Search results for "Vermont"


Landaff

Landaff

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Crafted in New Hampshire by Landaff Creamery, Doug Erb somewhat modeled this Welsh-styled cheese on "Caerphilly". This inspired lactic delight no doubt benefits from partnering with the folks at The Cellars at Jasper Hill, in Vermont, where it's cave-aged and develops a natural rind and full flavor. Made with raw milk and aged for 4-6 months, it grows into a flavorful visit to the caves themselves. Creamy, yet firm and mild with subtle hints to grass and earth, it definitely lives up to the Jasper Hills motto "A Taste of Place".

Origin: USA, New Hampshire

Tags: Landaff creamery, Jasper Hill, Raw, Cow

Price: sold

Alpha Tolman

Alpha Tolman

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Named after a local philanthropic dairy farmer who built the Greensboro library in 1900, and the grandson of one of the towns original settlers, this cheese is another great memorial to Vermont's roots. You can't help but imagine you taste their since of history, like in most of what they produce at Jasper Hill Farm. When I look up this one, I noticed it often compared to Appenzeller and recalled that cheese portrait which deliciously glowed. I already knew the long, tall beauty of a wedge that was sent to me needed to be vertical, but the glow was an option I couldn't resist. If you could taste "glow" it would be like this cheese. As found at cheeseandchampagne.com ( @curdwise ) : "Alpha Tolman's label promises to deliver a rich, meaty, buttery flavor. I must have purchased a chunk from a younger wheel, however, because I got the sweet notes of sun-washed hay in springtime."

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Jasper Hill farms, cow, VT

Price: sold

Bayley Hazen Blue

Bayley Hazen Blue

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This Jasper Hill Farms beauty is an amazingly exciting yet somewhat mild blue cheese from Vermont. One of the best blues in America it's spicy, grassy, and occasionally has a hint of licorice. It is made from the morning milk of Ayrshire cows, a smallish breed from Scotland. side note found online: Bayley and Hazen were revolutionary war generals who were stationed along the Canadian Front in anticipation of a battle with the English that never manifested.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: jasper hill farms, blue, VT

Price: sold

Bayley Hazen Blue 2

Bayley Hazen Blue 2

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This was a commission that I completely enjoyed revisiting. The patron was looking for something that recalled the shape in the first Bayley Hazen Blue portrait but I wanted this painting to have it's own personality. The color and "pose" differs slightly to better show off the thickness of the slice of goodness. It clearly represents a week's indulgence into one of my favorite blue cheeses.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: jasper hill farms, blue, VT

Price: sold

Bear Hill

Bear Hill

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Bear Hill by Grafton Village Cheese of Vermont, is one of the three highest ranked American Cheeses in 2013, winning the impressive Best of Show 2nd place, 2013. This sheeps milk, washed rind alpine style cheese has a nice mild nutty sweetness. It's striaght-forward consistent texture, typical of sheeps milk cheese, required a subtle shift in color and value that seemed to range from the warm red reflection from the back ground to a pasty milky center with a translucent glow along the rind that reminded me of the similar subtleties of the flavors. They are not bold but perfectly present.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: sheep, ACS Best of Show 2013, ACSBOS

Price: sold

Ben Lomond

Ben Lomond

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This fun-shaped cheese is from Bonnie View Farm, in Northeast Vermont. I was intrigued by this half wheel of raw cow's milk curiosity because of it's great shape. I later learned the mold was non-traditional and unexpected and perhaps something I couldn't share publicly. Let's just say that the mold looks very similar to some plastic bowls found for $.88 at walmart.... Regardless, it's a mild and delicious experience and made by Neil Urie, who clearly embraces his Scottish heritage on the sheep dairy as a fourth generation farmer. Their website and cheese names are all very Scottish and worth checking out. "The name "Ben Lomond" is actually the name of a mountain in Scotland, accessible from Glasgow"

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Neil Urie, Bonnie View Farm, VT, sheep

