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 special cheese is Harbison, Jasper Hill Farm, Greensboro, VT
Andy and Mateo Kehler are the cheesemakers at Jasper Hill Farm.
The Kehlers began farming and making cheese with a goal of creating a model to be replicated by other farmers in Vermont who wished to diversify their quickly disappearing farms into more workable options. They wanted to demonstrate that it is still possible to prosper on a rocky hillside farm, creating a vehicle for the renewal of the local dairy economy in the form of a business model that can be replicated by other dairy farms.
Andy and Mateo have a small herd of registered Ayrshire cows. Ayrshires are a high component breed, their milk is rich in protein and fat. It is the qualities of these components that sets the breed apart. They produce small fat globules, which break down easily during the ripening process yielding clean consistent flavors. Ayrshires are also the most efficient feed converters of any dairy breed; they are great grazers. They are also quite spoiled. Jasper Hill’s cows go out on a fresh piece of pasture after every milking during the spring, summer, fall and are fed a ration of dry hay through the winter when they stay in, avoiding harsh winter wind and snow while listening to a great selection of jazz and classical music.
Harbison is named for Anne Harbison, affectionately known as the grandmother of Greensboro. She was active in the Greensboro community, ran a bed and breakfast, worked in the public library, and was delighted to be honored with a namesake cheese.
Harbison is a soft-ripened cheese with a rustic, bloomy rind. Young cheeses are wrapped in strips of spruce cambium, the tree’s inner bark layer, harvested from the woodlands of New England. The spoonable texture begins to develop in the vaults, though the paste continues to soften on the way to market. Harbison is woodsy and sweet, balanced with lemon, mustard, and vegetal flavors.
Harbison made its debut in 2011 and won American Cheese Society’s coveted Best of Show award in 2018.
Harbison Pigs in a Blanket
- 12 oz. of your favorite hot dogs or cooked sausage
- 1 pack Puff Pastry
- Dijon, or your favorite mustard
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 Jasper Hill Farm Harbison
1. Begin by removing the Harbison from the refrigerator and bringing to room temperature.
2. Defrost 1 puff pastry in fridge; cut a sheet of parchment paper to fit a baking sheet.
3. Once the puff pastry is soft, preheat the oven to 400F.
4. Lay the pastry sheet(s) out and cut 16 strips at least 1″ wide and roughly 2.5″ long.
5. Remove the hot dogs or sausage from their package and cut each into 3 pieces.
6. Spread a small dollop of dijon mustard onto each strip of puff pastry and follow by rolling a segment of the kielbasa to enclose. Place each on a baking sheet seam-side down.
7. Using a pastry brush or spoon, whisk the egg yolks and brush a layer onto the top of each rolled pig on.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until pastry is fully puffed and golden brown.
9. Remove the top rind from the Harbison and serve surrounded by the warm pigs in a blanket for dipping!
Harbison au Gratin
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 wheel Harbison
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 pounds mixed fingerling potatoes, sliced thin 3 cloves garlic, diced
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 6 oz Alpha Tolman, grated
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- Preheat oven to 350. Heat butter and olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Add onions and garlic, season with a pinch of kosher salt and sauté until soft. Turn off heat, add cream and half of the grated Alpha Tolman. Fingerling potatoes should not be peeled and sliced thin using a mandolin.
- 2. Grease a 9″ pie dish with olive oil or butter. Transfer half of the onion-cream mixture into prepared pie dish, and place one layer of potatoes on top. Open the wheel of Harbison like you would open a tin can. Spoon or drizzle the Harbison on top of the potato layer. Sprinkled a dash of pepper on top of Harbison. Repeat layers of remaining onion-cream mixture, potatoes, Harbison and pepper. Lastly, top with remaining Alpha Tolman.
- 3.! Cover pie dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes, until bubbly and golden. Let cool for at least 10 minutes. Garnish with fresh chives if desired. Serve a slice with a juicy steak and mixed green salad
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.