Published on June 4, 2008

Becky Kuhnel, Julie Kasper and Roberta Pitkin serve samples of Jasper Hill Farm cheese to some of the 500 people who visited the farm’s new underground cheese caves. The once-in-a-lifetime open house took place Sunday afternoon. In addition to the cheese, visitors got a look into most of the seven arched cheese vaults and an explanation of how cheese is aged. Photo by Joseph Gresser

GREENSBORO — About 500 people filed through the almost-finished cheese aging caves at Jasper Hill Farm Sunday afternoon, for what was billed as a one-time chance to tour the $3.2-million facility.  The crowd, which was almost entirely made up of local residents, sampled cheeses, took tours, and learned some of the fine points of cheese aging.

The seven large vaults, built eight to ten feet under what was once — and will again be — a pasture, will soon be filled from floor to ceiling with racks of cheese aging under the watchful eye of Mateo Kehler and his staff.  When the cheese cellars are operating at full speed, more than two million pounds of cheese will move through the facility.

Brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler started making cheese here about five years ago, featuring milk from their small herd of Ayrshires.  They originally aged the cheeses in a few small rooms built under Mateo’s house.

According to Andy Kehler’s wife, Victoria von Hessert, the brothers settled on a 40-cow herd because they thought it large enough to support two families.  The farm produces about 70,000 pounds of cheese a year, she said.

But then the opportunity to do something larger appeared.  The Cabot Creamery Cooperative wanted Jasper Hill to take over aging and marketing a new, high-end, cloth-bound cheddar.  The volume of cheese was too great for the brothers’ original facility.

Rather than just build to accommodate the Cabot cheese, they decided to build an aging complex that would allow them to cure a variety of cheeses, all of which required different combinations of temperature and humidity.

The goal, Mateo said, was to help other dairy farmers move into cheese production, to increase their income with a value-added product.

Visitors to the caves Sunday saw one example of that vision.   Dancing Cow Farmstead cheeses were stacked up in one vault.  Ms. von Hessert explained that the small farm, located in Bridport, was able to increase its cheese production fivefold because Jasper Hill is purchasing its production directly.

Mr. Kehler said Jasper Hill will improve the cheese by aging it under ideal conditions, and market it as Dancing Cow Farmstead Cheese from the cellars of Jasper Hill.  The co-branding will serve as an assurance of quality to buyers unfamiliar with the farm’s products.

Ms. von Hassert said Jasper Hill hopes to encourage new farmers to enter the artisan cheese field.  They want to help double the number of small-scale Vermont cheese producers, from about 30 to 60.

In addition to Dancing Cow and Cabot, the caves had guest cheeses from the Grafton Cheese company and some other surprises, such as two three-foot diameter wheels of Emmenthaler cheese which Mr. Kehler said a customer had bought in Wisconsin and brought to the caves for aging.  In Wisconsin the cheese would be wrapped in plastic, he said, but the Swiss-style cheese is traditionally aged with regular washings intended to develop a rind.

The cheese cave facility will also allow consolidated shipping, which represents a major cost for small farmers.

One problem that Mr. Kehler said he is continuing to work on is getting cheese to local stores.  “It’s easier for us to get cheese to San Diego than it is to Currier’s,” he said.

“Honestly, we never saw ourselves doing this,” Mr. Kehler said Tuesday.  “It’s basically opportunism.  We had the opportunity to do something big.

“When we started our farm we wanted to make cheese, raise families, and be part of the landscape.”

Right now the cheese cellars employ 12 people, all of whom were busy sanitizing the facility after the open house.  Conditions in the caves have to be tightly controlled to insure that unwanted molds do not proliferate in the cellars.  That is the reason that the open house was a one-time-only event.

Employee Federico Viconi led visitors into the largest of the cheese vaults, a 32-by-60-foot room with an 18-foot vaulted ceiling.  Soon the vault

Jasper Hill moved some of its cheese into the caves in January despite ongoing construction. Here employee Federico Viconi demonstrates how the cellar’s custom designed racks can turn two dozen wheels of Cabot cloth-bound cheddar at a time. Even with this labor-saving device, turning the 5,500 wheels stored in the largest vault will be too much for human workers. The Kehlers plan to install a Swiss-made robot cheese attendant by next year.

will be filled with 5,500 40-pound wheels of cheddar.

Mr. Viconi said each cheese has to be turned and brushed frequently as it ages.  The task is so arduous that the Kehlers plan to import a robot cheese turner from Switzerland to handle the job.  Andy Kehler is headed there right now,  his brother said.

Looking around the cave, Mr. Viconi smiled.  “If this doesn’t work out, this would make a great club,” he said.

When Mr. Kehler heard of Mr. Viconi’s remark he said, “He’s right.  We had a disco ball in there and it’s great.”