Price: $600

Bonne Bouche

Bonne Bouche

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I am a big fan of Vermont Creamery, as I am of Vermont cheese in general. They put the "art" in artisanal, and their generosity hasn't affected my opinion, because everyone seems to like their cheese. It's true though, that for an open studio and book signing event I shared with Tenaya Darlington, aka Madame Fromage, they sent a box bursting with some of the best goat cheeses one can have. I couldnt help though, holding a few small wheels back, for my studio model stand. I started with this beautiful brainy (geotrichum-rinded) beauty. After a long painting session, this wheel was indulgent bliss. Better described by Madame Fromage: Carving Bonne Bouche is like cutting into an avocado - I don't want you to think it's thready like chicken, because it's not. It's like pressed wet snow, and then it melts on your tongue and coats your whole mouth, turning it into a chèvre igloo. I sound like I am dreaming this up, but I am sitting here, reader, typing and eating as I so often do. And I tell you, I am experiencing the kind of plushness no sofa can offer" - madamefromageblog.com

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Goat, Vermont Creamery

Price: sold

Bridgman Blue

Bridgman Blue

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: The folks at Jasper Hill Farm partnered up with goat specialists from Cypress Grove fame, Ryan Andrus. and Annie Rowden, to run their new goat farm; Bridgman Hill Farm. This collaboration resulted in this new mixed-milk blue cheese. Bridgman Blue is a raw milk blue, made of half goat milk and Jasper's cow milk with a lower moisture level adding to a crumbly mild delicious blue. The tall 5lb wheel has a rind that has birch bark appearance. It's a perfect blend of cow and goat making it full but mild and light, with potential to being a gateway blue, as I expect anyone would be challenged not to fall in love with it at first taste. I first painted a Jasper Hill cheese in 2011, and Winnimere was my 7th ever cheese portrait painting. Bridgman Blue is my 391st in the series.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Price: sold

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This crumbly terrain of cheese was a challenge to paint due to the fact that it has so much texture, one can get lost in it. It was difficult to see the whole while translating with specificity.Di Bruno Bros. label:"Perhaps the best (and certainly the rarest) cheddar in the USA, Best in show at the A.C.S. 2006. Cabot Clothbound has a sweet nutty flavor that brings to mind Reggiano and Gruyere flavors before the idea of cheddar even crosses your mind. A great representation of the way cheddar was made hundreds of years ago"

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: cow, Jasper Hill farms, vt

Price: sold

Calderwood

Calderwood

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This Jasper Hill Farms "Best of Show" 2nd place champion of 2018's American Cheese Society was second only to Jasper Hill Farm's Harbison. Fortunately for me, I get to paint the top cheeses each year for the ACS and there were over two thousand entries at the conference in Pittsburgh. This cheese has a story, and I figured I'd have to go long-form to do it any justice, read as your attention allows: Wheels of Jasper hill's raw cows' milk Alpine style cheese, Alpha Tolman, were washed with brine for 6 months, producing a sticky outer rind that then was coated with finely chopped fibers of hay before being vacuum-sealed and aged another 4 months. Afterwards the wheels are unwrapped to dry and and breath some in their cellars. The resulting flavor is surprisingly good. Alpine styled cheeses are generally mild and tend to be subtle. This one is that but has savory, meaty, and fruity undertones that are also wonderfully nutty. you can taste the freshness of rich dry hay, maybe through inhaling the rind and activating your tastebuds. Jasper Hill has been the first in America to apply some indoor European hay drying methods found in Italy. This quickly and safely dries hay for the cows, an advantage in the Northern Kingdom of Vermont, where sufficient days of sunshine are limited. By eliminating the moisture in just a few hours, the hay is more nutritious and free of risky microbes that endanger cows and milk supply. The innovation sparked this original project produced specially on request from Chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, through Saxelby Cheesemongers. Saxelby is the only seller of this champion cheese; however, Jasper Hill has told me they will be doubling the production of Calderwood this year. It will remain exclusive through Saxelbys, so be smart and order some when you can!

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Vermont, jasper hill , cow, ACS, Best of show, ACS2018, 2018 , ACSbos

Price: sold

Coupole

Coupole

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This dramatic surfaced goat cheese is named for it's likeness to a snow-covered dome shape made at Vermont Creamery by Allison Hooper. All of her cheeses and cultured butters are beyond pleasing, they're quite addictive. The Goetrichum rind has the wrinkly, brainy surface that is stunning as it is complicated. To say it's a challenge to paint this crazy mound is an obvious understatement. While focusing on it's brainy-beauty, I couldnt help thinking it's likely to be on the top of any zombie's cheese list, right?

