PUTNEY — The continual debate of what defines “craft” usually centers on the distinction between fine arts and artisan work.
But the concept of “craft” can also be expanded in other ways, too.
At least that is what the Putney Craft Tour contends, as this year it will include such disciplines as the making of cheese, the breeding of rare sheep, and the spinning of fiber yarns.
During each day during the long Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 28, 29, and 30, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., the Putney Craft Tour once again will give shoppers, visitors, collectors, and the curious a chance to visit the workshops and farms of glass blowers, potters, jewelers, weavers, woodworkers, oil painters, blacksmiths, and cheesemakers.
Visitors will be able to come in, discover, ask questions, and find that one-of-a-kind gift, purchasing it directly from the artisan who made it.
The tour starts at The Gleanery (133 Main St.), or across the street at the Putney General Store and Pharmacy (4 Kimball Hill Rd.).
At either location, visitors will find information and a preview exhibition of the artisans' works, along with a guide map to find the craftspeople and their studios.
This year, the Putney Craft Tour will place a special emphasis on food and agriculture.
The tour will help raise funds for those in need of food, as each studio will earmark an object for sale whose proceeds will go to the Putney Foodshelf.
Added to the tour this year are two new agricultural artisans: shepherd Betsy MacIsaac of Crooked Fence Farm and cheesemaker Peter Dixon of Parish Hill Creamery.
MacIsaac and Dixon join David Major of Vermont Shepherd, who makes sheep's-milk cheese and has been part of the tour for several years.
Preserving a rare sheep breed
MacIsaac proudly raises the rarest breed of sheep in North America, the endangered California Variegated Mutant (CVM)/Romeldale sheep. She also tends Merino sheep, as well as cashmere goats and bees. Visitors will find numerous chickens running all around her farm.
The CVM/Romeldale was first bred by A.T. Spencer in the early 1900s, according MacIsaac, who writes at her website.
“Spencer crossed imported New Zealand Marsh Romney rams with his Rambouillet ewes with the intent to increase the staple and quality of fleece and to improve the carcass quality,” she writes, explaining that the CVM is a color mutation within the the Romeldale breed.
“During the 1960s, Glen Eidman found a multi-colored ewe lamb in his purebred Romeldale flock,” she says. “Through subsequent breeding the CVM breed was painstakingly developed over a 15-year period.”
MacIsaac told The Commons that, more recently, interest in the breed has diminished, so it became endangered.
“Besides desiring this particular type of wool, I feel I am here to protect the breed for posterity,” she says.
MacIsaac adds that she always wanted to do some farming.
“But life doesn't always let you follow the order you want,” she says. “I used to live in Vermont, but my husband has a business in New York City, so we moved to a town that was an hour outside of Manhattan, where I raised a family.”
But once the kids had grown, MacIsaac was faced with the decision of what to do with the rest of her life.
“I figured now was the time to take the leap and commit to do what I always had wanted. Back here in Vermont, we found a farm for sale, which in fact was the very farm my husband and I dreamed of owning when we were young.”
She feels that this 80-acre farm is very special.
“It was settled by the Aplins, whose family continued to farm on site until the late 1960s, which is almost 200 years. I think that's pretty great.
“It is a beautiful farm on the Connecticut River. There is a splendid 1950s barn and the Aplin family cemetery. I foremost see my mission as being the steward of this land, and caring for animals is second to that.”
MacIsaac admits that sheep farming is harder than she thought it would be. “There certainly is more to it than in my romantic visions of farming,” she says. “It's a 24-hour, 365-day job, but I love it.”
Both her Merinos and Romeldale/CVM sheep grow very fine, “next-to-your-skin”-soft wool in a range of natural colors.
“I handspin a select number of fleeces, while the majority of fiber is sent to a small Vermont mill, where it is processed into roving and yarn,” she says. “To complement the whites, browns, and greys, I use natural dyes to add color to the palette.”
Using this wool, MacIsaac also weaves scarves, which will be on sale during the tour. A lover of textiles, she learned to knit and sew from her mother.
“In my younger days, I did custom dressmaking, often with handwoven Irish woolens and lovely English and Indian cottons,” she says.
Raw cheese with Italian inspiration
Parish Hill Creamery is also a new addition to the tour this year, although its founder Peter Dixon had participated several years ago as part of Westminster Dairy.
Dixon started making cheese in Guilford back in 1983, and he created Parish Hill Creamery two years ago with his wife Rachel Fritz Schaal, and her sister, Alex Schaal, to produce seasonal, handmade, raw milk cheeses inspired by traditional cheeses of Italy.
Dixon collaborates with The Putney School, using milk from the school's Elm Lea Farm just five miles south of the cheese house.
The milking herd grazes on hillside pastures, yielding milk with high aromatic quality to create cheeses with a complex, subtle flavor.
Parish Hill Creamery cheeses are made from raw milk, creamery-propagated cultures, traditional European rennet, and Maine sea salt.
“Peter, who is an authority on cheese making, will tell you that raw milk makes the best cheese,” says Rachel Schaal. “Raw milk is full of live microbes, which gives the textures and flavors to cheese. Pasteurizing milk kills them off. We also milk our cows by hand to preserve the microbes.”
As owner of Dairy Foods Consulting and Westminster Artisan Cheesemaking, Schaal has worked with hundreds of cheesemakers from Albania to Shanghai and has hosted workshops around Vermont and the United States dedicated to helping dairy farmers and aspiring cheese makers to develop strong, safe, and rewarding cheese businesses.
“We only make cheese when cows are in pasture, which is about five months a year,” says Schaal. “But during that time we work very hard.”
To choose cows to use for their cheese, the Dixons and their associates asked the people at The Putney School which cows they liked best, Schaal says.
“They choose favorites by temperament, high milk yield, babies, and the milk's taste and microbe counts, the last of which is important for cheese making,” Schaal says. “After they suggested six animals, we ultimately narrowed the choice to three cows that we used.”
Parish Hill Creamery also makes all of its own cheese cultures from the milk at The Putney School.
As Schaal explains, “Although this process is still sometimes seen in Europe, making cheese cultures is very rare in American. But Peter is convinced that it is essential to enhance the flavor by making the cultures from the milk used for the cheese.”
All of Parish Hill's cheese are aged from three months up to (so far) 14 months in its cave in Westminster.
“Since we have been in business only two years, that is about as long as we can so far,” adds Schaal.
The tour offers a rare glimpse of Parish Hill Creamery's operations, as the facility is not usually open to the public.
“We have a really tiny creamery and people simply can't walk around in it when we are working,” says Schaal. “But since our cheese-making season is over, folks are welcome now. We will have a cheese tasting and the public can buy our cheeses.”
Schaal promises that visitors will see cheese at different stages of development, as well as 45-pound wheels of cheese - most likely the largest cheese they've ever set their eyes on.
“This is the best work I have ever done,” says Schaal. “So it will be great to see the look of pleasure on their faces when people on the tour taste our delightful cheeses.”