The December shipment of our monthly cheese club features a beer-washed wheel, a square-shaped bloomy rind goat cheese, and a grass-fed taste of Appalachia. Read on to learn about this month's selections and sign up to have this month's club shipped straight to your door!
Ommegang Dream Patch Washed Willoughby from Jasper Hill Farm - Greensboro, VT
Washed rind cheeses are often washed in brine, sometimes augmented with the lees from beer and wine. We commissioned this special batch of creamy, unctuous Willoughby to be washed in part with Dream Patch, a Flemish style fruited sour from the brilliant minds of Ommegang Brewing. Beer (and wine!) adds complexity to the wash, helping nourish the developing microbial community on the rind of the cheese. This extra push helps it ripen into an extra flavorful and adventurous disc of buttery delight, a flavor that hints at pungency while staying true to the flavors of fresh, sweet cows’ milk. Don't skip the rind on this one, this whole cheese is worth eating.
Appalachian from Meadow Creek Dairy - Galax, VA
A creamy, buttery, grass fed cheese with a snow white, mushroomy rind. Appalachian cheese is made from the raw milk from Meadow Creek Dairy’s closed herd of dairy cows—they’ve been evolving their herd’s genetic line since 1988, starting with purebred Jerseys and introducing some European genetics that are indigenous to the Alps to make their cows hardier and to create the most delicious, rich milk possible! The golden paste is supple yet snappy and has a grassy, buttercream sweet flavor that is attributed to the genetics of the cows as well as the fine pasture that the cows graze on. Meadow Creek Dairy is one of the few farms that Saxelby works with that is purely grass-based, meaning they only make cheese when their cows are out on pasture from about mid-March through November each year. The result is cheese with a bright yellow paste and unrivaled complexity of flavor. Aged 4-5 months.
Cowles from Barn First Creamery - Westfield, VT
A young, bright and tangy goat cheese from cheesemaker Rebecca Velazquez and Barn First Creamery! Barn First has a small milking herd of goats, and is located in Westfield, Vermont which is part of Vermont’s remote Northeast Kingdom. Cowles is a square format cheese with a layer of vegetable ash dusted on the rind. The texture is dense and chalky, like a goat's milk brie cheese, and the flavors are light and mild—tangy and mineral with a hint of goaty musk. Cowles and all of Barn First’s cheeses take their names from maiden names from owners Rebecca and Merlin’s family trees.
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