Calkins Creamery: Udderly Hot

Monday, August 25, 2008

Calkins Creamery is one of my favorite cheese makers in the area.  I just like the taste of their cheese, regardless of what they add into it.  I think it must be the milk - their cows are happy cows.

For the Summer, Calkins introduced a new cheese called Udderly Hot.  It’s their Havarti mixed with locally grown chiles.  I am totally in love with this cheese.  After a few slices, I thought “OK, this is good, but it could be a little hotter.” Later this weekend, I sat down and ate a little more.  Now I think maybe hotter would be overwhelming.  It’s so good.

And it makes a spectacular grilled cheese with carmelized onions.

I’ve always bought it from the Fair Food Farmstand, but I understand that it’s now available at many Whole Food markets in the area.

Good things come in small packages

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I can’t resist anything new or new to me.  When the Fair Food Farmstand sent out their weekly email saying they had Natural Acres “Pee Wee” pullet eggs, I had to have them.  Had to.  And at 75 cents per dozen, who wouldn’t want to give them a try?  I figured they’d be really tiny, but they were only a little smaller than regular eggs.

From the email....

These tiny vibrant eggs are laid by “pullets” (chickens less than a year old). As hens begin to mature into their egg laying capacity, they lay what some consider their most flavorful eggs. With the industrialized food trend toward jumbo eggs, these miniature treats are hard to find, but worth the effort and incredibly economical.

So were the eggs more flavorful than regular Natural Acres eggs?  I couldn’t say with any real expertise.  But they were most certainly just as yummy, and the yolks were nice and orange!  I used them to make an all local breakfast on Sunday morning - eggs cooked in homemade butter, mixed with a little bit of spinach and red bunching onions from the CSA share.

Stake not included

Sunday, June 08, 2008

The other day Naomi emailed me after a trip to the Fair Food Farmstand.  While she was picking up the Telford Tomme she recently reviewed, she noticed the farmstand was carrying another Calkins Creamery cheese.  She thought it would be right up my alley: a cheese called Vampire Slayer..

I’m so predictable!

Oh sure, anyone who names a cheese after Buffy is automatically OK with me, but the cheese is delicious!  Vampire Slayer is a raw milk cheddar style with the addition of garlic, onion, and a paprika-ginger blend.  I’ve been eating it with crackers for the last few days, but I also grated some into a salad last night - it grates very nicely.  I highly recommend giving it a try.

Hendrick’s Dairy Telford Tomme

Friday, June 06, 2008

When I was at the Fair Food Farmstand last week, I asked the staffpeople for cheese recommendations, and they agreed on Hendrick’s Dairy’s Telford Tomme.  I have to agree with them--this is, hands down, my favorite local cheese so far.  It reminds me of a Gruyère, but it’s a bit nuttier.  It’s a little too crumbly for slicing with a cheese plane, but only just, and it melted nicely.

Cheese review: Patches of Star Diary Queso Blanc

Friday, May 16, 2008

Last weekend at the Headhouse Square market, I could not resist picking up a package of this Tomato Basil Queso Blanc.  I’ve never heard of Patches of Star Dairy before.  As it turns out, Patches of Star Dairy has been around for quite some time - and now they produce thousands of gallons of organic raw goat milk every year.  The dairy only produces queso blanc, a cheese that is essentially fresh curds.

I make fromage blanc at home, but I’ve never had it made from goat milk.  The Patches of Star cheese is delicious - it’s nice and crumbly with a great taste.  It would make a stellar cheese to crumble over a salad.

Cowtipper cheese from Calkins Creamery

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Recently, the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market started carrying cheese from Calkins Creamery.  Calkins Creamery is in Honesdale, which is a bit outside the 100 mile radius that many of us use to count as ‘local’.  That said, I’m not considering this a cheat - it’s a farm worth supporting.  The Bryant family has been farming in Wayne County for 125 years.  The current Bryant farming family spent some time in California learning about artisan cheese before returning, and now produce cheese using hormone-free raw milk from their pampered herd of Holstein cows.

You know what they say: happy cows make happy cheese.  Or something like that.  It’s no joke.  I picked up a piece of the Cowtipper cheese the other day and can’t say enough good things about it.

