'LADY IN BLUE' CHEESE

'Lady in Blue' Cheese
by Lazy Lady Farm 
one 15 oz package

A rare 100% cows milk cheese from Lady Lady Farm, this is a delicate and mild blue cheese with a soft, luxurious texture produced in the Northern reaches of Vermont. 

We recommend enjoying this cheese at room temperature for optimal texture and creaminess.

Ingredients: cows milk, culture, rennet, salt.

Keeps refrigerated for 30 days.

Heritage Foods is expanding our cheese selections in partnership with the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund (ASLF), whose mission is to provide monthlong paid apprenticeships for young adults to live on sustainable farms — to work, learn, and be inspired to create change in their communities. We have selected our favorite domestically produced cheeses from ASLF partner farms for pairing with Heritage meats!

From ASLF's recent visit to Lazy Lady Farm:

It was such an honor to visit Laini Fondiller at Lazy Lady Farm, a farmstead dairy in the northern reaches of Vermont.

Lazy Lady is the furthest north farm that we visited on our recent trip — you can see the lights of Montreal from the top of her hill. The farm is solar and wind powered, there is no cell service there, it is essentially totally off the grid. Laini is a pioneer in the field of artisan cheese, having started in 1987, well before the word artisanal was even used referring to food.

Laini is happy to see us, but she moves quickly. Her Airedale terrier keeps up and follows all the proceedings. Laini takes us first to see the barn which houses big beautiful and strong Alpine goats, all of whom come up to the fence to say hello. The goats are definitely part of the family here. She takes us to her modest cheese making house which has a small steam kettle pasteurizer and cheese vat that she built many years ago. Then we are off to the side of a hill which has a door built into it — Laini knocks on it twice at two different spots, the secret to creaking it open — so that she can walk into an underground cave, filled with tiny wheels of cheese. We peak in and see so many varieties — over a dozen. She comes back out with three samples, Seedy Goat, Fool’s Gold, and her cow’s milk cheese she produces in the goat off season, Snow'd In. 

Laini is charming, no nonsense and charismatic. Even the youngest amongst us are fascinated by Laini and hang onto every word she says. Her cheeses are renowned and respected by all other artisan cheesemakers in the region. She also is a master at breeding healthy goats, genetics she shares with other local farmers. We were allowed on the farm thanks to the late Anne Saxelby the famous NY cheesemonger, who started out 20 years ago determined to run a successful shop that only sells domestic artisan cheese. Back in the day there wasn’t much artisan cheese around but there was a lot of it at Lazy Lady Farm. Laini was a hero to Anne and they talked each and every week for decades to place orders — even when Anne was on vacation. Laini is the O.G. of O.G.s and so much followed her lead - from the artisan cheese movement to advice that led to Saxelby Cheesemongers and so much more.

In Anne’s own words…

Laini Fondiller has been making cheese at Lazy Lady Farm since 1987. A true pioneer, Laini began making goat cheese in the dark ages of artisan cheese making in the United States. There were no resources, no books, no equipment, no supplies, no anything to be had to help a young cheesemaker. But the things that Laini did have (and in no short supply) were gumption, tenacity, a love of goats, and a work ethic to beat all else. Together with her partner Barry, Laini built a small steam kettle pasteurizer and cheese vat and went to town. Today she produces over 20 varieties of goat and cows' milk cheese on her remote, off-the-grid, solar and wind powered farm. Laini milks a small herd of goats - roughly 30 to 40 - from March through January, and sources cows' milk from neighboring Butterworks Farm when her goats are pregnant and 'on unemployment' during the winter months.

Laini's love of her goats is what sets her apart from other farmers. All farmers have a fondness for their animals, but to Laini, they're family. She knows all the best breeders in the country and seeks out the best genetic lines to introduce to her closed herd. The goats are the Lazy ones on the farm according to Laini, and she's absolutely right. While her goats luxuriate in lush pastures or listen to VPR in the barn, Laini flies about like a whirling dervish doing chores, making cheese, aging it, packaging it up for farmers markets, and then selling it herself at those same markets. Laini Fondiller and Lazy Lady Farm are American cheesemaking icons.