Grafton Village Cheese Shop
33 Townshend Road
Grafton, VT 05146
800-472-3866
Daniel’s House Café
92 Main St
Grafton, VT 05146
800-843-1801
Part of: Vermont 08 – Cheese & Tasty Things Tour
Our visit a couple of years ago to Grafton Village Cheese Company is what really planted the seed in our minds for our ’08 Cheese Tour. Grafton Cheddar defines what good cheddar should taste like. One of the best parts of visiting is that you can try all of the different flavors and ages of cheese that they make. One of the other benefits of visiting is that they sell blocks of cheese that they have miss cut at a discount. These blocks are either a little over or under weight. We picked up about a pound of 4 year old cheddar for $5!
There is a window where you can look in on the cheese making area…unfortunately we showed up when nothing was going on. Maybe next time!
Just as we were leaving, I came across this quite little newt wandering through the parking lot. I thought the right thing to do would be to move it closer to the neighboring stream. I left it on a tree stump, but the newt promptly walked off the edge and free fell down the bank. Newts are real. I looked them up on the Internet later and it looks like the newt may have been slightly poisonous. It is only really dangerous if you touch the newt and then lick your fingers…like you might do while eating a sample of delicious cheese you just purchased. Luckily there were no fatalities on this tour.
There is also a nice little cafe in Grafton that we always visit called Daniel’s House Cafe. They have great sandwiches, some featuring Grafton Cheddar. Grafton is also a beautiful place to visit, so make sure you poke around.
I also have to share one recipe from their website. I haven’t tried it yet, but combining two bottles of beer and a lot of cheese can only result in something pretty damn tasty.
Cheddar Cheese Soup
From: Grafton Village Cheese
Ingredients:
- 2 12 oz cans or bottles of beer
- 1 qt heavy cream
- 1 lb grated Grafton Cheddar
- 2 Tbs flour
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
Directions:
- Heat melted butter and mix in flour to make a roux. Remove from heat. Cook until smooth.
- Boil beer and whisk in roux. Cook until thickened. Add cream and bring to just under boiling. Whisk in cheese until melted. Add salt and pepper.
- Serve with croutons. Serves eight.
Frederick Donaldson
Public Relations
I love Cheese. I love newts, too. But I don’t eat them.
Grafton Village does a nice little tour of their cheese warehouse, too. And in the shop, you can taste cheeses that have been aged from one to six years. They seem to do most of their production and tours in the morning.