Cowtipper is Calkins’ version of a Gouda-style cheese.  It’s soaked in Nevada Pale Ale for 48 hours, encased in wax, and then aged for sixty days or more.  I’m pretty sure I must have looked really silly eating the cheese - before eating each slice I felt compelled to take a good long whiff.  Because of the beer the cheese smells amazing.  And it tastes good, too.  It definitely has a Gouda-esque way about it.

I’m not as crazy about Calkins’ 4 Dog Dill, a Havarti-style cheese flavored with dill.  The cheese is tasty and all, but I really never got any of the dill flavor.

There are many more Calkins Creamery cheeses to be tried, and they all look really interesting.  But the Cowtipper is my early favorite!

smoked cheddar with hot peppers

Monday, March 24, 2008

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m pretty picky about cheddars.  This cheddar, which I picked up at the Highland Orchards stand at the Fitler Square market on Saturday, is definitely not the super-sharp cheddar that is my favorite, but it’s very tasty.  The combination of smoky flavor and hot-pepper sharpness is quite a good alternative to standard cheddar. 

Ode to Buttermilk

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I tend to think of the seasons affecting my diet strictly in terms of what local foods are available, but, really, the relationship is more subtle than that.  The seasons also prompt me to want to certain foods: a crisp fall morning makes me reach for a commensurately crisp, tart apple; the first warm days of spring have me looking for baby lettuces and asparagus; an oppressive summer day is alleviated by an heirloom tomato salad.  In the winter, I crave pureed and mashed root vegetable, meat stews, and freshly baked bread.  About fifteen minutes after slipping the dough into the oven, I can start to smell the baking, which soon permeates our small home.  Suddenly, gas-heated, forced air doesn’t seem so stale, and cold, dry hands will be soon be warmed by a steaming chunk - who can wait to slice?

Being a limited baker (both in skill and interest), I set out to improve my skill and deepen my reserve.  Thankfully, each of the three recipes I attempted was a success - not always a gaurantee when it comes to baking.  More importantly, in my third year of Farm to City’s Winter Harvest, I have finally discovered buttermilk.  I suppose I eschewed it in the past because I perceived it as having limited use and spoiling quickly.  Thankfully, I was wrong. 

In the first, instance, I made English muffins, straight out of the The Bread Bakers Apprentice. (An indispensable guide that has made me a much better baker than I was.) Here, the buttermilk’s acidity melded with the salt and sugar of the dough, tasting like something between a savory muffin and a bread.  The second was buttermilk biscuits from the King Arthur Flour website, a perfect accompaniment to poached eggs and cottage bacon from Meadow Run Farm and sautéed spinach from Winter Harvest.  Here, the buttermilk was the defining ingredient: it’s creamy sharpness the most important factor.  The third was scones from the Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook, using half white flour and half spelt flour from the Fair Food Farmstand and butter and maple sugar also from Winter Harvest.  Although much sweeter than the previous uses, the buttermilk was equally fantastic. 

With Spring rapidly approaching, I may be losing the urge to bake such breads, but next November, I suspect the cold weather will prompt me again. 

Hendricks Farm Cheddar Bleu

Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Fair Food Farmstand recently started to carry another cheese from Hendricks Farm and Dairy - the Cheddar Blue.  It’s basically their Pub Cheddar with the introduction of bleu cheese inoculant.  I like Hendricks’ Pub Cheddar quite a bit, but I’m not 100% on board with the Cheddar Blue.  The taste is very nice - it’s a smooth bleu taste, rather than a super tangy taste.  Unfortunately, the texture suffers. 

The Pub Cheddar is crumbly, but the Cheddar Bleu is so crumbly that it has limited uses.  It could certainly be used as a topping for all sorts of things, but it shatters into such small pieces when cut that it couldn’t really be used on, let’s say, a cheese plate.

Still, the Cheddar Bleu is tasty!

Otterbein Acres Cheddar

Thursday, January 31, 2008

All of a sudden, there seems to be a wild influx of locally made cheddar type cheeses.  I’m not complaining, mind you.  The latest comes from Otterbein Acres, an Amish farm out near Shippensburg.  The family run farm raises grass-fed lambs, cows, and chickens and make a couple of cheeses, one of which I’ve tried is their Ewe’s Dream (a romano-type of cheese). 

The cheddar is a raw cow milk variety that is aged approximately two months.  I believe that it is bandage-wrapped, although I could be wrong.