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: goat, Allison Hooper, brainy

Price: sold

Cremont

Cremont

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Named for the "Cream of Vermont" this mixed milk combo of cows' milk and goats' milk is indeed an indulgent creamy treat. Reflecting the clean beauty of Vermont Creamery's terroir, this hand sized wheel is perfectly balanced of flavors ranging from nutty lactic goodness while flirting with a hint of tangy pulse that keeps it alive in your mouth. I really dont know if I can share it with anyone. If I do, it has to be someone special; I hope they appreciate my deliberation! ha.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: goat, cow

Price: sold

Crottin d'Ecole

Crottin d'Ecole

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: "Crottin d'Ecole" aka "school cheese", is a beautiful little cheese button made for a teaching demonstration by Peter Dixon, acclaimed artisan cheese maker, consultant, owner of Parish Hill Creamery and essentially one of the most respected cheesemaking schools in the country: Westminster Artisan Cheesemaking. While in the Philadelphia area teaching, I was fortunate to have Peter and Rachel, his beautiful cheesemaking wife, join a group of cheese friends at my house. This is one of the benefits of having such friends; cheese gifts! This specific specimen was made from raw cow's milk from the Putny School at Elm Lea farm, in Vermont. It was made for an "advanced bloomy and washed rind" workshop. It continued to age in my studio fridge for over a month before I remembered it was in there! I cut it open and discovered that when back-lit, this halved wheel glows like a soft boiled egg. I was instantly charged with the need to paint it.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Dixon, cow, bloomy, glow

Price: $700

Grafton Village Cheddar in Dome

Grafton Village Cheddar in Dome

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This red waxed wheel of raw milk cheddar from Grafton Village in Vermont was the perfect model for my cheese dome. I had bought this dome a while back with plans to paint it with the perfect wheel under it's clear cover. It was fun to paint the nearly invisible glass dome. The dark background was necessary to see the subtle glass reflections and delicate edges and that only made this sexy red wheel glow all the more. Like most paintings that have so many details, I had to paint this one a bit bigger. The actual wood base is slightly warped so I was fighting with my instincts to paint it accurately and paint it as a more perfect eclipse. I think I settled somewhere in the middle which is good; gives me an excuse if all these circles in perspective are not exactly perfect. Best of all, the cheese was preserved perfectly under the dome. There was no drying and it was incredible to eat after ten hours under my scrutiny.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Cheddar, Raw milk, cow, VT

Price: sold

Harbison

Harbison

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Harbison is a wonderful and addictive "gooey" cheese by Jasper Hill farms in Vermont. It's sides are wrapped in a strip of bark but the quilt-like rind was the real challenge here. "Harbison is a bark-wrapped bloomy-rind cheese with woodsy, sweet, herbal, and bright flavors. We named our newest cheese after Anne Harbison, seen by many to be the grandmother of Greensboro, VT. She's active in the community, runs a bed and breakfast, and volunteers at the public library, and has known the Kehler brothers since they were children. The bark, cut from Jasper Hill Farm's woodlands holds the delicate cheese together, provides flavor to the creamy paste, and allows for an ideal presentation as the centerpiece of a cheese plate."

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: cow, Jasper Hill farms, Anne Harbison,Greensboro

Price: sold

Harbison Halves

Harbison Halves

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Jasper Hill Farm made this winner of the "Bestof Show, 3rd" at the American Cheese Society's annual conference in 2015 I was commissioned to paint this by the American Cheese Society for their collection of Best in Show cheeses. The first time I painted it (for myself), I felt it needed a green background since it's named after the "grandmother of Vermont" and also I just cant think of Vermont w/o thinking the color green. I like to place Best of show winners in backgrounds that match the color of their awarded ribbon. When I first unwrapped this wheel I loved that it had a bloomy rind that was snowflake white. I focused on that cool refreshing milky experience I would enjoy once i was finished. I basically cut the bark-wrapped wheel in half and did not even get to taste it until I was finished. That there was what we call motivation. Honestly, I could probably paint this cheese a hundred times without tiring of it.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: ACS, Best of show, ACS2015, 2015 , cow, jasper hill, ACSBOS

