Cheesemaker Profile Archives | culture: the word on cheese

Why the Best Blue Cheeses Today Are Coming from Vermont

Josie Krogh — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:59:00 +0000

For nearly two decades, Bayley Hazen Blue has defined Jasper Hill Farm’s approach to blue cheese. Since its debut in 2003, the flagship blue-veined beauty has collected myriad accolades, including a spot in the top 14 at the 2024–2025 World Cheese Awards. In 2024, the creamery introduced two new variations: Withersbrook Blue, a square format aged in a cryovac pouch with a splash of local Eden Ciders Ice Cider; and Barnstorm Blue, a collaboration with the Murray’s Cheese Caves team, washed in malty ale from Focal Point Beer Co. Though the trio shares the same recipe, each develops its own personality.

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Where to Find Some of the Most Unique Cheese in Appalachia

Amber Chase — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 11:13:00 +0000

The winding roads of Appalachia’s Blue Ridge Mountains are characterized by jutting pine trees, sprouting wildflowers, and a hazy blue blanket of mist. The serenity and mystique surrounding these mountains have long drawn artisans, makers, and storytellers to take root in the foothills. That same allure brought cheesemaker and glassblower Victor Chiarizia to Fairview, North Carolina in 2005. A self-starter by nature, Chiarizia fell in love with the traditional methods of crafting cave-aged cheeses. In 2010, he took a backhoe to the side of the mountain on his property and carved his own cheese cave, launching Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery. Little did Chiarizia know, this cave—a testament to his creativity and grit—would soon withstand one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit North Carolina.

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Tradition, Collaboration, Love: How Comté Cheese Unites

Alana Pedalino — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 05:59:24 +0000

In France’s Jura Massif, thousands of farmers, hundreds of creameries, and more than a dozen affinage houses work together to protect the land, their culture, and their livelihoods through cheese. The day’s first batch of Comté at Fruitière du Valromey, a state-of-the-art creamery near the southern tip of France’s Jura Mountains, is almost ready to […]

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Making Cheese in Appalachia: Firefly Farms Reflects on a 20-Year Journey

Josie Krogh — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 20:24:20 +0000

For founders Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet, building a cheese business in western Maryland has always been about the journey, not the destination

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Cheesemaker Profile: Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company

Josie Krogh — Wed, 10 May 2023 12:44:31 +0000

Sisters move Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company forward while preserving their family's legacy.

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From Mexico to America’s Dairyland

Josie Krogh — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 12:25:28 +0000

PHOTOGRAPHED BY CODY LACROSSE With Sancho Cruz Manchego and more, Ricardo Gutierrez Cruz puts his stamp on Wisconsin’s cheese scene In elementary school, Ricardo Gutierrez Cruz’s class toured an ice cream manufacturing plant. While his peers were distracted by the prospect of trying various flavors, Gutierrez Cruz was struck by the mechanics of it all. […]

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Meet the Women Cheesemakers from Brazil’s Serra da Mantiquera

Josie Krogh — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 14:58:41 +0000

Photographed by Rebeca Figueirdo Fazenda Atalaia is bustling with life when I arrive, hungry from the 85-mile early morning drive out of São Paulo into the Serra da Mantiqueira—a mountain range that stretches some 300 miles across swathes of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro states. Tractors thunder about, cows are mustering for […]

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