community | tradition | intention
ABOUT US
Parish Hill Creamery is a family endeavor focused on the preservation of traditional cheesemaking culture, collaborative farming and contributing to the overall health of our communities.
We make, educate and advocate for natural cheese that appreciates, learns from, and builds on the traditional modes and methods.
Natural cheese recognizes that all milk is not equal. There is a choice at every stage. From breed and feed, range and bedding, handling, pumping, filtering, hauling and storage — every choice changes the result.
We make our intentional choices and unique cheese in the village of Westminster West, Vermont.
Natural cheese offers the opportunity for cheesemakers to make something unique, something that is an expression of the land, the animals, the milk, their hands.
Our Milk
Our Cultures
Our Process
Our milk is raw.
We get beautiful milk from Elm lea farm at the Putney School, just up the road from the creamery.
The milk is the result of healthy animals grazing on lush pastures.
Our starter cultures are made from the milk of four individual cows.
The herdsmen, Pete and Phil, chose Helga, Abigail, Clothilde, and Sonia for their health, their components, and their disposition.
We make cheese by hand.
From picking up milk at the farm, to fermentation and flocculation in the vat, to hooping, salting, flipping and washing, brushing and hanging, and ultimately readying for market.
the farm
Our milk comes from grazing cows at elm lea farm
the cows graze the pastures of the elm lea farm at the putney school, just five miles south of the cheese house.
parish hill cheeses are produced seasonally, when the cows are grazing pasture.
barn and farm jobs are part of the putney school work program and provide a setting in which students can further their understanding of the relationships among work, home, and community life.
pete stickney manages the herd. a vermonter and 7th generation dairyman, pete is dedicated to producing the highest quality milk, while sharing his knowledge and experience with the putney students. pete works with the students in the barns and in the fields, and teaches history.
photos courtesy of the putney school
the cellar
the cheese ages in a repurposed root cellar and the mobile in the village of west west. years ago, david major poured a floor to age vermont shepherd in the cellar. since then, thousands of pounds of cheese have aged there well, including consider bardwell farm rupert and equinox, westminster artisan workshop cheeses, and the range of parish hill creamery offerings.