Price: sold

Harbison Wedge

Harbison Wedge

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This is the "Best of Show" 3rd place cheese at the 2017 American Cheese Society's annual conference made by Jasper Hill Farm. This is also the third time I've painted Harbison, the cheese that is named as a tribute to Anne Harbison, affectionately known as the "Grandmother of Greensboro". The delicious winner is one of the more popular cheeses I have painted and this one is ranked 3rd in the county; beating out over 2000 other submission. It's not surprising Harbison won again; it's damn near perfect with the mellow cows milk center oozing after having been aged for 6 - 13 weeks with a strip of birch around the rind. If you can get a chance to taste this cheese, dont pass it up!

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Cow, Birch , ACSBOS , best of show, Acs

Price: sold

Harbison Wheel

Harbison Wheel

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I'm honored to paint this incredible cheese a 4th time! The first was long ago at the start of my cheese work and since then, it's been my usual commission to paint the "Best Of Show" winners at the American Cheese Society's annual conference. Jasper Hill has won multiple times and this is the THIRD time with Harbison. However, it's no surprise it was the first place best of show in 2018 because this cheese is SO DAMN GOOD! I love that this Vermont gem has become a giant in American Cheese, at least that's my opinion of it. The folks at Jasper Hill Farm sent me two wonderful ripe and incredibly gooey, wheels of heaven. I am SO lucky to get these perfect wheels of one of the most popular cheeses in the USA.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Vermont, jasper hill , cow, gooey, ACS, Best of show, ACS2018, 2018 , cow, jasper hill, ACSbos

Price: sold

Idyll

Idyll

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I had the pleasure of meeting the maker of this fine cheese. Peter Dixon, among one of the most respected in cheesemaking in the US, visited my studio! I understood immediately how he's so popular. He and his wife, Rachel, are instantly likable, humble and fun. They brought lots of incredible cheese and this one with a line of scattered eyes (holes) through the center creating a beautiful profile. It's made of part-skim milk, long aged Gruyere-style with mouthwatering, sharp flavor.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Peter Dixon, cow

Price: sold

Jack's Blue

Jack's Blue

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Named after Jack, the late beloved Aussie Shepherd. He was of a breed of herding dog known for its playfulness, and so this appropriately named blue is a bright, and pleasant homage fromage. Parish Hill Creamery makes this beautiful raw milk blue in smaller 5 pound wheels made with curds from the first day of the West West Blue make. Jack’s is somewhat milder, but also has the edible rind and dense paste with streaks of blue mold, creamy texture and a mildly spicy, earthy flavor.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: jack, raw, cow

Price: $600

Karst

Karst

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This cow's milk cheese is cave-aged in Vermont for 7 or more months at the Cellars of Jasper Hill. It's especially delicious because it's made from the cultures of both cheddar and gruyere, producing the most addictive sweet and nutty flavor while being absolutely the perfect firm yet fudge like bite to sink your teeth into. It was a wonderful gift to get such a large block of this cheese and I was looking forward to presenting the natural rind as much as the cheddar-like texture. While deciding on how to stage it, I may have over complicated the composition, but I think it better presents the riches of cheese I have. It may have taken a bit longer but I sustained myself with bites of this subject the entire time I worked on it.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: cow, cave, cheddar, gruyere

Price: sold

Reading Raclette

Reading Raclette

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This tasty cheese is made at Spring Brook Farm in Vermont.Here's what I found on the maker's website: "Reading is a semi-soft Raclette style cheese ideally suited for melting over vegetables, bread or meats, yet it can stand alone on any cheese plate. It offers a creamy, nutty flavor that is again unique to this cheese coming from cows grazing in Vermont pastures."

