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