Parish Hill Creamery

New Markets for New England Cheese

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New England cheese! Cheesemakers in Vermont and around New England are renowned worldwide and for good reason. Tucked away in remote corners and valleys, our little region’s specialty creameries put out some of the most innovative and complex cheeses you’ll find anywhere. No, New Englanders may not generally be the most adventurous in the face of a habanero chili, but when it comes to cheese, “milk’s leap toward immortality,” the inhabitants of this region appear to be positively daring. 

Unfortunately, 2020 squeezed New England cheesemakers. Restaurants and institutional food service—both major income sources for specialty cheesemakers—suffered huge losses in the face of pandemic fears, as did the classic cheese counter model (such as the cheese department at your local Co-op or Hannaford) with its focus on custom cut-and-wrap sales. Consumers shifted their purchasing toward pre-packaged cheeses and away from big-box grocery stores, towards smaller, local outlets and home delivery services. As a result, many cheesemakers lost their main markets. Those who could do so responded by retooling for pre-cut and pre-wrapped sales.

Networking for a Better Food System

In February 2020, a month before that unpleasant turn of events, Richard Berkfield and Alex McCullough from Food Connects had traveled to Upperville, Virginia. They joined nine other East Coast food hubs in a gathering that was the brainchild of Tom McDougall, owner of 4P Foods, a food hub based in Warrenton, VA, and serving the Washington, D.C. area. Food hub representatives from as far north as Maine and as far south as South Carolina converged to tackle one big question: How can we work together to serve our producers and customers better?

All of us dreamed, independently, of taking part in creating a resilient, decentralized food system, one based in sourcing from family-run farms and food businesses, in promoting food produced with social and ecological integrity, and in celebrating our regions’ foods in a spirit of collaboration and sharing.

Out of this convening, the Eastern Food Hub Collaborative (EFC) was born. Local Food Hub, 11-year-old Charlottesville, Virginia-based nonprofit with a long history running programming for food distribution and food access, is now organizing this collaboration. The EFC connects a still-growing roster of 14 East Coast food hubs, 600+ producers, and tens of millions of dollars of aggregate annual sales in a shared mission to scale a new paradigm of food for the East Coast.

As a group, we intuited that we’d always source first from our own local and regional producers within our respective hubs. And we could do that while also providing customers access to unique products from other places up and down the East Coast. And, conversely, at Food Connects, we could do so while introducing other regions to the special foods that only New England can offer.

What better way to show off New England than with cheese?

Connecting Cheese to Networks, and People to Cheese

Tom from 4P Foods declared on the first day of our convening in Virginia that 4P wanted to sell New England cheese. Richard and Alex drove home with a mission and a lot of work to do. That summer, with the guiding hand of Beth Lewand, former cheesemonger extraordinaire and Food Connects’ then-new Sales Associate, we launched our Specialty Cheese Catalog. At that time, the catalog acted as a testing ground to build supply relationships, learn about products, solve inbound logistics, and start figuring out new ways to supply customers with great cheese.

It turned out that the pre-cut cheeses that cheesemakers had emphasized since the COVID-19 crisis suddenly worked very well for much of Food Connects’ customer base: for farm stands, CSAs, small independent stores—and for home-delivery food hubs like 4P.  

In coordination with buyers Justin White and Devon Byrne from 4P, Food Connects shipped its first pallet of cheese to Virginia on May 12, 2021, as a pilot run. Would the cheese make it through the 500+ mile trip? Would customers buy it? Would they come back to buy more? 

We’re proud to announce a resounding “Yes” to all of the above! June 24–just last week!–marked our second and even larger cheese pallet shipment to 4P Foods. Stacked high with boxes from Grafton Village Cheese, Jasper Hill Farm, Smith’s Country Cheese, Narragansett Creamery, Parish Hill Creamery, Champlain Valley Creamery, Blue Ledge Farm, and Vermont Shepherd, this pallet represents Food Connects’ commitment to leveraging our unique location in the heart of New England to build a meaningful, brand new market outlet for our region’s cheesemakers. 