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Spring Brook Farm,Farms For City Kids Foundation, cow

Price: sold

Shepsog

Shepsog

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: The wonderful folks at Grafton Village Cheese, in Vermont sent me a care package of their incredible cheeses! The award winning. cave-aged "Shepsog" is a mixed sheep and cow's milk beauty. I decided to reface it some so I trimmed a bit off to freshen up the surface. Well, let me tell you, not a crumb went to waste! This cheese is an incredible savory sweet and grassy - earthy delight! Somehow I always forget what a treat sheep/cow milk cheeses are and great cheeses like this remind me! I couldn't decide if there was a vantage point I liked better, so I decided that to best showcase the rind and the paste alike I'd use a new mini spotlight I got for the studio. It added a slightly different cold toned drama to the staging . The LED bulb also caused some glowing colored edge along the edge of the spotlight while my normal floodlight illuminated the rest. I really enjoyed painting this delicious mode. According to the Grafton site: "Shepsog means 'sheep' in the indigenous Native American Algonquin language.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Grafton , Sheep, Cow

Price: sold

St. Albans

St. Albans

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Vermont Creamery has created an American answer to the hard-to-get, or more like impossible-to-get, St. Marcellin, a French classic. Similarly, this delicious and delicate soft wheel comes in its own ceramic crock and is named after the town of St. Albans where the high-quality cows' milk comes from. This is Vermont Creamery's first 100% cows milk cheese yet it's no surprise this is as creamy and indulgently spreadable as any of their incredible goat cheeses they're famous for. I knew from the first time I had a taste of this, at a preview exhibit earlier in the year, that I would need to paint it. How incredibly lucky am I not only to receive a gift of these but to paint a new American cheese the very month it is first released to the public! Also, it goes without saying, cheese lovers will more often validate their impulse grab of this more often when one factord in getting another handy crock for your kitchen collection! I love them almost as much as the cheese. This painting, of a rather small intimate subject, became one of my larger cheese portraits because it seemed undeniable that a spoon had to enter the narrative when a good cheese friend interpreted her impression of this new classic.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Price: $1200

Suffolk Punch

Suffolk Punch

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This gourd-like whole milk Caciocavallo-style cheese is a classic pasta filata, according to the folks at Parish Hill Creamery in Westminster, Vermont. Rachel, married to famous cheese maker, Peter Dixon, personally handed me this baby. She explained that each person that takes their turn creating the hand-stretched form tends to make their own specific shape, their own version of what looks to me to be a cute "cheese baby". This one I'm told is one of Peter's. The traditional shape refers to the way two cheeses are tied at the ends of a long rope and then hung over a rod to age, like saddlebags thrown over the back of a horse. These age for at least 3 months and the flavor (from buttery, tangy to peppery) varies per age. I initially wanted to paint this on a small surface, but decided to go much larger to better capture the quality of the twine that wraps around it's neck. The rope-like string from which it hangs as it ages, was alluring, to say the least. I was drawn to the rogue fibers that contrasted nicely against the chalky smooth gnome-like form.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: cow, dixon, rachel, parish hill creamery, VT

Price: sold

Tarentaise Reserve

Tarentaise Reserve

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This is the top ranked cheese in America, for 2014! It earned "Best of Show, 1st place" at the American Cheese Society's 2014 conference and competition with 1,685 entrances after winning 1st place it its category. The champ is from Reading, Vermont's Spring Brook Farm and it's made at their nonprofit educational program : "Farms for City Kids" where the profits from their two cheeses (other is also painted here - look for Reading Raclette) support their foundation that brings kids to the farms for week long stays allowing them to experience and help at the farm. This French Alpine-styled cheese is incredibly delicious and there's no doubt why it's the number one cheese. I was struck by the pineapple and butterscotch notes that made for complete heaven in my mouth.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: cow, alpine style, aged, VT, best of show, ACS, 2014, ACSBOS

Price: sold

Tarentaise Reserve 2

Tarentaise Reserve 2

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This is the 2017 Best of Show winner 1st place champion from the American Cheese Society annual conference and competition in 2017. This is the highest ranked cheese in North America above more than two thousand entries! I am annually commissioned to paint the Best of Show winners and the remarkable thing is I have already (in 2014) painted this very cheese as the very best with the 1st place ribbon color background. It says something when a cheese is made so consistently well that it wins as the best in the country, twice in 3 years. Well the flavor sure seems to agree with it and I'm so glad to have a third of a wheel in my fridge! additional info: This cheese is from Reading, Vermont's Spring Brook Farm and it's made at their nonprofit educational program : "Farms for City Kids" where the profits from their two cheeses (other is also painted here - look for Reading Raclette) support their foundation that brings kids to the farms for week long stays allowing them to experience and help at the farm.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: cow, American cheese society, acs best of show, ACSBOS

