Cobb Hill Cheese

Hartland, Vermont

Cobb Hill Farm is a farm and intentional community located in Hartland, Vermont. Cobb Hill was started by Donella H. Meadows, a Harvard PhD in biophysics, and a leading American environmental scientist. What is an intentional community, you may ask? Wikipedia defines it as a ‘planned residential community with a much higher degree of social interaction that other communities.’ In the case of Cobb Hill, the community is devoted to sustainable living (in which agriculture plays a big role!), and cheesemaking is one of their communal pursuits. Cheese became a part of Cobb Hill's farming repertoire in 2000 thanks to the help of Peter Dixon, a Vermont cheesemaker and cheese consultant, who helped them to develop their cheesemaking techniques. They now make over 17,000 pounds of cheese annually from the raw milk of their Jersey cows. Cobb Hill also has a communal farm where vegetables are grown, a shiitake mushroom CSA, and a maple sugar operation.

Photo Credits: Jeannine Kilbride