LeRaysville Cheese Factory Portelet

Sunday, November 25, 2007

LeRaysville Cheese Factory, a small Amish-run cheese factory in Lancaster County, makes serviceable cheese.  I would not call their cheese artisan cheese, but it’s a nice alternative to store bought cheese.  Their Sommelier is a lovely melting cheese, but the Portelet is...not great.  And really, it didn’t stand a chance.  Here’s the description:

“A low-salt, low-cholesterol cheese that is reduced in fat, but melts like butter - contains about half the fat of Cheddar.  Made in a similar process to Port Salut.  Ideal for sauces or snacks.”

Look, if you’re watching your cholesterol and need to purchase diet products, Portelet is probably a better choice than the commercially made reduced fat cheeses that taste of pencil eraser.  But the texture is a little on the rubbery side and it’s a little on the bland side.  I didn’t try to melt it, but it probably does melt nicely.

Otterbein Acres pecorino romano

Monday, November 19, 2007

Otterbein Acres makes a sheep milk pecorino romano.  Well, they call it romano, but it’s just not the right texture.  Romano is generally dry-ish, hard, and salty - it’s a good grating cheese.  The Otterbein Acres romano is softer, almost creamy.  Not that it doesn’t make good grating cheese - I used it the other day in my gnocchi and mixed mushrooms meal.  It was delicious!

Perhaps, like the Hendricks Farm parmesan, one could consider this a ‘snacking’ pecorino more than a ‘grating’ pecorino.

Otterbein Acres is near Shippensburg, a nearly 100 acre farm that focuses on sheep and cow that are grass-fed.  Interestingly, nearly all of their sheep milk gets turned into cheese in their small on-site cheese house.  It sounds really cool.  I’d like to go on a visit some day.

Hendricks Farm Grass Stains

Monday, November 12, 2007

I knew my love affair with all things Hendricks Farms would eventually have to come to an end.  I recently bought a piece of Grass Stain cheese and it is probably my least favorite of locally produced cheeses.  My main beef is with the texture.  It’s just...wrong.

Someone told me that Grass Stains is really just Cow Pie blended with cracked black pepper and an herb blend on the rind.  And, despite my good experience with Cow Pie, I’ve heard lots of people say they were very disappointed with the texture.  Like Cow Pie, I thought perhaps being brought to room temp would transform the cheese.  Not so.  The cheese remained crumbly and dry...and almost chalky.

Emily, manager of the Fair Food Farmstand, mentioned in passing the other day that she wasn’t a fan because you lose the flavor of the milk.  I do think the herbed rind competes a bit with the cracked pepper inside, but I wasn’t terribly bothered by it.  If the texture had been better, I probably would have liked the peppery bite of the cheese.

That said, I could see this cheese having a place on a salad.  It naturally wants to crumble, so it makes sense to use it that way.  On a mild lettuce mix, the peppery cheese would likely be pretty good...and the texture would likely go unnoticed.

I vote for eggs

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Some of the other people participating in the Dark Days Challenge raise their own chickens.  My mother, whose morning chore every day growing up on the farm was feeding the chickens (a chore she detested), would laugh derisively at me for saying this, but I’m a little envious.  While I have no particular fascination for chickens, I do so love the idea of having fresh eggs.  I live in a highly zoned neighborhood, and the township would freak if I tried to have my own little flock of chickens.  It’s annoying, but then I read stories like this and think maybe it’s all for the best.

With fresh eggs available from Meadow Run Farm (this is a mix of their brown and blue eggs), I can’t get too freaked out about not having access to a couple of hens in the backyard.  I know people who say they can’t tell the difference between store bought, factory farmed eggs and fresh, pasture raised eggs, but those people are crazy.  The difference is huge.  The eggs taste completely different and the yolk usually looks pretty different, as well, having everything to do with what the chickens eat.

Last year my husband and I went on a vacation to Greece and Turkey.  While on the island of Rhodes, we had breakfast that included the most amazing eggs.  The yolk was practically dayglo orange, and just fantastic.  We briefly considered moving to Rhodes just so we could have those eggs every morning.  Meadow Run Farm eggs do stop us from giving up our glam lives and becoming Greek citizens.

All this talk of eggs, just to get to my Dark Days dinner for this evening (my second this week)!  On election day (after voting, of course), I made a delicious omelet of Meadow Run Farm eggs, local cream, a red onion from the CSA carmelized in local butter, a chopped tomato from my garden (I still have a pile of tomatoes on my back porch!), and some raw milk cheddar from Green Meadow Farms.  The only things not local: salt and pepper.

On a vaguely related note, I recently got into a discussion with someone regarding eggs from vegetarian chickens.  My friend maintained that these would be great eggs, coming from a farm that claims to pasture their chickens (this is store bought eggs, I might add).  I say the eggs couldn’t possibly come from pastured chickens because no farm could pasture their chickens yet keep them from eating grubs and other bugs...unless maybe the chickens are pastured in a very artificial way.  Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Valley Shepherd Creamery, Long Valley, NJ

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Yesterday my husband, Ben, took a personal day from the office so that we could go on a little autumn excursion. After lunch in historic Lambertville, NJ, we headed for the Valley Shepherd Creamery, where we had heard that very good cheese was to be had.

