The Hunt will serving up cheese, art, outdoor, and history experiences for tourists and locals again.
Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Cheese Council has announced that July will mark the start of The Hunt for 2023. On July 1, the event will launch clue packets for its fourth year – providing curated “to do” list of cheese-oriented, outdoor, food and beverage, history, and art experiences for both visitors to the state and locals alike.
The event is designed as a scavenger hunt in which participants can explore six different regions of the state, selecting region-specific activities and experiences to do – with the end “prize” of potentially winning cheese at the end of their adventures.
“In the last few years, our cheese prize boxes usually have cheeses from 5-7 different cheese producers from around the state, and each box has included three and a half to four and a half pounds of cheese. If you love cheese – that’s a pretty delicious win,” says Marty Mundy, executive director for the Vermont Cheese Council. “
More than just a cheese lover’s adventure, the 10 clues in each region’s clue packet help visitors find things “to do” in an easy-to-digest format. Tucked into the event’s recommended resources to find food and farm trails, beer trails, historic guides, cycling, hiking, outdoor art installation, and other “experience” suggestions – are links to over 1000 other non-cheese Vermont experiences and things to do.
The event was originally designed in 2020 to help both locals and visitors to Vermont get out and about, have fun, and get some guidance on “what to do” during the peak of the COVID pandemic. Since then, the event has grown and been enjoyed by visitors to the state when planning cheese lovers’ birthday weekends, honeymoons, weekend adventures for Vermont guests.
“We’ve had prize winners from across the country,” shares Mundy. “Our furthest participants have been, as far as we know, from Kazakhstan – guests of Vermont residents who used The Hunt to help introduce them to the state.”
About Vermont Cheese Council
The Vermont Cheese Council (VCC) is a member-driven 501(c)6 organization founded over 20 years ago by Vermont cheesemaking businesses to foster the Vermont cheese community, pursue collective learning efforts, and combine their collective marketing power in representing the Vermont Cheese Brand. Today, VCC’s core members include 40+ cheese-producing organizations from across Vermont, along with cheese distributors, retail shops, restaurants, grocery stores and suppliers that collaborate to sell and support those cheese producers. VCC hosts the Vermont Cheese Trail; The Hunt; education programs such as the Artisan Cheesemakers Winter Conference and Business Miniversity program; and the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, voted a top 10 US food festival by USA Today.
Source: Waitsfield, VT (June 2023) Vermont Cheese Council (vtcheese.com)
