North Meadow Farm in Manchester, Vermont

There’s a new dairy in town and they’re making cheese!

Lisa Cross, Jesse Pomeroy and David Johnson have joined forces to bring an old, tired farm in the Green Mountains of Southern Vermont back to life. With the hard work of Mario Lanzilotta, the head cheese maker and Eric Cross, carpenter extraordinaire, they have created a “silk purse from a sow’s ear.”

The Team:

Lysa Cross and her late husband were caretakers at the home of well-known author, John Irving for 23 years until he moved to Canada.

Jesse Pomeroy comes from a family that has been farming for over 5 generations. He was brought up in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire and he has been farming all his life.

Dave Johnson was leasing land at the farm for hay when he had a vision of it becoming a dairy farm and a farmstead cheese company. Now, that vision is a reality. (Photo from their Facebook page because he was out on the tractor when we visited the farm.)

Mario Lanzilotta, head cheese maker, hails from Philadelphia. He came to Vermont in the late 1990’s to attend Green Mountain College, and after many adventures, returned 15 years later.

Eric Cross made a swing for the chicken coop and now the chickens love to ride on it.

The Beginning:

When the partners began work, the farm had been unused for so long that trees were growing in the building which now houses their make room! Their first job was to rebuild it and prepare it for cheese making.

The red building is where the cheese is made and sold.

This is what it looked like when they started! (Photo from their Facebook page)

Now, less than 2 years later, they have a beautiful building, inside and out.

Entrance to the farm store.

You can see a little of the old part of the building at left.

The Farm Store (Open 10am-7pm)

This room will be an actual store in the near future, with Vermont maple ice cream being served. (The goal is to have an opening on Memorial Day in 2018.) Until then, you can come there and buy their meat, eggs, raw milk and cheese. There is even a viewing window, so you can watch the cheese being made.

Cheese Curds and Baby Gouda. Their first batch of Wenslydale is aging and will be available soon.

Cheese curds are primarily used for making poutine, a popular Canadian dish.

A Destination Spot:

Hay rides, sleigh rides and petting the baby goats! There is a lot going on at the farm, so you might want to take a trip to see how it all works. There are all kinds of livestock to see, hay rides in the summer and sleigh rides in the winter. The owners want to educate folks about where their food comes from.

Photo from their website.

Hay for the livestock.

Most of the cows were out in the fields when we came. This photo was taken from their website.

The calves are fed hay and a tiny amount of custom blended, nutritional grain to keep them healthy.

There are 3 baby goats, 1 month old at the time of this article. They were rescued when they were 1 day old and they imprinted to Lysa.

Chickens. (One of them gets out regularly and no one knows how!)

The chickens have a luxury pen with a swing for the young ones to play on. See the video at their Facebook page- July 1,2017

Incubator for the baby chicks.

This boar appears to weigh more than a car. He has a mate and 4 “little” ones nearby.

Bernie is the farm mascot. Mario (his owner) brings him to work with him most days.

The Milk Room

In many states, when you sell raw milk, the milk vat must be separated from the cheese vat.

The Make Room

Lysa and Mario Lanzilotta make the cheese.

Cutting the curd for Baby Gouda

Mario first became interested in making cheese when he took a trip to the Italian Alps while in college. He slept in chalets there and he tasted the wonderful Alpine cheese and butter they made.

Mario Lanzilotta

132 gallons of milk after being renneted.

Lysa showing us one of the curd cutters they had made specifically for their vat.

Stirring the curds to dispel whey. The whey goes to the pigs and some of the bigger calves.

When the pH is right, Mario drains 1/3 of the whey from the vat and replaces it with water (part of the “washed curd” process).

Getting the molds ready for the Baby Gouda

This vertical press takes up very little space in the room.