Price: sold

Two Winnimeres

Two Winnimeres

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This double portrait of Winnimere, by Jasper Hill Farm, was a challenge as the cheese is powerful. It's difficult to be so close and not eat it right away. The gooey sweet, tangy, salty center is to me as close to gelato as cheese gets. It's addictive characteristics make it dangerous.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: VT, Jasper Hill Farm

Price: sold

West West Blue

West West Blue

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This comes from Parish Hill Creamery, where respected (legendary?) cheese maker, Peter Dixon works with his wife and family to make some amazing cheese. I was told I should definitely have painted a Peter Dixon cheese if I am going to have a respectable archive of artisanal cheese. Traditional aged, two-curd Gorgonzola, West West Blue is made with whole, raw milk from Elm Lea Farm and aged 90 - 180 days. The edible rind surrounds an interior with openings filled with streaks of blue mold, a creamy texture and a spicy, earthy flavor.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Peter Dixon,

Price: sold

Weybridge

Weybridge

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Weybridge is an organic Vermont cheese aged at Cellars at Jasper Hill.The rind of this cheese is what attracted me the most though the flavor was no less than impressive. The difficulty of course was the fact this soft cheese is runny once it's room temperature. I had to focus on the cheese first but even that started to ooze a bit as I painted it. By the time I completed this painting, it had pooled out a bit and I was left only with the task of eating it. It was a great lunch.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Vermont, jasper hill

Price: sold

Winnimere

Winnimere

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I somehow (ha ha) convinced myself to paint this adictive creamy cheese again. I would probably testify under oath that it was because I still needed to depict that creamy ooz more convincingly. However, I'm not sure what jury would believe me if they tasted it themselves.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: Vermont, Jasper Hill Farm

Price: sold

Winnimere Wheel

Winnimere Wheel

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Winnimere is a luxury just to taste, let alone have a whole wheel of it to yourself! I was commissioned by the American Cheese Society (ACS) to paint their top winners of 2013, Winnimere is ranked #1 -Best of Show first place for 2013. This raw cow's milk cheese is too runny-gooey to send any way other than in the form of an entire wheel and I cannot be more happy about that. The folks at the Cellars at Jasper Hill make some great art in the form of cheese, and I've been priveleged to meet many of them and they're as friendly as their cheeses are delicous. On the label for the wheel, it says "A Taste of Place" and Vermont should be extremely proud of that.

Origin: USA, Vermont

Tags: cow, Jasper Hill farms, ACS Best of Show 2013 , ACSBOS

Price: sold

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar 2

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar 2

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: As a commissioned portrait, this was a chance for me to return to one of America's best cheddars. Having painted (and eaten) several of the world's best, I can testify that Cabot's Clothbound Cheddar, aged at Jasper Hill Farm, is in the same delicous league. I can eat this forever.

Origin: USA,Vermont

Tags: cow, cheddar

Price: sold

Rupert

Rupert

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This handsome wheel was sent to me from Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, Vermont. Leslie Goff, the cheesemaker at CBF shared with me that Rupert was first devleloped about 10 years ago and was the largest of its size made by an American artisanal cheesemaker. It weighs around 25-30 lbs and was joked that it's a "whale" of a cheese. A creative couple then working at the creamery had fun introducing the cut out plastic stamp to produce the embossed whale on the rind of each wheel and it has become a part of its identity since. This raw cow's milk cheese is modeled after great European Alpine cheeses like Gruyere and Comte. It certainly shares with them the delicious, nutty sharp depth of flavor likely a result of being aged from 6-12 months. This long aging cheese, appropriately, was named after one of Vermonts oldest towns, settled in 1761.

