RILEY'S 2×4 from BLUE LEDGE FARM (Salisbury, VT)
A handmade mixed raw milk cheese with a smooth texture and full-bodied flavor.
Rileys 2×4 is a raw milk Blue Ledge Farm original. Named “Riley” after their herding dog, it is a blend of MoSe Farm Ayrshire cow milk and raw milk from their goats, hand-made and pressed into six-pound wheels and cave-aged over three months. It is nutty, smooth, full-bodied, and matched with a sweet finish.
Hannah and Greg believe in a food system based on a cornerstone of respect for the land, animals, consumers, and the local community. They both celebrate the opportunity to raise healthy, contented animals and make great cheese!
Blue Ledge Farm began as a dream in Florence, Italy where Greg and Hannah met while studying the art and culture of Europe. In 2000, the two began the work of transforming an old cow dairy farm back into production with goats. The barn, which once housed seventy Holstein cows, would now be home to Alpine and La Mancha dairy goats. They started by milking four goats at Blue Ledge Farm and then began processing cheese two years later. Today, Hannah and Greg milk over 100 goats and produce 11 types of cheese—from very fresh to semi-aged bloomy rind cheeses, and harder cheeses aged three months. True to their mission, they focus on sustaining a high-quality, consistent product with lots of attention and gentle handling.
Hunger Mountain Co-op had a wonderful highlight of Blue Ledge Farm as their Featured Vendor in December 2018. You can read their in-depth article here.
The 150 acres of Blue Ledge Farm consist of woods, hayland, pastures, and wetlands. In 2004, they financed their cheese room construction by selling development rights to the Vermont Land Trust, thereby ensuring the land would always be open and never developed. In 2009, wetlands were identified as one of the farm’s great natural resources, and so they agreed to conserve those fifty acres of wetlands and return them to their natural state as a valuable part of the local ecosystem. The goats spend their spring, summer, and fall days browsing in the woods before returning to the barn for their 4 p.m. milking. Finally, they lounge around in a grass pasture as evening sets.
Visit the cheesemaker's website here to learn more about their farm and their many cheeses!