’s what the other breeders are hoping for also, because it’s harder up there to get a bull drawn for off farm use. That makes it hard for them to share bulls. They are giving me their best bulls because they are hoping to have them made available to everyone. Even if he doesn’t qualify for that, I am going to have him drawn for domestic use. I will not have a nitro tank on the farm but the semen company will keep them and can ship them to you or your technician. We will also have future bulls drawn, so you have more to choose from than a single bull.
Yes, it will be a couple of years till I have calves for sale. I currently have two heifers that are pregnant. I don’t know yet if I will have bulls and/or heifers born this year. If I have two heifers, I might be willing to sell a heifer calf next year, but if I am only blessed with one heifer, than I will want to keep one heifer if I get at least one the next year.
You probably aren’t interested, but for what it’s worth, we are going to canada later in the summer to get a new bull calf. If you want us to pick up a heifer or two for you, we might be able to arrange that. Just a thought, no pressure.
Hi Hilary,
We live in Jaffrey, NH, in the southern tier. On the New England scale, it is a long way away.
I am not looking to replace my Milking Devon, nor will you begin selling stock until you have established the herd for your micro-dairy, so we are about on par. Let me know when you are ready, and I will let you know if I am too old for a new cow.
In the meantime, keep up the fun.
Dear Hilary,
You are a truly remarkable Renaissance Women, may we all live our dreams and someday, metaphorically speaking, may we all walk to Canada. Thank you for sharing your story, it brings joy and tears (happy ones) to my heart. Your creativity, determination, knowledge, art, love and family life shine though everything you do. I am very moved to know you are part of our cheese making family. A hug to your kids from me too.
Stay Safe and Stay Creative,
In Peace, Ricki
Ricki, thank you for inspiring a generation of cheese makers. Yours was the first cheese making book I ever owned. You pioneered a movement!
What a wonderful article! Good for you and your family!!
Hilary:
Great article.
I understand the love of Winter. I live in MN where we don’t get as much snow, but it does get colder.
I have been making cheese with a friend usually on a monthly basis for about 3 years now. We have a good process down and have been making some fabulous cheeses as I can source good raw milk from either a farmer with Holstein or Ayshires. I particulary enjoy the Ayshires as part of their feed is silage which give a great flavor and a higher butterfat content.
Last year I built a wine cellar and allocated space for aging cheese as the area is the correct temperature and roughly the correct humidity. It allows me to affinage the cheese better and make some great Reblochon and Muenster as the aging works best at 55 degrees.
What is your variation on the Gruyere as I do like Gruyere and the Alpine cheeses? My additions have been to add Su Casa and Kazu as adjunct to give a better flavor.
To make my alpine cheese, I use kazu meso/thermo starter and P. shermanii. I’ll just give you a quick description of what I do, it’s nothing special. Add starters and ripen at 90F for an hour. Add rennet, flocculate 30 minutes. Cut half inch curds, rest ten minutes. Whisk curds into small pieces. Heat slowly while stirring for an hour, to 118 F. Settle for ten minutes, whey off to level of curds. Press under whey. Put in mold and press over night with moderate pressure. Next day brine. Age three months.
I love that you have such a nice space for affinage. Hopefully someday I will have a cheese cave that stays a consistent temperature. I’m sure that my results would be more consistent. However, I kind of like using my basement with its natural temperature fluctuations, it feels more “organic,” for lack of a better word, or more home made. I like that cheese can turn out in dynamic conditions.
If you ever try my alpine recipe, let me know how it turns out. The funny thing about cheese recipes is that it seems like they need to be so precise, and yet you can find different recipes for the same cheese that have wild variations. Do you have an alpine recipe that you like?
Hi Hilary.
I read Váč’s article far in Europe and specifically in the Czech Republic. I was interested in your description of the production of Alpine cheese. But could you describe to me more precisely what culture you use for its production. Your name in America is unknown to me. I would be very happy for your answer. Frantisek Machac
Great Journey
Inspiring Ambition
Memorable Achievements
May Your Spirits Go With You
HI, Hilary!
I’ve known Hilary for years, here in Vermont! (Before she had children, I don’t know how many years ago.) She is amazing, full of knowledge, and has a joy of doing so many awesome projects! I am so glad she gets to live her dreams. She is a hard worker and has a vision of where she wants to be in the future. Years ago, I went on a hike with her to some waterfalls in Jeffersonville, it was a lovely day, I could tell how much she loved the beauty around us. I am now happy she has made her home and dairy in VT.
I hope there could be a chance that this article by Jeri Case could be made into a book. It is fabulous. I definitely would buy several copies
Hi Susan! I remember that hike, it was beautiful. 🥰
Hilary, you are amazing! and my new heroine…I love what you are doing and how you are doing it. Thank you for the great photos, too. I will have to look into those lineback cows and the manga pigs! I have Irish Dexters and Scottish Highlanders that I raise for beef. My Kunekune pigs are for lard and they are grazers, too. It’s a good life to be self-sustaining and I’m so grateful to hear young people on that path. I got into it a bit late, but because of my healthy lifestyle, I can do all my chores by myself at 77 yrs of age. I have milk goats and am presently making garlic/rosemary infused chevre layered in olive oil, peppercorn, and fresh rosemary leaves. It’s a yummy spread…no recipe needed…just add until you like how it tastes. I use flora danica for inoculant.
Thank you thank you and I’d love to hear how your cheese business turns out! All the best to you and your family.
Meibao
Idaho pasture pigs were created by crossing several breeds, including kunekune. The kunes are responsible for their upturned nose and grazing ability.
You are *my* hero! I hope and plan to still be farming in my 70’s!!
Hilary, your story is both intriguing and inspiring! Your success as a woman of independence is a model for women and men of all walks! I have driving to raise my daughters, now 29 and 32. The younger one is in L&D nursing, in Vancouver, WA, while the older child is GM at a hotel in Lake Placid, NY. They both love hiking and backpacking in the wildernesses around them.
Your farmstead is beautiful. It is fabulous that Ephraim is growing into a partner on the farm, with cheese making one of his interests. Your Heritage cows are going to be producing milk soon, and your Between the Trees Dairy will be born!
Your grass cheese mold that you got from Etsy is fabulous! The cheeses are beautiful coming out of it. So nice that you have developed your own Alpine style cheese!
Your art is just fabulous! The wildlife scenes are lifelike, and the self portrait is very nice! I applaud your service as a wildlife Ranger, as well as your efforts to manage heritage livestock.
Our log home here in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains is similar to your cabin. You are a bit more remote and self supported than our home. And you did get your wish fir longer, colder winters.
I hope your family thrives there in the woods. Be well, and onward with your cheeses! May your micro dairy soon come up to production. Well done, Hilary!
Thanks Charles, I love that you live in a cabin, also. There’s something special about a wooden house.
Your daughter in Lake Placid isn’t far from me. The adirondacks are beautiful. Take care!