In all, since the Specialty Cheese Catalog’s launch in August, Food Connects has sold more than $136,000 of specialty cheese. We’ve delivered cheeses to retail outlets, restaurants, and institutional food service programs in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. We’ve sent countless boxes of cheese to other Food Hub partners around New England, including the Three Rivers Farmers Alliance, of Exeter, NH, and Farm Fresh Rhode Island, of Providence. Both of them source cheese through Food Connects to add to their home delivery programs. Even if in a small way, we’re proud to have contributed to supporting our cheesemakers through a uniquely difficult time.

We hope that this is just the beginning. We started with a small selection of producers to avoid overcomplicating logistics and over-diluting sales to our emerging market. As demand for cheese grows within our networks, we will continue expanding our product selection. We aim to build a strong, diverse catalog that brings together the best that our region offers, opening new doors for eaters up and down the coast looking for a gustatory experience they will never forget. And, of course, one that builds real, long-term markets for cheesemakers across New England who work to keep this ancient craft alive, thriving, and profitable now and into the future.

20 New Producers Added in 2020

2020 was a crazy year for many of us. As demand for regional food increased, Food Connects had the opportunity to expand our network of high-quality New England producers. Check out 20 that became part of the Food Connects family in 2020.

Atlantic Sea Farms - Saco, ME

Atlantic Sea Farms, created in 2009, is the first commercially viable seaweed farm in the United States. Their goal is to diversify how coastal waters are used, providing communities with a domestic and fresh alternative to imported seaweed products.

Featured Products: Fermented Seaweed Salad; Sea-Beet Kraut; Sea-Chi; Kelp Cubes; Ready Cut Kelp Slaw

Blue Ledge Farm - Salisbury, VT

Blue Ledge Farm is a first-generation, family-owned and -operated goat dairy and cheese-making farm just outside of Middlebury, VT. Owners Greg and Hannah now milk over 100 different goats and produce 11 different types of cheeses on their Animal Welfare Approved farm.

Featured Products: Camembrie; Crottina; Fresh Chevre; Lake’s Edge Mini; Marinated Chevre; Middlebury Blue; Richville; Riley’s 2x4

Champlain Valley Creamery - Middlebury, VT

Champlain Valley Creamery produces handcrafted, Certified Organic, award-winning cheeses. They make all their cheeses by hand, from the 100% grass-fed organic Jersey milk of Severy Farm in Cornwall, Vermont. They are handmade using traditional techniques and small-batch pasteurization in a net-zero solar-powered building.

Featured Products: Organic Champlain Triple; Organic Champlain Truffle Triple; Cream Cheese; Queso Fresco; Pyramid Scheme


Grateful Greens - Brattleboro, VT

Grateful Greens, located in downtown Brattleboro, VT, uses creative, low-impact, indoor farming technology that utilizes solar, rainwater, and eco-friendly systems. They grow nutrient-dense sunflower greens and strive to strengthen local food systems and relieve our dependence on resource-intensive farming or shipping produce from distant lands.

Featured Products: Sunflower Greens; Sunflower Greens, Maple Dijon Vinaigrette Grab and Go; Sunflower, w/Buttermilk Ranch Grab and Go; Sunflower, w/Mixed Dressings Grab and Go; Sunflower, w/Sesame Ginger Grab and Go

Ground Up - Hadley, MA

Ground Up is a family-owned operation that offers a range of whole and bolted (or sifted) flours proudly milled to order from Northeast farms. Ground Up’s goal is to look back in another ten years and see more acres of grain, more thriving farms, more fresh and nutritious flour—all-important signs of a more sustainable and resilient food system.

Featured Products: All Purpose Flour; Bolted Bread Flour; Malted Barley Flour; Organic Rye Berries; Pastry Flour; Pizza Dough Flour; Wheat Berries; Wheat Bran; Wheat Middlings; Whole Rye Flour 


Hall Apiaries: Plainfield, NH

Hall Apiaries is an apiary producing chemical- and treatment-free honey with hives in both Vermont and New Hampshire. Owner Troy Hall considers his queen breeding program to be the heart and backbone of his apiary. All potential breeders are hardy stock who are at least two years old and have persevered through two New England winters without any chemical treatments.

Featured Products: Raw Honey, chemical- and treatment-free

Heiwa Tofu: Rockport, ME

Founded in 2008, Heiwa Tofu is a small family business committed to creating pure and wholesome foods that they feel good sharing with their community. Their tofu is handcrafted in small batches using organic, non-GMO soybeans grown on Maine and New England farms.

