Beecher's Handmade Cheese

Brothers Mateo and Andy Kehler started a farmstead cheesemaking operation called Jasper Hill Farm in 2002. Their farmstead is located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and provides adequate pasture for their 46 registered Ayrshire cows. The farm and cheesemaking operation were only the beginning for the Kehlers who had a vision for reestablishing a vibrant rural economy in a part of the country that was once a true working landscape. Through Jasper Hill Farm, they sought to demonstrate a viable, agricultural family business that could be replicated by struggling dairy farmers. Having gone through the process of developing farmstead cheeses and creating demand for them in the market, the Kehlers clearly saw where the roadblocks were likely to be for other dairy farmers. The construction of the Cellars, a 22,000 square foot aging facility with 7 distinct vaults and staffed with trained affineurs, was intended to remove the biggest road blocks in artisan cheese—aging, and sales and marketing-- and make it more inviting to dairy farmers. The Cellars at Jasper Hill currently works with 6 producers (not including Jasper Hill Farm) to see their cheeses from their young, delicate forms through to market-ready maturity. Producers working in this model also rely on the Cellars for distribution and sales of their cheese and this frees them up to focus on their dairy and their cheese(s). This is the first facility of its kind in the United States.

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