Things have been very quiet at Vermont Shepherd in Westminster, Vermont. Margie, who handles the books, is around only 5 hours a week. Cindy and David Major, who own Vermont Shepherd, haven’t had to spend too much time in the office. The phone just isn’t ringing. There are four wheels of Vermont Shepherd left. The rest sold out in late March. The improvised farm stand at the end of the driveway has deterred visitors from venturing nearer the farm, but in just a few weeks there won’t be enough cheese available to stock the stand.
In recent years this has not been the case during May. Sales are usually brisk and Cindy and Margie spend a lot of time answering calls and filling orders while the cheesemaking team makes next fall’s Vermont Shepherd cheese. But the two cheeses that have allowed Vermont Shepherd to make and sell cheese year round have been voluntarily pulled from the market, and may never be made again.
Timson and Putney Tomme were two new additions to the Vermont Shepherd line. They were the only two additions ever made (unless you count Shepherd’s Tomme, which was just lower quality Vermont Shepherd). Both were good, but in this cheesemonger’s opinion, Timson had become great in the last few months. Made from raw cow’s milk and aged just 60 days, Timson was a washed-rind joy. It was about 12” in diameter, bright orange with b.linens, strong with the flavor of mushrooms, and soft, almost runny. I adored this cheese – I called Cindy one day just to talk with her about how much I loved it and how I thought it could be improved (smaller format, wood box like an Epoisses). Not more than a week later Cindy called to tell me that she needed me to send back my Timson, and more importantly, all of my Putney Tomme.
Putney Tomme is a cheese modeled on the Tomme de Savoie. It is earthy, chewy, and covered with a rough bark-like rind. I enjoyed this raw cow’s milk cheese, but I never loved it. Tomme de Savoie, in its farmhouse version, was almost always better.
Sadly, it is the Putney Tomme that caused the recall of all of Vermont Shepherd’s cow’s milk cheeses. A Boston vendor (my guess is Formaggio Kitchen), sold some Putney Tomme to a restaurant, where the cheese was featured on the cheese plate. The next day a number of customers called the restaurant to report severe stomach problems. The common denominator was the cheese.
Cindy checked her records. She located several cheeses from the same batch and had them tested by the University of Vermont. Several weeks earlier the FDA had inspected their plant and had also taken samples. Both tests had the same results – negative. Negative for listeria, negative for salmonella, negative for e. Coli. She retested the cheese. Still nothing.
Meanwhile every piece of Timson and Putney Tomme in the US began arriving at the farm. Pieces wrapped in plastic with Whole Foods price tags, half wheels, full wheels – all of it to be destroyed. Cindy and David had decided not to take a chance; they sent letters to all of their customers requesting the return of Timson and Putney Tomme. Everyone was to be credited for the loss. Everyone except Vermont Shepherd, which would have to absorb every penny.
Cindy began to suspect that there might be something else in the milk causing illness, something they had not tested. Staph was a likely candidate – it could have been present in the milk. And because the milk was unpasteurized, the staph could have easily flourished and multiplied, causing terrible symptoms.
News of the recall didn’t make it to the press. Coincidentally, New York Times food writer Marian Burros was in Vermont to write a story on cheesemakers of the Northeast. Although almost everyone had heard about the recall, none of the cheesemakers she visited gave her details. At least that’s what they told me.
Burros called Cindy just a few days after the recall started. In the cheese world, news spreads quickly, and any number of people – other cheesemakers, fromagers, shop owners – could have leaked the news. The recall was never a secret, but because the public tends to misunderstand the workings of raw milk cheesemaking and media reporting often leads to hysteria and demands for changes in an already difficult regulatory environment, there is a tacit understanding that unless a recall is demanded by the FDA, the topic will not be discussed. Cindy ended up eating dinner with Marian and gave her a new angle for her story – the public health angle. The article will come out within the next few weeks.
Already there has been some confusion. John Putnam, of Thistle Hill, the maker of Tarentaise, reported receiving a call from a cheese buyer asking if he was recalling his cheese. The caller had confused “Putnam” with Putney.
Cindy and David have not yet decided if they are going to continue producing Timson and Putney Tomme. The cheeses, although delicious, have not been money makers for the farm. The small farmers who produced the milk made money, but Cindy and David, who produced the cheese, found their profits absorbed by high labor costs and milk cost. Sure it kept them busy during the spring and summer, but ultimately, even artisan cheesemakers must make money to keep their operations viable.
Small cheesemakers who have chosen a responsible, but difficult, path should be recognized for their actions. Legally the Majors did not need to recall their products; the federally administered tests were negative. They did nonetheless, at a great financial loss. If their actions protect US farmhouse cheesemakers from regulatory vipers who want to reduce our artisan cheese industry to a shadow of what it could be, the Majors should be commended for their actions and supported with our dollars.