Each month, your Neighboring Food Co-ops feature our region’s artisan cheesemakers by offering a specially selected cheese at great price. Look for the “Cave to Co-op” sign in the cheese section at your local food co-op. To find one near you, visit www.nfca.coop/members.
This month’s Cave to Co-op cheese is Brie & Mini Brie from Boston Post Dairy, Enosburg Falls, VT
This month’s featured cheese is a pair of bloomy beauties from Boston Post Dairy. Their Vermont Country Brie and Mini Brie capture everything we love about approachable, farmstead soft-ripened cheese — lush, buttery interiors wrapped in delicate snowy rinds with subtle mushroomy earthiness beneath the cream. Crafted with pasteurized cow’s milk on the family farm in Enosburg Falls, these cheeses strike that perfect balance between rustic comfort and elegant indulgence.
The full-sized Brie brings a classic crowd-pleasing presence to any board, while the adorable Mini Bries offer endless entertaining potential — bake whole in phyllo, tuck into warm bread dough, or simply let them soften onto slices of baguette with preserves or honey. Smooth, mild, and irresistibly snackable, these little wheels have become favorites for effortless entertaining and everyday luxury alike.
Recipe ideas include Baked Brie with honey, cracked pepper and herbs, a Mini Brie baked in puff pastry with chive blossoms, warm Brie on crostini with spring greens or roasted asparagus with melted Brie. Try a grilled cheese with prosciutto and brie or Brie en croûte with seasonal herbs. This brie pairs well with a baguette or crostini, rhubarb chutney, honey, chive blossoms and herbs, toasted nuts, prosciutto and of course ‘tis the season for strawberries, asparagus or young greens. Sparkling wines, dry cider, Sauvignon Blanc, light Pinot Noir or saison all go well with brie.
It’s still spring in Vermont and the northeast. Early light in the morning and the gloaming in the evening give us the feeling that it might finally be time to make something a little brighter. Anne Doe, master cheesemaker of Boston Post Dairy notes that her cheese reminds us that brie is not only a crowd pleaser but also loves to be dressed up to notice the season. Freshly snipped Chive leaves and flowers garnish either brie and an old-fashioned pairing of Rhubarb Chutney guilds the lily keeping us connected to people, place and springtime.
Rhubarb Chutney
Featuring Boston Post Dairy’s Brie & Mini Brie
Ingredients
- ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon mustard seed
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 1 finely chopped small onion
- ¼ cup fresh ginger root, finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 # rhubarb stalks cut into 1-inch pieces
- ½ cup golden raisins
- 1 cups fresh sour cherries or ½ cup dried cherries
Instructions
- 1. Combine first 10 ingredients in a medium-large saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat, stirring until sugar has melted.
- Add rhubarb, raisins and cherries and continue to cook over low heat, stirring until thick and rhubarb is soft, about 15 minutes.
- Allow chutney to cool and refrigerate overnight before serving. Any fresh herb or tiny edible flower makes a lovely garnish.
Cave to Co-op is a partnership between Provision International and the Neighboring Food Co-op Association (NFCA) to support local, artisanal cheese producers in our region and make their products more easily available to co-op shoppers. The NFCA is a network of more than 40 food co-ops in our region — including yours — that are working together to advance their vision of a thriving regional economy, rooted in a healthy, just and sustainable food system and a vibrant community of co-operative enterprise. For more information, please visit www.nfca.coop.