You won’t mistake Otterbein Acres cheddar for real English cheddar; however, I do think it has a better cheddar taste and texture than the other locally grown versions.  Hendricks Farm Pub Cheddar, Pennsylvania Noble (well, it’s cheddar-style), and the raw milk cheddar from Green Meadow Farm - they’re all good in their own way.  I go through that Green Meadow Farm raw milk cheddar like crazy (it’s more of a cooking cheese).  But I do think of the Otterbein Acres cheddar as more of a snacking type cheese.

Last night the people who run the Fair Food Farmstand organized a talk for the farmstand volunteers by Seth Kalkstein, the head cheese specialist at Di Bruno Bros.  He did talk about the various cheddars that we sell and how they relate to true cheddars, and we even learned a little about how cheddars are made.  As an interesting side note, several of the volunteers noted that the Otterbein Acres cheddar is much yellower than some of our other available local cheddars.  Seth let us know that this due to what the cows are eating and often relates to the season in which the cows are milked.

Thanks to Sarah and Ruth for organizing the talk, and to Seth for his passion for cheese and willingness to share!

wintry, local food

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Obviously, eating local food in the winter takes a little more perseverance and planning than in the summer.  The frequency and geographical locations of farmers’ markets may not be as profuse, but Philadelphia is certainly fortunate that there is still a diversity of local food available amid the winter cold.  I’m still working for some of these local-food organizations, and I’ve done some investigation into other sources, so here are my thoughts!

Let me talk about Winter Harvest first, partly because I work for Farm to City but also because I’m posting this entry today primarily to remind everyone that it’s the last day to place your orders for February.  Winter Harvest is a winter buying club run by Farm to City, and I’ve already described the way it works.  (The ordering window closes TODAY at 5 pm, and if you don’t have an account already you can use PayPal to deposit some initial money.) There are literally hundreds of items—herbs and bread and coffee, almost any kind of meat cut desired, goat dairy products, and even some vegetables like potatoes (of course) and baby greens.  And I’m sure you can make your weekly Thursday pick-up at one of our dropsites that’s convenient for you!

(Photo from Farm to City.)

Then, there are still two farmers’ markets that continue year-round in Philadelphia; both are on Saturdays, 10-2.  The larger of the two is in West Philly at Clark Park, 43rd & Baltimore— and it is a superb farmers’ market anyway, in a wonderful neighborhood!  (Not that I am at all biased by living within a couple blocks.) I know the market manager, and I asked him recently about what farmers are still coming during the winter.  There is an Amish farmer with baked goods and noodles and eggs and such, Keystone Farm with apples and meat, Landisdale Farms with a variety of beautiful certified-organic vegetables and beef, Slow Rise Bakery, Margerum’s with the previously-discussed dried beans and a large selection of herbs & spices, Maury Sheetz with vegetables, Rineer Family Farms with roots and salad greens and (new!) beef, and Betty’s Tasty Buttons fudge.  Every other week, there is also a farmer there with chickens… So, as Naomi has described before, clearly there’s still plenty of local food to enjoy these days!  The other market is at Fitler Square, 23rd & Pine, which I think has two farms.  I think one is called Highland Orchards—can anyone confirm this?  They grow a variety of crops in greenhouses, but also may buy some vegetables to supplement their variety.  Rineer Family Farms is also there over the winter, before moving back to Rittenhouse Square when it opens!

And of course there’s the Fair Food Farmstand, still conveniently open Tuesday-Sunday at the usual Reading Terminal hours.  There are lots of apples and potatoes, mushrooms, citrus sourced through a PA co-op from family farms in Florida, a full selection of grass-fed meats and dairy, and treats like maple sugar and fudge and biscotti. 

Bababloo

Sunday, January 13, 2008

If you saw this cheese in your refrigerator, you’d probably make a face and toss it.  And you would be missing out!  This is another lovely cheese from Valley Shepherd Creamery in New Jersey - what they call Bababloo.

Bababloo is a mixed milk (sheep and cow) blue cheese that is cave-aged from ninety days to six months.  I generally don’t love blue cheeses, but I really love this one - it tastes like the raw milk cheddar available from the Farm Fresh Foodstand in Reading Terminal with blue cheese mixed in.  It’s salty and creamy, with a really great blue taste.

This is a stellar snacking cheese! The block in the photo lasted about 15 minutes in my house.  It is fantastic with pears.

