CELLARS AT JASPER HILL
For me, this is the single most exciting addition to the brand new indoor BOSTON PUBLIC MARKET.
Jasper Hill Farms of Vermont is one of America’s (if not the World’s) great cheesemakers, and they are now offering their amazing cheeses for sale directly in Boston in the only locally sourced market of its kind in the US (everything offered at BPM is sourced from New England). A match made in heaven!
Be sure to try their rightly famous Bayley Hazen Blue (a raw cow milk natural rind blue cheese), which won Best Unpasteurized Cheese at the 2014 World Cheese Awards in London.
I also love their raw milk, bloomy rind Constant Bliss cheese, which is named for a scout in Washington’s army during the Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, thanks to evil fun-squashers the FDA who are terrified of a bacteria’s shadow, it is no longer being produced (raw milk aged under 60 days).
And, BTW, at Boston Public Market, they make a damn fine grilled cheese sandwich too (and a few other items like potato raclette, mac n’ cheese and custom cheese platters).
The grilled cheese is made with their Alpha Tolman, a raw cow milk cheese in the Appenzeller style aged for 8-12 months. Buttery and nutty, crisp and melty, this is an excellent grilled cheese sandwich (although if I were making this at home, I’d pile on a bit more cheese so it was more oozy).
Be prepared to wait for your sandwich, it takes a while, so order it first and then taste test some of the other cheeses while you wait. I dare you to not buy some to take home! The cheesemonger lady is delightful (although the chef is too busy to talk, and the guy at the cash register needs to work on his social skills).
3 hr parking for only $3 dollars upstairs in the BPM building (needs validation from a vendor). Also next to the Haymarket outdoor farmer’s market and a short walk to Boston’s North End (head to Maria’s Pastry Shop to get a cannoli for dessert!).