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 Swallow Tail Tomme from Stony Pond Farm, Enosburg Falls, VT
Stony Pond Farm is a 260 acre certified organic first- generation farm owned and operated by Tyler and Melanie Webb in Enosburg Falls, Vermont. Stony Pond Farm is also a Brand Partner with the Northeast Organic Family Farm Partnership (NOFFP).
When Tyler bought the farm in 2004 it was run down, had poor pastures, and no roads; it was exactly what he was looking for. After a stint at a large conventional farm and then for the National Resource Conservation Service of the USDA, he realized the conventional methods were not the path he wanted to take. It took sitting in at organic grazing meetings at conferences to point him towards the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont and that particular run down farm.
By 2007 Tyler had a herd of cattle, had built miles of fences, and was bringing the land back to life. To earn money, he was selling frozen grass-fed beef alongside cheeseburgers at Burlington’s Farmers Market; one week, a photographer from Brooklyn was visiting friends and stopped to grab a burger.
Melanie is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon and brings both business acumen and creative flair to Stony Pond. Leaving the city behind, but not her cameras, she moved to the Green Mountains and hasn’t looked back. In addition to working for a non-profit that advocates for people with disabilities, Melanie also works to promote local biodynamic communities.
People looking at Stony Pond Farm’s cattle might come away scratching their heads. The mix of breeds is a little strange for most New England farms. There are Jerseys, Devons, and British Whites mixed together. The calves are even more unique.
The milk comes from the pretty faced Jerseys and some of the Devons, giving plentiful and rich milk, which until summer of 2019 was sold to Organic Valley. A lifelong dream of making cheese had Melanie and Tyler converting an un-used part of their property into a cheesemaking room and another into an aging room, where cheese is made 2-3 times a week.
If you were to ask a cheese pro what a Tomme is, they’d likely give an answer along the lines of: it’s a relatively small format natural rind farmer’s cheese. Another answer might be: Tommes refer to small cheeses made in the summer months while the ruminants are out eating fresh grass. Both definitions would apply to Swallow Tail Tomme.
Swallow Tail Tomme is named after swallows that swoop and dive over the fields at Stony Pond, controlling pests that would bother cow and human alike. Made using raw milk from a single milking, then aging for an average of ninety days, this cheese is a time capsule of the organic fields spring through early fall.
Swallow Tail Tomme has been feature as a Cave to Co-op cheese in the past. For more recipes see October 2023 and October 2022.
Fig Toasties
- 1⁄2cup fig jam
- 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- Kosher salt
- 12 slices your favorite bread
- 8 oz. Swallow Tail Tomme, grated
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1. Preheat oven to 250°. Mix jam, red pepper flakes, and vinegar in a small bowl; season with salt. Set half of spicy fig jam aside.
2. Spread 6 slices of bread with remaining spicy fig jam and top with Swallow Tail Tomme and remaining 6 slices of bread. Spread outside of sandwiches with butter. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Working in 2 batches, cook sandwiches, pressing down firmly, until golden brown and cheese is melted, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a wire rack set inside a baking sheet and keep warm in oven until ready to serve.
3. Cut each sandwich into 4 triangles and serve with reserved spicy fig jam for dipping.
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.