From Federal Hill to a family dairy in Vermont, tracing food traditions

Serious travelers know that food is intrinsically tied to place. It’s a window into a region’s culture, history, and personality. Here in New England, a dozen or so tours tap into the food traditions of distinctive places.

Howell, an avowed locavore, started Vermont Farm Tours three years ago. He offers half- and full-day tours to farms, vineyards, and cheesemakers. His goal, he says, is “to connect my guests with place through food and the people growing that food’’ while helping small farms and entrepreneurs and running a business that supports him “financially and spiritually.’’ Tours average four to eight people, whom Howell transports in a car or van past the corn and hay fields of rural Vermont.

At Champlain Valley Creamery in Vergennes, we tasted Carleton Yoder’s organic cream cheese and triple crème round, while the cheese maker walked us through the production process. The cream cheese was surprisingly soft, lacking the stabilizers that make the store-bought variety stiff. The triple crème was rich, earthy, and smooth. Yoder’s milk all comes from a single herd of cows at nearby Journey’s Hope Farm.

Ken and Gail Albert have been making wine in Vermont for 13 years, but just opened their Shelburne Vineyard winery three years ago, where they offer tastings and tours. The success of Vermont wines, Ken Albert said, is largely due to the perfection of hybrid cold-weather grapes at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s. With some 10 acres under cultivation, the Alberts grow about half the grapes used in their wines and import the rest from within a 300-mile radius.

While cold climates generally favor white wines, the Alberts have high hopes for the 2010 vintage of Marquette, a red wine grown entirely from estate grapes that already produces a rich, smooth finish despite the fact that it is still maturing.