A trio of cheeses

Monday, January 07, 2008

The Fair Food Farmstand recently got some new cheeses into stock from Cherry Grove Farm.  Cherry Grove is located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.  In addition to cheese made from raw milk from grass-fed cows, you can also get eggs there and grass-fed beef and pork.  Interestingly, they also raise the cutest Tamworth pigs, a heritage breed, I’ve ever seen in my life.  The farm is certified organic, and is committed to sustainable agricultural practices.

The Harvest Toma, pictured above, is cave-aged for two months.  It’s a hard-ish rind cheese and Cherry Grove says its “semisoft texture makes it meltable, spreadable”.  We gave it a try during my volunteer shift at the farmstand on Saturday and I thought it was pretty good - nice texture and just the slightest bit smelly.  Sarah thought perhaps the cheese might be improved by bringing it to room temperature, and I did give it a go at home - opinions may vary, but I don’t think these cheese’s texture was helped.  The texture did change a little, but it seemed rubbery.  I definitely prefer this cheese cold.  I didn’t not test out whether it was a good melting cheese, but it wasn’t super spreadable.  I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.

Cherry Grove’s ‘provolone’ was my favorite of the three new cheeses.  It’s texture and taste scream ‘provolone’ and it melts perfectly [I used some on a burger for dinner last night].  The provolone is also aged for two months.  This cheese is definitely more dolce than piccante.  I think the provolone will end up being a regular resident in my fridge.

Lastly, there is the Jersey Giovane.  It’s Cherry Grove’s handmade mozzarella.  It does string like mozzarella, but I wasn’t wild about it.  I think I might prefer it if it came packed in water, rather than plastic wrap.  The cheese seemed a little dry to me...and not nearly soft enough for good homemade mozzarella.  Don’t get me wrong - the cheese isn’t bad and is far superior to the crappy mass-produced mozzarella you can get at the grocery store.  It’s just not the best mozzarella I’ve ever tasted.

Swiss Miss

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Naomi emailed me yesterday to ask if I had tried the Hendricks Farm Gruyere.  As it happens, I purchased a bit of it a few days ago and promptly forgot that it was in my refrigerator! 

The Gruyere from Hendricks (available at the Fair Food Farmstand) is a raw milk cheese that they describe as “a classic example of a European Swiss that is aged for over a year”.  While I would not be comfortable saying the Hendricks is a “classic example”, I would say that it’s good in its own right.  It does have a very strong Swiss flavor, vaguely nutty, a little salty. 

Hendricks also describes this cheese as “creamy”, which it definitely is not.  It has more of a crumbly texture that makes it more ideal for snacking.  It may or may not melt well, but the texture does not immediately scream ‘fondue’ to me.

There is a real issue with a few local cheesemakers naming their cheeses using place names.  Gruyere, in particular, is problematic.  In Switzerland, Gruyere cheese has earned Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée status.  If the cheese is made in France, let’s say, you can call it a ‘Gruyere-style’ cheese but you cannot call it ‘Gruyere’.  While I know the U.S. doesn’t follow EU law regarding this kind of stuff, I kind of feel like we should to cut down the confusion.  I know that Otterbein Acres recently renamed their ‘Romano’ to ‘Ewe’s Dream’, although I’m not sure whether it was for that particular reason.

Speaking of Swiss cheese, I recently tried another local variety - the Hope Springs Farm Baby Swiss (purchased from one the vendors at Clark Park Farm Market).  It’s another raw milk Swiss.  Unlike the Hendricks Gruyere, this really could be described as ‘creamy’, but the flavor is much more generic.  It’s not bad, mind you - it’s just not particularly outstanding.  It seems like it would melt really nicely, which is important if you’re looking for a fondue cheese or something like that.

Smooth operator

Monday, December 10, 2007

Everyone has been raving over the Toy Cow Creamery smoothies.  They’re made with milk from grass fed, hormone free cows and these smoothies are super thick! It’s more like drinking yogurt than drinking a yogurt smoothie.  I picked up a blueberry smoothie and was impressed - there are bits of blueberry in there and it has a nice fresh milk taste.

The Toy Cow Creamery is located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  That’s a little outside what can genuinely be called ‘local’ - Williamsport is at least a four hour drive from the Philly area. Still, if you’re in the mood for a good smoothie it’s good to support a small, local dairy in Pennsylvania.  The smoothies are available at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market.