Featured Products: Organic Tofu


Maine Grains - Skowhegan, ME

Maine Grains is a grain mill located in a repurposed jailhouse that serves bakers, brewers, chefs, and families freshly-milled, Organic, and heritage grains sourced from the Northeast. Their traditional stone milling process ensures nutrient-packed products full of flavor and perfect for natural fermentation, baking, and cooking.

Featured Products: Organic Cornmeal; Organic Farro; Organic Heritage Red Fife Wheat Flour; Organic Polenta; Organic Rolled Oats; Organic Rye Flour; Organic Sifted Wheat All-Purpose Flour; Organic Whole Wheat Flour

Maine Sea Salt - Marshfield, ME

Maine Sea Salt is a family-owned operation that sells sea salt in health and specialty food stores and restaurants throughout the U.S. They’ve been creating sea salt that is solar evaporated and non-processed, with no additives, for over 20 years.

Featured Products:  Atlantic Sea Salt, Coarse or Full Crystals


Maple Meadow Farm

Maple Meadow Farm, owned and operated by the Devoid family since 1946, produces fresh shell, cage-free eggs. By Vermont standards of egg production, Maple Meadow is a large farm. By national measures, they’re tiny. Staying small allows them to remain family-owned and operated, and to focus on the needs of their birds, their product and their customers.

Featured Products: Large Chicken Eggs


Mi Tierra Tortillas

Mi Tierra Tortillas is the first authentic tortilla bakery in New England that creates tortilla chips from 100% Organic non-GMO local New England corn, ground limestone, and water. Owners Jorge Sosa and Michael Doctor came together in 2014 to create a delicious product for the community, featuring corn grown in Western Massachusetts.

Featured Products: Fresh Corn Tortillas (Organic or Conventional); Fresh Corn Tortillas, Thin Chip Style (Organic or Conventional)

Old Friends Farm - Amherst, MA

Old Friends Farm is a Certified Organic farm that grows food and flowers with integrity. They are widely known for pioneering Northeast-grown ginger and turmeric and their award-winning specialty products made with these powerful roots. Old Friends Farm manages its business with integrity, balance, and harmony, prioritizing their employees in their business decisions, including paying their employees a living wage and creating schedules for employees to thrive at work and in their off-farm life.

Featured Products: Ginger; Turmeric; Ginger Honey; Turmeric Honey; Organic Ginger Syrup


Parish Hill Creamery - Putney, VT

Parish Hill Creamery is a family endeavor focused on preserving traditional cheesemaking culture, collaborative farming, and contributing to their community’s overall health. These use raw milk from Elm Lea Farm at The Putney School, and they process all their cheese by hand.

Featured Products: Cornerstone; Hermit; Humble; Idyll; Jack’s Blue; Kashar; Reverie; Suffolk Punch; VT Herdsman

Rhapsody Natural Foods - Cabot, VT

Rhapsody Natural Foods is a family-owned business that produces high-quality Organic and natural artisan foods and supports local and regional sustainable food systems in the process. They purchase their ingredients from farmers close to their facility and other small, family-owned farms.

Featured Products: Organic Miso; Non-GMO Natto; Organic Tempeh; Tempeh, Ready to Eat (BBQ and Teriyaki) 

Schoolhouse Farm - East Calais, VT

Schoolhouse Farm thoughtfully raises their livestock in a pasture-based system, providing the community with pastured eggs from hens raised on Organic feed. Their chickens live out on pasture in mobile hen houses. Moved daily, they eat a wide variety of grasses and legumes and forage for insects in the soil.

Featured Products: Pastured Eggs

Smith’s Country Cheese - Winchendon, MA

Smith’s Country Cheese is a family-owned and operated working dairy farm and creamery. Their 200 Holstein cows live a happy life on 43 rural acres in Winchendon, MA, to produce their award-winning farmstead Gouda, cheddar, and Havarti cheeses. They use traditional recipes and fresh, raw milk from their farm to make delicious, artisanal cheeses.

