Celebrate Independence with a Homemade Beauty!

Consider Bardwell Farm is just one of those farms I really want to visit. Located in beautiful Vermont (and partly in New York) it is a 300-acre farm which boasts the title of becoming the first cheese-making coop in Vermont back in 1864. The farm produces a range of cheeses with milk from goats and cows. The goats that live on the farm are called Oberhaslis goats. If goats could have opinions on how other goats look then most goats would be jealous of Oberhaslis goats. But that's a story for a different day. The cheese held up with the task of flying the flag for independence today is one made with cows milk. Specifically, Jersey cows.

Freshly cut Dorset!

Dorset is her name. She's a washed rind cheese and she's got such depth in flavor that if you close your eyes then you can realize yourself amongst the rolling hills and fresh air that is in such large supply in the first state to be formed in the USA that WASN'T an original colony. The washed rind gives the cheese a pink and almost crystallized aesthetic and when it is cut a pretty, yellow interior is revealed. It has a good degree of pungency too which is said to be seasonally influenced. Yesterday, I suggested a customer should try a piece as it would look great on a 'July 4th cheeseboard.' I handed her the piece and when she tried it she almost melted into the counter. It was quite a sight to see. Suffice to say she bought a large piece!

The wheels are small and only come in 2.5lb sizes which is kind of cute. It's size does not affect it's status in the cheese case; it is the winner of so many awards that it stares up at some of the larger local cheeses and they treat it equally! The personification of cheese!

Consider Bardwell Farm is committed to pesticide-free grazing on land that does not use fertilizer. It's great for vegetarians as only vegetarian rennet is added to the cheese and there is no antibiotic or hormone rubbish added at any point from farm to table. Dorset, VT is an historic town and Dorset cheese is well on it's way to become historic in it's own right! I'll support a flag with a piece of Dorset on it today for Independence!

Fonterra Sharp Cheddar - Your dad's favourite cheese!

A lively customer walked straight for me this week, extremely eager to tell me something. He had a manic look in his otherwise friendly eyes and I waited with trepidation for what was coming next. 'I'm 42 and I never knew' he exclaimed. He waited impatiently, anticipating my reaction. On realizing that he wasn't going to kill me with the block of cheese that he was holding aloft I offered a reply. 'You're 42?' I said. The man was looking positively radiant and not a day over 30. This was not the answer he wanted and he brushed it aside immediately. 'I just never knew' he repeated, a bemused look on his face somewhere between concern and awe. I finally ventured with the response he was waiting for. 'Never knew what?' I said. 'I'm 42 and I never realized that cheddar could actually taste so good. I never believed the hype. I thought that ordinary cheddar, cheap cheddar that I usually buy was worth the price and that there was no difference. I've literally spent my whole life EATING BORING CHEDDAR' he said animatedly.

Cheddar Mountain; the highest peak in New Zealand

The piece of cheese that he was holding above his head like a caveman wielding a prehistoric tool was Fonterra, New Zealand Sharp Cheddar. If you put hundreds of cheddar's in a line, it is pretty good. Not the best, but nowhere near the bottom of the pile either. This gentleman with the secret aging cream was amazed at the price as well as the taste and on comparison he realized he was actually getting more 'better cheddar' per pound than his 'usual cheap cheddar.' Once he had made his point we exchanged pleasantries and off he went on his merry way. I never did find out what cheap cheddar he had been eating all those years!

As a company, Fonterra is pretty big. However, big doesn't necessarily mean bad. They are committed to responsible dairy farming and they have projects in place to promote sustainable farming, preserving wetlands and taking care of cattle. The cheese is made with milk from grass-fed cows. It pretty much melts in your mouth, it's incredibly flavorful and it leaves you thinking 'I'm just going to have to have another piece!'

Cheese-o-meter rating: 7/10

Petite Breakfast - The Little Brie with Big Qualities

I have swam through a sea of cheeses. The deep blue cheese sea was difficult for my oars but I made it. I weathered the storm, I'm brie-d and battered. The old man who cuts up meat calls me Mr Formaggio. That's a bit rich. As rich as St.Nuage. I know 5% of that which I wish to know. Alas, it's a start.

   The longest continually operating cheese company in America started making Brie and Camembert in 1865. They are called Marin and this year is their 150th anniversary. They make an array of cheeses which are in their own words 'artisan, approachable and authentic' but that which is on display today in my store is 'Petite Breakfast.' This year it is wearing a commemorative label to signify 150 years of cheese making. It wears nothing else. It's a naked Brie. There's no bloomy rind on this bad boy. It's a rindless wonder. And it's sweet. Sweet, fresh and tangy. Much like I imagine California to be. It's simply a circular button of a cheese with a spot of cream added in order to wake you up in the morning and get you ready for the day. No-one who sees it can deny that it is cute but it also tastes bloody fantastic which makes it even better! At my store it storms out of the case at 4oz for $3.99 so not only is it light in the bag but it's light on the wallet too. When I eat it I'm transformed from my dark 5am Boston kitchen to the Northern Californian Petaluma creamery where the cool breezes dart around. I'm probably romanticizing but so what. Eat it!

Cheese-o-meter rating: 8/10

The beginning of the Cheeseotopic era

Cheese. It simply does not matter what angle you view it from; historically, culturally, aesthetically or socially, it really is the best food. The variation in shape, size, colour, texture, taste, ingredients and aging is excellent to behold. As a result of these differentiations, the versatility of cheese has allowed for the concept of cheese making to become an art and a craft rather than a by-product of milk as it was seen for so long. Cheese is crafted in literally hundreds of countries. If one was to start on the west coast of the USA and travel east all the way to New Zealand in pursuit of cheese then the options would be endless. The word cheese obviously encompasses a huge range of products and one persons understanding of what cheese actually is will be the complete antithesis of another. There are cheeses producuced on a mass scale in huge factories that are distributed all over the world, there are cheeses made by the artisan hands of folk that own creameries and farms that are distributed all over the world. At the other end of the spectrum there are specialist cheeses which are unique to one particular farm and are produced on such a small scale that they are only sold to local vendors. To take this further, cheese is produced with milk from cows, sheep, goats, buffalo, reindeer, the milk can be raw, pasteurized, thermalized, cheese can be aged a few days to several years, it can be fresh, soft ripened, fresh aged, soft aged, semi soft, semi hard, hard, flavour added, it can be produced in tiny wheels that are a few ounces and wheels that weigh two hundred pounds, it can be cloth wrapped, cave aged, organic, lactose free, vegetarian etc etc. Despite the fact that the former sentence is terribly structured, the lack of punctuation simply tries to highlight the great variety involved in cheese production and I have only barely scraped the surface. The aim of this blog is not to be a cheese critic, I am hardly qualified enough to make such claims. It is simply an insight into some cheeses I eat! Now I'm off to sell (and eat) some cheese!