The November Cheese Explorer
Small Farms With Big Flavors. The November Cheese Explorer
It was not long after I sent out last month’s selection when I heard directly from Kate Turcotte and Zach Munzer at Orb Weaver Creamery with a special offer - they wanted to send along a wheel that rarely makes its way outside of their local CSAs and farmer’s markets, their Cave-Aged Farmhouse Cheese.
Orb Weaver Cave Aged Farmhouse Cheese.
This was the cheese that traces back to Orb Weavers roots back in 1981, when they produced one of the first artisanal farmstead cheeses' in Vermont. While the Frolic in last month’s batch was a new recipe and new cheese from the second generation of Orb Weaver, this Cave-Aged Farmhouse is from the original recipe that Marian and Marjorie came up with when they first started.
It’s all about the land, and having a taste of place, of their rolling pastures that give a breathtaking view of Camel’s Hump in the Champlain Valley, and about providing their small herd of eight Jersey cows with the best care they can give, with rotational grazing and, during the winter months, silage (dried hay) from their own pasture. The original farmhouse cheese that Marjorie and Marian made was coated with wax, in part because they didn’t have a cheese cave when they started, and because wax helped keep the cheese stable (that’s why you see waxed rinds on a lot more large production cheeses, where producers can’t guarantee that their cheeses will sell in a short amount of time).
The Cheese Cave at Orb Weaver Creamery.
Vermont has quite a bit of natural limestone, and Marian and Marjorie decided to build a cheese cave into the land (it looks like a more rustic version of The Shire) with limestone rocks they had found amongst the sprawl of their farm. Using reserved wheels taken from their batches of farmhouse cheese, this raw Jersey cow’s milk cheese is set aside to age in their limestone, hillside cave. Over the next several months, the wheels are regularly turned and scrubbed to evenly distribute the weight of the cheese and encourage the good mold growth which becomes the edible rind. Only two wheels from each make go through this process since so much weight is lost during aging, making it a special cheese indeed.
I’m so excited that you get to try this cheese, it’s the first time I’ve been able lay my hands on it, and it’s a robust and complex cheese, with notes of buttermilk tang and a hint of spice. There’s a reason that cheese mongers get excited about raw milk cheeses, and this one of a kind wheel is part of the reason why.
Rush Creek Reserve. Image Courtesy of Uplands Cheese Company
Speaking of special cheeses, we just got our first batch of Rush Creek Reserve for the season. This cheese comes to us from Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. The small farmstead cheese producer just makes two cheeses, the Pleasant Ridge Reserve and the aforementioned Rush Creek. Like the small team behind Orb Weaver, this family run farmstead creamery is dedicated to providing the best for their herd. Their effort hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Pleasant Ridge Reserve is the winningest cheese in the American cheese world, having taken home best in show honors at the American Cheese Society more times than any other cheese has, but Rush Creek Reserve is their pride and joy. Rush Creek is made for 8 weeks each fall, when the cows at Uplands go off pasture and begin to eat dry hay supplemented with a touch of grain. This shift in diet makes their milk especially rich and decadent. Each wheel of raw milk cheese is wrapped with a spruce bark girdle, keeping the gooey paste at bay until it hits the dinner table! The spoonable cheese, which looks like a little wheel of camembert or brie, is hearty and complex, with a wide range of flavors from creme fraiche, freshly cut grass, hazelnuts and smoked meat all making their way onto the palate. Aged for 60-75 days and available each year from November through January.
If you’ve had Harbison from Jasper Hill Farm, you’ll have an idea of what this special cheese is like, with both riffing on the classic Vacherin Mont d'Or recipe from the Jura mountains in France. Rush Creek Reserve’s natural rind has a mottled mix of white, blue and green cheese molds. These colorful molds are commonly found in blue cheese and other natural-rinded cheeses, and on Rush Creek their presence is a sign of a ripe cheese. As the cheese ages, these molds help soften the interior to its custard-like perfection. Peel off the top rind and enjoy!
Sant Gil d’Albio Garrotxa.
From the other side of the Atlantic, we’re excited to bring you one of Spain’s best cheeses, from a small producer tucked in the foothills of the Pyrenees in Catalunya. Garrotxa, pronounced 'ga-ROCH-ah,' was a cheese almost lost to history when Franco’s repressive government restricted almost all cheese production. Forever Cheese, the importer of this specific Garrotxa, interviewed the cheesemaker Josep Ninot about the reintroduction of Garrotxa in the early eighties.
“To make the cheese they asked a grandmother how she used to make her goat cheese and they copied the recipe. This cheese was nothing like todays. It was a mixed coagulation cheese, much more acidic than today, with a lot of humidity and an aging of about 2-3 weeks max. La Garrotxa is a very humid area and an acidic cheese, soft and with lots of humidity caused lots of mold to grow. The decision was made to keep the mold as it grew spontaneously. Originally the cheese wasn’t called Garrotxa, it was called “de pell florida” which means with a molded rind. It is still an oddity why we all call the cheese Garrotxa when we make the cheese outside the town but even in Spain it’s known with this name.”
Garrotxa de Sant Gil d’Albió is a wonderful cheese, made with pasteurized milk from Murciana goats that offers sweet and herbaceous flavors. The natural rind is a grey suede like mold which we don’t recommend eating.
Pecorino Tuada from Caseificio Bertagni.
Our last cheese feature of the month brings us to Italy and the family run creamery Caseificio Bertagni. The father-and-son team of Bruno and Verano Bertagni hand make cheeses in the mountains of Tuscany, the Alta Garfagnana region. Milk for their cheeses is locally sourced from 17 small farms and include milk from rare breeds of sheep called Massese and Garfagnana. We’re thrilled to have their Pecorino Tuada included in this month’s club.
Tuada, which means “cellar” in Tuscan dialect, refers to the fact that this cheese, coated with ash and olive oil, matures for more than 5 months on beech boards in cellars. This is a Pecorino (sheep’s milk) cheese produced with the milk of the Garfagnana breed. The taste is exceptionally sweet, considering the long aging process, with an earthy flavor.
All these cheeses work together quite well, with the rich earthy and complex flavors of the Cave Aged Farmhouse Cheese, the woodsy and custard like flavors of the Rush Creek Reserve, the mineral and herbaceous flavors of Garrotxa, and the sweet and earthy flavors of the Pecorino Tuada, all produced by small family run farms and creameries.
The Cheese Details:
Cave Aged Farmhouse Original - Orb Weaver Creamery - New Haven, Vermont.
Raw Farmstead Jersey Cow Milk. Aged 6+ Months
Rush Creek Reserve - Uplands Cheese Company - Dodgeville, Wisconsin.
Raw Farmstead Cow’s Milk. Aged 6 weeks.
Garrotxa - Sant Gil - Albio, Spain.
Pasteurized Goat’s Milk. Aged 2 Months.
Pecorino Tuada - Caseificio Bertagni - Pieve Fosciana, Italy.
Pasteurized Garfagnana Sheep’s Milk. Aged 6+ Months
Accoutrements
Organic Membrillo (Quince Paste) - Matiz, Andalusia, Spain.
A traditional Spanish spread made with cooked quince, sugar, and lemon. Matiz cooks their quince a little longer than most, leading to richer caramelized flavors.
Cranberry Pistachio Crisps - Jan’s Farmhouse - Stowe, Vermont.
These classic crackers are always the first to go on any cheese board, and their mix of tart cranberry fruit and pistachios add a nice balance of sweet and savory.
As always, we hope you enjoy this month’s exploration