In this video Food 52 chats with Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund apprentice Bobby Boucher throughout his day at Jasper Hill Farm. From the cheddar caves to catching up at Hill Farmstead brewery, come follow along!

There is no time to donate money to charity like the present—though the holidays surely get the ball rolling. This year, Kristina Graeber—Director of Programs at the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund—shares a list of her favorite food-related organizations (including ASLF of course) in hopes of furthering donations among New York readers, and then some.

Featured in Edible Manhattan

MANHATTAN, NY, September 13, 2023—The entire New York City (and beyond) food world gathered at Chelsea Market to celebrate the extraordinary life and mission of Anne Saxelby, the pioneering cheesemonger often credited with launching the artisanal cheese movement in the United States. Her shop, Saxelby Cheesemongers, first opened in Manhattan at Essex Market in 2006, a time when American cheesemaking was synonymous with commodity, mass-market products; at that time, chefs and gourmets looked to European producers for quality cheeses. Saxelby’s shop, an almost instant hit, was revolutionary for selling only American-made cheeses sourced from small producers; the shop’s mission was to support sustainable American agricultural practices and to help rural communities find sustaining markets for the goods they produce. Though she died in 2021 at the age of 40, her advocacy for American farmstead cheesemakers will be felt among American cheese makers, chefs, and cheese lovers for decades to come.

Featured in Cheese Professor

By Pamela Vachon

The 2nd annual benefit for the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund was held on September 13, 2023, in New York’s dynamic Chelsea Market, an event important enough to the NYC culinary community to close down this heavily-trafficked, historic market for the evening. Along with the American Cheese Society annual conference, the Cheesemonger Invitational, and other important cheese events throughout the year, aficionados might want to keep this one on their to-attend list in years to come as well, not so much for the cheese, (though of course it had its place,) but for the spirit.

Featured in Grub Street

By Alan Sytsma | Illustration by Margalit Cutler

… The rest of the afternoon’s projects, emails, etc., made the day fly by until we were off to meet our friends Shea and Connor at Chelsea Market for the annual Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund Benefit.

Featured in Edible Manhattan

A delicious evening with 100 of NYC’s most beloved chefs to celebrate Anne’s life and raise money for the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund.

Featured on WNYC

Allison Stewart interviewing Patrick Martins

Featured in Culture

This week, the culinary world remembers and celebrates Anne Saxelby, New York’s iconic cheesemonger and champion of American artisan cheesemakers, two years after her passing. To honor her legacy, the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund (ASLF) will transform Chelsea Market into a haven for cheese enthusiasts on September 13th, marking the second annual benefit event in support of its sustainable farming apprenticeship program.

Arts | Community Organizations | Events

By Traven Rice

Here are some suggestions for upcoming events that are on our radar:

For all of you readers who are here for the food…look no further. Next week, the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund is hosting their annual event & you’re going to want to be there. ASLF is a non profit founded after the passing of Anne Saxelby, the great cheesemonger who is credited with launching the artisan cheese movement in the United States. The benefit at Chelsea Market on September 13th will be the culinary event of the year, with food by NYC's most loved restaurants like Little Egg, Roberta’s, Yellow Rose &&& many more. Anne had so many chefs who admired her and they are almost all coming out to celebrate her and the non-profit in her name. Head here for more info & to grab tix!!

Featured in Inside + Out

by Rebecca Collins Brooks

The view from the kitchen window was beautiful. The last day of July was proving to be one of the best of the summer, but I was nervous. The Catskills off in the distance were sublime, and closer to the house, my chickens were pecking noisily around the yard surrounding their coop. Even my favorite view didn’t help my nerves. I was awaiting the arrival of our farm apprentice, coming to live and work with us for the month of August. It would mean a stranger in this house with two introverts, a pasture filled with cows, and 100 chickens that we knew would be harvested in 3 days. I was as tense as a clock whose spring was wound too tight.

Featured in Astoria Post

By Ethan Marshall

Astoria resident Xochitl Fernandez was one of four college students selected to take part in an apprenticeship during the summer at the Queens County Farm Museum. Fernandez, who currently attends New York City College of Technology, received the apprenticeship through the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund.

