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Photo Credit: Linh Nguyen
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Have you noticed especially tasty greens and bright orange flower petals in your salads lately? Do you remember those sweet and juicy cherry tomatoes on your pizza? That’s the work of Olson Farms and our pizza produce team, partnering up to bring you the best locally-grown produce when you eat at Cheese Board. We are excited to feature our friends at Olson Farms and highlight their sustainable farming and environmental conservation work. Olson Farms is a family owned farm, headed by Anders Lief (“Andy”) Olson, and consists of three parcels in Penngrove, Petaluma, and West Oakland. Major crops grown are fresh greens, tender vegetables, pasture raised eggs, culinary herbs, tomatoes, fruits, edible flowers, and root vegetables. The farm incorporates multi-faceted and innovative conservation methods to promote sustainability. Projects include soil conservation, native plant restoration, watershed management, rainwater catchment systems, pollinator habitat, and wildlife monitoring. The Marin county parcel has been registered with the NRCS for conservation farming. Olson Farms employs nearly 100% drip irrigation. Chemical-free weed management is accomplished through an integrated system (including lots of hand weeding!).
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This month’s featured cheeses are in honor of International Women’s Day. We are highlighting our favorite cheeses made by lady cheese-makers. Each one of these cheeses are handcrafted with the utmost care, artistry, and precision which makes for extraordinary flavor. Aside from the lady power that goes into making these cheeses, they are among our favorites in their respective categories. They each have something truly unique to offer the cheese world: raw milk gouda, mushroomy camembert, earthy cheddar, nutty toma, and meaty melter.
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Marieke Gouda
Having grown up on dairy farms in Holland, Marieke and Rolf Penterman dreamed of having their own farm. Scarcity of land in Holland moved them westward to the US but when they arrived they couldn’t find cheese that met their standards. Instead of settling for less than ideal, the Pentermans made their own gouda. The milk comes from Rolf and his brother Sander’s dairy just down the road and the cheeses are aged on pine planks until ready for shipment. Marieke is pronounced mah-REE-kah, made in Thorp, Wisconsin with raw cow milk and aged 6-9 months, lending a nuanced butterscotch and roasted nut flavor profile.
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Flory’s Truckle
The Flory family of Jamesport, MO are the makers of this raw milk cheddar, with Jennifer, the eldest of 8 daughters at the helm. “Truckle” refers to the shape of the cheese; it arrives as a tall cylinder, which used to be a common shape for clothbound cheddars. Milk for the cheese comes from a neighboring farm owned by the cheese maker’s uncle. After being aged for 60 days at the Flory’s, the truckles are finished at Milton Creamy (makers of Prairie Breeze), aging for up to 12 months. Jennifer uses traditional cheddar process, such as cheesecloth-lining the truckle molds for air access and coating the young truckles with lard to control moisture and develop the rind.
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Adelegger
Adelegger is a made by Evelyn Wild in the Bavarian alps of southern Germany with organic, raw cow milk. Evelyn sources her milk from Kaskuche Isny, a dairy cooperative that was established by seven ecologically minded dairy farmers, wanting to make ecologically sound, organic cheese. Their goal was to create traditional cheese to showcase the high quality of their Alpine milk. The cheese is made of pressed curd that is repeatedly brined in an herb-infused white wine, and then aged from 14-18 months.
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Pawlet
This raw Jersey milk cheese is an adaptation of Northern Italian Toma-style cheeses. However, it is washed in brine as it ages, giving it some of the aromatic characteristics found in other washed rind cheeses. It has a natural rind and buttery paste, with notes of beefy mushrooms. Leslie Goff started milking goats the dairy in 2005 at age fifteen. Now Leslie is the Creamery Manager and Head Cheesemaker, overseeing all production and staff.
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| Estero Gold
Located in Valley Ford, California, the Bianchi family has owned the dairy since 1918. In 2008, fourth generation farmer Karen Bianchi started making Estero Gold in honor of her Swiss-Italian heritage. Estero Gold showcases the dairy’s quality Jersey cow milk. Like a Piave Riserva or an aged Swiss alpine cheese, the cheese is ages for 16-18 months, giving it sweet nuttiness, parmesan-like dryness, and mature crunchiness.
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Tunworth
Tunworth is a cross-cultural cheese experience. It is modeled after French camembert and made by an Australian in Tunworth, England. Stacey Hedges started making cheese in 2004 after visiting traditional Camembert producers in Normandy, France. She uses local milk to produce the boldest camembert you’ve ever tasted on this side of the Atlantic. For those of you looking for a “strong brie”, this is for you.
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Spring New Milk, The Best Time For Local Fresh Goat and Sheep Cheeses
When considering seasonal products, what usually jumps to mind are fruits and vegetables. Winter squash, spring asparagus and fava beans, summer stonefruit and tomatoes. Milk also goes through seasonal variations, and for a brief period of time in early spring (right now) milk from local sheep and goats is at its best.
Why? The answer is freshening, when the goat does and sheep ewes give birth and start producing their first milk after a period of drying off, when they are not milked for a period of months to allow their mammary system to rest, and to conserve nutrients and energy.
The new spring milk will contain the highest amount of milkfat and protein of the year in the first weeks after the animals give birth. The first cheeses of the year that are produced from this new milk are truly special. Right now, we are getting in the first of the season Laychee from Pennyroyal Farm in Boonville. The fresh cheese, similar to a fromage blanc, is all goat for now, but soon will be a mix of new milk from both sheep and goats. Next will come the Velvet Sister from Pennyroyal, a mixed milk camembert style cheese that during the first weeks of production will come in extra rich and already oozing from its high milkfat content.
We are also getting in the mixed milk (cow, sheep and goat) Teleeka from Tomales Farmstead in Marin, inspired by the popular La Tur from Northern Italy. Look out for 8 ounce containers of Liwa, the fresh chevre also from Tomales Farmstead in our precut case.
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What is fatty and flavorful and goes really well with Guinness? CHEESE! Drinking beer on St. Patrick’s Day is expected, but the cheese brings the party. Here are our featured Irish cheeses for the week of St. Patty’s Day.
Gubbeen
Fergusen Family
County Cork, Ireland
Washed-rind, soft-ripened cow milk cheese with meaty, savory notes.
Dubliner
Ornau Foods under the Kerrygold label
County Cork, Ireland
Cheddar-like, but not a true cheddar, mild, slightly sweet, and a little nutty.
Cashel Blue
Jane and Louis Grubb under the Kerrygold label
Tipperary, Ireland
Buttery and sweet blue with a hearty Irish punch.
Cooleney
Breda and Pat Maher at Cooleney Farm
Thurles, Ireland
A camembert style cheese with a satisfying creamy butter flavor.
St Killian
Patrick and Juliet Berridge at Carrigbyrne Farmhouse cheese Co
County Wexford, Ireland
A soft-ripened cheese that resembles a delicate brie with flavors of salted butter and button mushrooms. |
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On Monday March 13th we will close for an all day retreat. See you on Tuesday.
