Crowley Cheese Company, Healdville VT.

Crowley Cheese Company, Healdville VT.

Another one of the cheeses to be featured at the wine dinner at Birch Ridge on Saturday night comes from the Crowley Cheese Factory in Healdville Vermont. Believed to be the oldest continously operating cheese factory in the western hemisphere, Crowley's cheesemaking history began in 1824, but it was not until 1882, when Winfield Crowley built the present-day factory.

Crowley Cheese is made a few hundred pounds a day in the same building entirely by hand, exactly the same way as in the last century. The cheese, classified as a Colby, is similar to English Style cheddars, but not as acidic or dry. It has a nice sharpness, but it is also quite creamy in texture. At the wine dinner on Saturday night at Birch Ridge, Crowley Cheese will be one of the featured cheeses served with the dessert course.