Since 2003
It started with
twenty balls of mozzarella.
The flashback
Manchester, Vermont. 2003.
Visiting Manchester, Johann Englert had a flashback to her college years abroad: a cluster of fresh mozzarella balls on the counter of an Italian specialty shop took her straight back to a tiny groceria she and her mother had visited in the Italian countryside.
To her surprise, these Vermont artisans were producing genuine, old-world mozzarella. Since she couldn't find cheese like it in Boston, she bought twenty balls on the spot — and asked the owner's son, third-generation cheesemaker Mike Scheps, if he'd supply her with more.
Little did they know, a business was born.
How it grew
From a kitchen to the Green Mountains' creamery
Five out of six gourmet shops in Boston want more of this genuine mozzarella. Shops sell out as fast as Johann and Mike can supply it — and Maplebrook Farm is born. Johann is 69 when she starts the company; within the first year, the cheese is in ten regional Whole Foods.
The operation grows from a kitchen, to a small store, to a 50,000 square-foot creamery in North Bennington. An apprenticeship program teaching the art of mozzarella starts with three local Vermonters and grows into today's 65-person team. The awards start stacking up: American Cheese Society first places for burrata, feta and ricotta alta.
Johann Englert — remembered by her grandson as "a total warrior," still working cheese shows at 80 — passes away after 17 years of spreading the word. Alex Englert joins the family business, and today co-owns Maplebrook alongside Mike.
Ploughgate Creamery — Vermont's most beloved cultured butter — joins the Maplebrook family, with founder Marisa Mauro leading product innovation across both brands.
65 employees make 40,000 pounds of cheese weekly, in small batches, every day of the week — plus cultured butter and new 88% butterfat butter sheets for the baking world.