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Friday, 20 March 2009 00:19

Twenty two thousand square feet, seven underground vaults and a dream as big as the American cheese movement, Cellars is cutting edge and visionary both in its conception and implementation. Five years ago Mateo and Andy Kehler and their families started making cheese at Jasper Hill Farm, and inspired by their experience and success, were happy to explore the opportunity to expand by starting this new company when it was presented. The concept of Cellars fits perfectly into the long-term vision and goals that began with the birth of Jasper Hill Farm.

Cellars is the realization of a dream that has become a reality through innovation, vision and lots of hard work. It is about farm viability. The Kehlers began farming and making cheese with a goal of creating a model to be replicated by other farmers in Vermont who wished to diversify their quickly disappearing farms into more workable options.

However, getting set up to make cheese can be challenging enough without the added stress of aging and marketing that cheese. The purpose of creating the aging facility was to provide a place for cheesemakers to send their “green” cheeses to be ripened and marketed by staff who are specially trained to do just that. By reducing the initial investment and training needed by farms trying to diversify, Cellars will provide opportunity to a greater number of those farms.

Cellars will take each cheese from every farm, with all of its unique flavors and distinct characteristics and guide it along its path of maturation to reach its every potential of goodness. As a marketing force behind that cheese, we hope to relieve small cheesemakers who wish to simply make cheese, of the burden of being constantly engrossed in all of the intricate details that are involved in maintaining customer relations and keeping their cheeses in healthy circulation. By having a central location from which to distribute and ship the cheese, Cellars will help to ensure that cheese arrives to its destination in the shortest time and best shape possible. Finally, as a company, Cellars will be contributing directly to the expansion of the farmstead model and the maintenance of farming culture and the working landscape in Vermont. As residents of this beautiful state, we hope for nothing less.