The Big Cheese (1/3)
Tourists visit Vermont dairy artisans

Mary Lou Strodel stares through the glass wall separating her from Shelburne Farms cheese maker Jamie Yturriondobeitia, hard at work on the day's batch of cheddar. "It's fascinating," says Strodel, 44, of Atlanta, Georgia, as Yturriondobeitia stirs the hours-old milk from   the farm's small herd of Brown Swiss cows, which are grazing* in the grassy fields just outside. 、"I didn't realize there were so many steps."

Strodel watches as Yturriondobeitia, working over a stainlesssteel vat, prepares to drain off the separating milk's liquidy whey* , leaving a rich, clumpy curd.* Later, she'll slice it into slabs, then stack and rotate it in an age-old solidifying* process known as cheddaring. By morning, after more cutting, salting and pressing, she'll have solid 40-pound blocks, though it'll take six months, a year or even more of aging in Shelburne's cellars before the cheese is ready for the tasting table nearby.

Not that the wait isn't worth it.Strodel devours* a small block of smoked cheddar from a row of samples---a final reward after a 30-minute tour of Shelbure Farms that also includes a wagon ride through rolling pastures and a stop at the historic Victorian main house.

Specialty food
Foodie tourism * has a new player: Vermont and its artisan cheese makers. Over the past two decades, in a gourmet cheese-making revival that is gaining recognition nationwide, more than 30 of the state's small dairy farms have begun churning out high-end, handcrafted cheddars, goudas, chevre, blues and even buffalo mozzarella; and nearly two dozen have opened for tours, tastings and direct sales.

Dairy-dominated Vermont has a long and storied history of cheese making. In the 19th century it harbored hundreds of small producers. But industrialization ,* and the growth of cheese-making mega-factories, ended the small-farm, artisan tradition a century ago.

Vocabulary Focus
graze (v) --- to eat fresh grass which is growing in a pasture
solidifying (adj) --- describing the process of becoming solid
devour (v) --- to eat something eagerly and in large amounts so that nothing is left
industrialization (n ) --- within a country, the process of developing companies and activities that primarily produce goods for sale

Specialized Terms
whey (n) --- 乳清 the watery part of milk which is separated from the solid curds during the process of making cheese
curd (n) --- 凝乳 the solid substance which forms when milk turns sour
foodie tourism (n phr) --- 美食观光业 the business of providing services for people who travel to places to experience the local foods