Origin: USA,Vermont

Tags: Cow, Raw milk

Price: $900

Trillium

Trillium

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I fell in love with the beauty of this cheese the moment I saw it. As usual, I was shopping for another cheese to paint and Rich at Di Bruno Bros. is like a crack dealer. I can't resist the stuff he shows me. This one especially evoked some minor cursing at him because I knew I was helpless. It's also an incredible indulgent cheese to eat. If you like yourself, go get it. I later found there was virtually no info online about this cheese but thankfully ONE blog had written about it a couple years ago: "Lazy Lady Farm is based in Westfield, Vermont, & is owned/operated by Laini Fondiller. In Trillium, you will find a nuanced & decadent cheese. Trillium is a small format wheel with three layers of milk; two layers of cow's milk sandwiching a layer of goat's milk in the center & separated by ribbons of vegetable ash.... What makes her operation even more impressive is that all of her delicious cheeses are made on her farm that is totally off the grid - run 100% on solar & wind power" - info found at charmcitycheesmongers.wordpress.com

Origin: USA,Vermont

Tags: goat, cow, Lazy Lady Farm, ash

Price: sold

Shelburne Clothbound Cheddar

Shelburne Clothbound Cheddar

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I finally had the chance to paint this incredible American Cheddar linked to a rich history and incredible quality. Shelburne Farms is a product and legacy of a pioneering vision of farming in America. In the late 1800's, William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb, an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune, purchased and consolidated 32 farms into an agricultural estate focused on innovation in sustainable farming. It became a model for research and education. Cheddar is the only cheese made at Shelburne Farms, located along Lake Champlain, in Vermont. Their cheddars are made with raw, unhomogenized milk from the farm's herd of Brown Swiss cows which graze on highest quality grass and clover. The Clothbound Cheddar is made with traditional English process of aging wheels wrapped in cloth and sealed with lard. They only make 120 wheels a year and after 2 months, they're sent for affinage (aging) to the Cellars of Jasper Hill, known for their outstanding success with aging cheddar and many types cheese alike. I had a wedge of this sent to me by the farm and when I broke it up some to set up this composition, I found myself without any to spare for ... pre-painting tasting. It would be an understatement to say it was a glorious moment when I finished this painting, 11+ hours later and savored the incredible reward. This cheddar is as close to perfect as any I've had. It brings to mind Montgomery's Cheddar and Avonlea. It's the perfect texture of crumbly fudge with an exquisite flavor of the grass and cave that made it into a masterpiece.

Origin: Vermont, USA

Tags: Cow, Cheddar, Vermont

Price: sold

Sherry Gray

Sherry Gray

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This 7 oz, ash-ripened double cream cow's milk buttery-rich wheel of cheese is also an homage to the memory of a beloved member of the community in Greensboro, Vermont, where this is made. Jasper Hill Farm named this after a very humble man who served and strengthened the community and inspired generations as a teacher and mentor to many. The creamy cheese paste is almost like a nutty, whipped butter with notes of mushrooms and it's as delicious as it is beautiful. I enjoyed painting this monument to humanity and adding it as my 16trh Jasper Hill cheese portrait.

Origin: usa, Vermont

Tags: Jasper Hill Farm, cow

Price: sold

Whitney

Whitney

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This is 2022's highest ranked cheese in North America. Winning "Best of Show" 1st place at the American Cheese Society competition. For several years, from 2012-2019, I was honored to be invited to the American Cheese Society's annual conference and competition. In exchange for my involvement I painted the 3 best of show winners and that collection of portraits of the highest ranked cheeses made in North America belongs to the ACS. Since the pandemic, there's been a lot of changes. I may no longer be attending the conference but I'm still glad to paint this champion cheese portrait with the first place blue-purple ribbon colored background. Jasper Hill Farm is no stranger to this place on the list of champions. Whitney is a beautiful alpine-style cheese that is perfect for melting, ready for a raclette machine, though I found it melted just as easily on my tongue. The raw cow milk mountain-style cheese is named after Tim Whitney, a dedicated team member who has been with Jasper Hill since 2004 and it's absolutely beautiful to tasste. Congratulations Jasper Hill Farm!

Origin: usa, Vermont

Tags: cow, jasper hill farm, ACSBOS , best of show, Acs

Price: $800