Featured Products: Baby Swiss; Cheddar Cheese Sticks; Cheddar; Farmers’ Cheese; Gouda Spread; Gouda; Havarti

Starbird Fish

Captain Tony and his crew at Starbird Fish trek to Alaska every season to harvest wild salmon and white fish from “the most sustainable fishery in the world” using modern, low-impact techniques. They transport their fresh catches from the boat directly to an on-shore processor, where the fish is frozen and then shipped to Burlington, Vermont. Starbird produces all its smoked fish in Burlington, VT.

Featured Products: Alaskan Coho Salmon; Alaskan King Salmon; Alaskan Rockfish; Alaskan Sockeye Salmon; Smoke Alaskan Coho, Smoked Alaskan Sockeye

Sunnyfield Farm - Wilmington, VT

Sunnyfield Farm is a family-owned and operated farm located in Western, VT. From chickens to goats, their love and care for their animals produce high-quality products. And to top it off, they run a sugar-house, Sprague & Son Sugar House, making delicious Vermont-made maple syrup, candies, and more!

Featured Products: Pasture Raised Chicken Eggs


Vermont Cranberry Company - Fletcher, VT

Vermont Cranberry Company is Vermont's first and only commercial cranberry grower. They grow cranberries for wholesale buyers, and their products are available at markets, coops, and farm stores throughout the state.

Featured Products: Frozen Cranberries


Vermont Shepherd - Westminster West, VT

Vermont Shepherd is a 250-acre farm with 300-700 sheep (depending on the time of year), 2 Border Collies (who herd the sheep), and 8 Maremma (who protect the sheep from predators), and shepherds of all ages. At the farm’s northern edge is a cave, home to over 20,000 lbs a year of our artisanal farmhouse cheeses. This human-made cave is over 4 feet underground and is naturally damp and cool, the perfect conditions for cheese ripening!

Featured Products: 2-Year Aged Invierno; Fromage Blanc; Invierno; Smoked Invierno; Verano

Producer Spotlight: Parish Hill Creamery

When we think of Vermont-made foods, dairy immediately comes to mind. And in what better form than delicious, raw-milk, hand-made cheese. That’s where Parish Hill Creamery comes in. Located in Westminster, Vermont, Parish Hill Creamery is one of our newer cheese producers and we are so excited to have their family be part of the Food Connects family! Peter Dixon and Rachel Fritz Schaal answered some of our questions we had about their creamery and their amazing cheese!

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How long have you been making cheese? And what inspired you to do so?

Peter made his first batches of cheese in 1983 at the Guilford Cheese Co., his family's cheese business in Guilford, VT. Rachel started making cheese when she and Peter started Parish Hill Creamery in 2013.

What makes your produce/products unique?

At Parish Hill Creamery, we make natural cheese. Raw milk—exclusively from grazing cows, traditional rennet, sea salt from Maine, and our own autochthonous cultures—propagated continuously with milk from Elm Lea Farm. Keeping to natural cheesemaking methods means making choices that inherently limit the scale of our production but also prevent the use of shortcuts and efficiencies that would deny the expression of our terroir.

We’re getting hungry!

We’re getting hungry!

What is your favorite pairing with your cheeses?

Reverie with pickles and rye crackers. Humble with quince paste. Jack's Blue with port or milk stout, or a drizzle of maple syrup. VT Herdsman melted in our fondue.

Why is selling locally and the local food movement is important to you?

Buying and selling locally means supporting our neighbors, knowing that land and water are being protected from extractive practices, supporting good jobs, and receiving and providing nutritious foods. Our milk comes from Elm Lea Farm, where the cows graze hill farm pastures. The apples that we press into hard cider to wash Humble come from Green Mountain Orchards. We get the beer to wash the Hermit from Hermit Thrush Brewery.

How does working with Food Connects help your business/what are you excited about in this partnership?

It has been exciting to see our wheels and wedges in restaurants and farm shops in our area—and hearing from friends that they have been able to pick up a few wedges at their local farm shops.

Any events coming up or fun facts about your business/products?

Because we are seasonal, we won't be back at the vat until next May when (we hope!) the pastures will be lush with spring grass. We'll spend the winter making sales calls (virtually this year), working on the websites, and developing online workshops, and hopefully, Peter will finish up his memoir!

We are happy to hold Zoom meetings with any retailer or restauranteur interested in hearing more about what we do or wanting to do a virtual tasting of the cheeses.