Sunday, July 15, 2012

July 13 &14 2012 Taylor Brother's Farm

Today our search for artisan cheese took us to Plainfield/Meriden New Hampshire.  Gloria, my son Andrew, and I started the journey in south eastern Connecticut. We headed west until we reached interstate route 91.  For those of you who don’t know this part of the world, I91 runs right through New England from Long Island sound all the way to Canada. We picked up I91 in Hartford, Connecticut, about mid state. We drove north across Massachusetts, and followed 91 about half way up the east border of Vermont to exit 8 were we turned east into New Hampshire and nineteen miles north east, found Taylor Brother’s Farm on the Plainfield/Meriden border.
Two things impress me about taking a road trip in New England this time of year.  The first is the vegetation. The rolling hills are lush, green, and flowering. It’s hot today (low 91’s) and hasn’t rained recently, but plants really grow thanks to over 50 inches of rain, 100 inches of snow, and over 200 days of sun the region gets annually.  The corn is high, farmers are cutting their second crop of hay in many areas, and the transportation workers are fighting to keep the grass and brush off the highways. The traffic cops with their radar guns were numerous along the interstate.
The second impression is while the region feels rural, services and attractions abound. On this short trip, our GPS guide was lit up with icons for restaurants and gas stations with attached food stores strung together like strings of prayer beads. During the 177 mile trip we passed the New England Air Museum in Connecticut, the Basketball Hall of Fame, Volleyball Hall of Fame, Yankee Candle, and the flower covered bridge in Shelburne Falls, all in Massachusetts. Further north, the Vermont tourist information center off the highway provided brochures describing hundreds of visit worthy sights hidden behind the beautiful tree covered hills and valleys that surround the highway. I know from experience that New Hampshire, just east of I91 has an equal number of attractions, particularly in the north central White Mountains.
Via email, Cindy Taylor from Taylor Brothers Farm  
http://www.taylorbrothersfarm.com/
offered a tour but we were unable to connect with her.  However, Mat, a family member was manning the farm store when we arrived, helped us with our purchases, and invited us to look around the farm.  It was hot and dry but we enjoyed the visit. Relaxed, healthy looking cows with glossy coats and clear, inquisitive eyes wandered around in large shady structures stocked with ample water and clean hay.  It was our good fortune that Rob Taylor came in from his hay bailing and took the time to show us around.  Rob credited the quality of the cheeses made on the premises in part to getting the milk from the cows into the processing facility so quickly that it was being turned into cheese before it had dropped from the 102 (F) degree body temperature of the cows!  We purchased several pounds of cheeses, locally bottled maple syrup and maple roasted peanuts as gifts.
From Meriden we took a short trip north to Lebanon, a charming town with a lot to offer. Our sightseeing was limited to a short walk around the center and lunch and cold beer at the Salt Hill Pub which is definitely worth a return visit. 
From Lebanon we angled back southeast on I89, skirted the south side of Concord, merged with 293 south through Manchester.  Before connecting with Gloria’s sister, Pam, and her husband Richard in Bedford we stopped at a NH State Liquor store and picked up a couple of bottles of locally produced wine to accompany the cheeses we had purchased earlier at Taylor Brothers Farm.  At the tasting later that evening, Mill Hollow, a Gouda-like cheese, was the favorite, followed not too far behind by Cloverland Colby and Evelyn’s Jack Cheese.  

Sated with wine, cheese, and a great dinner prepared by our brother-in-law Richard, we spent the night at their home.  The next day we visited my nephew Shawn’s new home in New Boston. We missed niece Dawn who had traveled from Manchester to Meriden with her daughter, Mia, for a softball tournament. She planned to look for Taylor Brothers Farm after the game.
We drove back to Connecticut via I293 in New Hampshire, and took I495 and 290 to Worchester Massachusetts and 395 back to eastern Connecticut. There are interesting attractions along here, but we got a late start and drove straight through. Throughout the two-day trip, the roads were excellent, the traffic light to moderate, and services and sights abundant. Later in the season when the agricultural fairs and community festivals begin, this region will be even more enjoyable along the way.

Monday, July 2, 2012

July 1, 2012 Day Trips in New England

What smells like dirty feet and tastes like a bit of heaven? The answer is cheese, the subject of our most recent day trip. While crossing the country by car last year we sampled regional cheeses made in factories operated by large cooperatives in Oregon, (see the June 17, 2011 listing concerning the Tillamook cheese factory), and in Wisconsin.  These products were very good and different from the excellent Vermont and New York factory cheeses we eat at home. But in factory foods everywhere, consistency is prized over character. We didn’t know what we were missing until we discovered something called artisan cheese. 


Recently we followed a little sign off RT. 16 in Colchester Connecticut and ended up at Cato Corner Farm. The sign in the first picture is beside the unassuming driveway to the sales room. The building behind me with the weathered gray siding is the sales room which connects to the ripening cave and some processing areas in the rear. The cheese maker encourages tasting before buying because every batch is different depending on what the cows were eating and seasonal factors. We sampled Farmstead cheese, one of a dozen different varieties in the tasting room, and were hooked on cheeses made the old fashion way from raw milk.  The flavors ranged from the nutty, mild Farmstead to a blue cheese sharp enough to cut your tongue. 
The folks in the sales room and on the website (http://www.catocornerfarm.com/ ) revealed that the milk comes from free ranging cows raised with minimum exposure to antibiotics and no animal based feeds. The cheese is made by hand and aged in a cave on the premises. We also learned that although this may be a small family farm, their cheeses are national award winners found on tables around the country and in fine restaurants in nearby New York City.
 A little research on the Internet identified dozens of artisan cheese makers: a few in Connecticut, maybe one in Rhode Island, several in New Hampshire, and dozens in Vermont and upstate New York. Since we have put off a long road trip through the south until the fall when it is cooler, we decided to share some of our New England day trips.  With the region rife with farms, orchards, vineyards, and fish markets, I doubt that we’ll run out of food related attractions along the way.
David