The life and impact of the renowned artisanal cheesemaker and pioneering advocate of the American farmstead movement, Anne Saxelby, will be celebrated at the second annual benefit for the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund (ASLF) on Wednesday, September 13, from 6 – 10 pm. Expanding upon the successful inaugural benefit in 2022, Chelsea Market will be transformed into a gastronomic showcase to raise money to support the ASLF, which matches individuals with family or community-run farms with fully paid apprenticeships – including salary, travel, room, board and all other expenses paid – so that they may learn sustainable practices and contribute to the continuity of local, organic farming.

inRegister, October 5, 2022

Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont, is one of several sites collaborating with the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund to host monthlong paid apprenticeships for young adults to spark their interest in sustainable agriculture and create change in their communities. I learned about Anne Saxelby when she passed away at the age of 40 in 2021. A pioneer of artisan American cheeses who networked with small dairy farmers and big city chefs and founder of Saxelby Cheesemongers in Manhattan, Saxelby’s mission was cut short. Her family and extended community of supporters are continuing her legacy with the apprenticeship program, and my lucky daughter, a recent LSU graduate, was in the first class of apprentices.

The Cheese Professor, by Pamela Vachon, June 15, 2022

In the wake of beloved cheese personality Anne Saxelby’s untimely death, her husband, Patrick Martins, founder of Heritage Foods USA, knew that something needed to be done to continue her work. “Right away I knew we had to do something to keep her memory alive, keep her active and part of the news,” he says. “I had to do something big.” What Anne Saxelby created in her short life is already incredibly impactful, and so it’s fitting that the project Martins spearheaded to honor his late wife, along with her mother Pam Saxelby, was deemed the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund.

The Economist, October 30, 2021

European visitors to America, that land of infinite variety, have often been struck by strange instances of sameness. Why, for example, are all pencils yellow, with a pink eraser at the end? Why do so many local newspapers have the same antique masthead?And why, until 2003, were all dollar notes the same size and colour, whatever the denomination?

Grub Street, August 28, 2020

“For me,” says Anne Saxelby, “‘fancy’ cheese as a kid was the ‘sliced white American’ kind.” These days, it’s a little different, since Saxelby and her namesake cheese shop have been crucial to the explosion of interest, understanding, and appreciation for actual American cheese. This fall, her expertise will spread even further when her book, The New Rules of Cheese, is published in October. It is, she says modestly, “a little guide to the things I wanted to say,” but given Saxelby’s reputation, it’s safe to assume the “little guide” will also be an authoritative take on cheese in all its forms. Speaking of multitudes of cultured dairy products, Saxelby spent the past week vacationing in Vermont, sampling what seems like every cheese and pastry she and her family encountered along the way. (This, in Grub’s estimation, is the correct way to vacation.)

Saveur, Dan Q. Dao, October 16, 2021

We are so lucky to have known Anne Saxelby. The beloved cheesemonger and author, who founded the namesake Saxelby Cheesemongers, sadly passed away on October 9, 2021 at the young age of 40. As the food world continues to mourn this immense loss, we also come together to celebrate Anne’s lasting impact on the way we eat.

The Cheese Professor, by Pamela Vachon, October 13, 2021

Cheesemonger, cheese store owner, and cheese educator Anne Saxelby passed away peacefully in her sleep last weekend due to an enlarged heart. While her death is a shock to the cheese community in New York and beyond, that she had a larger than normal heart isn’t a surprise.

Eater, by Emma Horlow, October 12, 2021

Saxelby became a leading figure in the industry for championing artisan cheeses made in America — an ethos that set her apart from other shops when she opened in the Essex Street Market’s original location in 2006. At Saxelby Cheesemongers, she gave independent makers like Vermont’s Jasper Hill Farm a platform that helped catapult it to national success. In 2017, Saxelby expanded her Manhattan footprint with an additional location in Chelsea Market. Last year, she published an illustrated book with Ten Speed Press, The New Rules of Cheese: A Freewheelin’ and Informative Guide.