Last month, staff had a training session with Connie, Cabot’s rep in the southeastern United States. As we snacked on samples of the lighter flavored Orne Meadows, named after Cabot’s first cheesemaker, and a sharper vintage cheddar, Connie reviewed Cabot’s history.
Many Vermont dairy farmers were lost in the “dairy buyout” of 1986, when prices fell so low that they took an option offered by the government to leave farming. Cabot’s farmers, who’d formed a co-op in Vermont in 1919 and begun processing their milk into butter and cheese, were less susceptible to the price drops. In 1992, Cabot’s farmer-owners merged with the farm families of Agri-mark, a southern New England co-op formed in 1918. As the co-op’s size has grown, they’ve been careful to maintain quality standards; for example, full-time graders taste the aging cheeses, deciding which batches will age longest and which will be sold as milder cheddars. The co-op works in a grassroots style, on a limited budget to maximize the amount paid to farmer members. The co-op has prospered with its award-winning cheeses and innovative products like whey protein, produced at a plant in Middlebury, Vermont. (The whey protein makes use of a cheese waste product and saves the co-op millions of dollars.) Today, 1100 farm families produce milk for four processing plants.
A typical Cabot farmer has between 90 and 125 cows. For Cabot, quality starts at the cow level: field reps inspect farms and form relationships with farmers, advising them on feed. The co-op also supports participation in the National Dairy FARM Program, “Farmers Assuring Responsible Management.” Samples are taken of all milk before it is unloaded at a plant; the co-op’s standards are more stringent than either state or federal standards.
Our partnership with Cabot has expanded in the last year. We’ve begun carrying many of their non-cheese products, like Greek yogurt and whipped cream. Our kitchen and bakeries use Cabot butter, and their cottage cheese is on our salad bars. Our kitchen uses about 800 pounds of shredded cheddar each week; we buy the “trim” from Cabot’s plants, which is packaged together, wrapped, and sold cheaply. The Food House’s weekly orders have helped our stores place their smaller orders more easily.
Look for Cabot products on Owner Special this month, starting with Cabot cream cheese this week for $1.69.