La Petite Tomme
- Producer
- Lazy Lady Farm
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Vermont
- Weight
- 6 ounces
- Website
- lazyladyfarm.com
- Milk
- Goat
- Treatment
- Pasteurised
- Classification
- Semi Soft
- Rennet
- Animal
- Rind
- Mold Ripened
- Style
- Soft-Ripened (Brie-like)
Laini Fondilier has been raising dairy goats and making cheese on a swath of green land in Westfield, Vermont for three decades. The cheesemaker first got her start during a stint in Corsica, and after moving to Vermont, began experimenting in her kitchen, eventually upping production enough to build a cheese room.
Since the beginning, the farm has been completely off-the-grid, relying on solar panels and a wind turbine in order to reduce its carbon footprint. Fondilier has also focused on using organic practices, letting her goats roam outside on pasture in summer in a system of intensive rotational grazing. In the winter, she brings hemlock and spruce branches into the goat pens and feeds the animals with hay grown on-site, plus organic grain. Today Fondilier’s cheeses, many made on a seasonal basis, are found throughout New England and as far as New York and Chicago.
La Petite Tomme, Lazy Lady’s American Cheese Society award-winning soft-ripened goat cheese, resembles a brie or camembert style with a fuzzy Penicillium candidum rind. It is available from March until December, as the farm’s goat milk supply naturally tapers off come winter.
Tasting Notes
With aromas of wet stones and cream, this super gooey disk yields flavors of water chestnut, mushrooms and minerals on the palate.
Pairings
Serve La Petite Tomme alongside Champagne or a crisp white, or simply let the disk melt all over the place and dunk radishes into its oozing paste.