Some of Valley Shepherd’s cheeses are in fact available through Williams-Sonoma, and they’re all available at the farm, which also hosts educational farm tours tailored for ages K-4 and all the way up to college level, featuring specific tours in food sciences, entrepreneurship, animal management and biology. Valley Shepherd’s cheeses are East Friesian sheep and Jersey cow milk cheeses, some mixed milk, some pure. The farm will continue to make cheeses over the next few weeks into November, when the cheesemaking stops for the winter, but cheeses aging now in the farm’s hillside cave will still be sold through the farm’s shop. (Fresh lamb meat begins to become available in the shop right around the time of year when cheese production ceases.)

We purchased a mixed-milk blue, a very sharp Provolone-like cheese called Fairmount, a ball of ricotta, and a wedge of a soft, orange-rinded wheel that I pulled indiscriminately out of the back of a refrigerator. We were sorry that no cream cheese was available that day, and Ben drew the line at the cheese with the stinging nettles in it—both of these, I will perhaps get another shot at on a future visit. In addition to cheese, sheep’s yogurt, and aracauna eggs (naturally light blue in color and naturally lower in cholesterol than white or brown eggs), the shop features many sheep-themed gifts (I actually got some sheep chopsticks) and fiber items. I also purchased yarn from the farm’s alpacas, and for those who are not knitters, blankets woven from the farm’s fibers are also for sale.

In the time we were shopping, someone came in and asked if any raw milk was for sale; they were, of course, told that it was not, but Valley Shepherd supports Garden State Raw Milk, a grassroots campaign to legalize the sale of raw milk in New Jersey. Tours of the cheese caves are only available on weekends, so we did not get to see the caves this time around… but we will be back, for sure, and not only for the cave tour—for the day-long artisan cheesemaking class that is offered, where participants can make their own wheel of artisan sheep’s milk cheese and leave it to age in the hillside cave, then return for it when it is at its best. What an amazing gift! (The classes, or a wheel of handmade cheese!)

Regular weekend tours include, in addition to the visit to the cave, the Ewe Barn (where, depending on the calendar, baby lambs may be seen), and North America’s only rotary milking platform, which can milk over 300 sheep an hour.

Ben and I left the farm armed for the long drive home with a lot of very earthy-smelling cheeses. Our ride was blindingly bucolic—the Garden State is awash in color right now, and it was a windy, blustery day. We tried all of our cheeses except the ricotta on the ride home, at least one of which—that orange-rinded devil—was not meant to be opened in a damp, closed car under any circumstances. All things being equal, however, it was one of the most enjoyable “stinky cheeses” I have ever had, and the Fairmount—the sharp Provolone-like hard cheese—was the clear winner of the day.

(guest posting by Amber Dorko Stopper)

Valley Shepherd Creamery Carameaway

Sunday, October 14, 2007

The latest of the local cheese acquisitions is Carameaway by Valley Shepherd Creamery.  It’s a mixed, raw milk (sheep and cow) cheese with caraway, and is cave-aged for a few months.

So far, this is my favorite of the Valley Shepherd cheeses.  It’s very creamy with an excellent texture, and the caraway definitely gives it a ‘wow’ factor.  I’m not sure if the pungency is provided by the caraway or is part of the cheese - maybe both.  Either way, it’s delicious.  I have been unable to stop eating it!  And that’s sort of funny, considering caraway is used in folk medicine to relieve loss of appetite.

The Carameaway can be had at the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market.  If you know of other Philadelphia locations where it’s sold, please let me know!

Hendricks Farm Parmesan

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

My refrigerator is awash in parmesan rinds.  I save them for use in flavoring soup stocks.  And I never run out because I use parmesan like it’s my job or something.  And that crappy sawdust-esque crap that comes in the shake can gives me the hives.  It’s good parmesan on everything!

I’ve heard rumors that I could get locally made parmesan, but up until recently I hadn’t seen it anywhere.  The other day, though, I found Hendrick’s Farm parmesan at Salumeria cheese shop at Reading Terminal Market.  It’s really more a snacking parmesan than a grating parmesan.  Granted, I used it grated over some pasta the other night and it was delicious!

Their parmesan is a full fat cheese, aged about one year.  It has a nice nuttiness to it.  A good, all around parmesan!

Valley Shepherd Creamery Fairmount

Friday, September 28, 2007

The Fairmount cheese from Valley Shepherd Creamery has a strong Swiss cheese kind of taste and texture.  I suspect it would make a great fondue.  The Valley Shepherd site says it’s “definitely a mountain cheese with pasture and fresh mountain aroma”.  Fair enough.

Fairmount is a mixed milk cheese that is cave-aged 8-15 months.

There are several Valley Shepherd cheeses I am dying to try.  It seems as if the Ash Log is mimicking Morbier, with its line of ash separating cheese made from the morning and afternoon milkings.  And the Scent-sation cheese, which is apparently is pretty stanky.  The Ancient Shepherd also appeals.  I’ll be keeping an eye out for these. 

I bought the Fairmount at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal, but Valley Shepherd cheeses are available at a number of places.

Hendricks Farm Cow Pie

Sunday, September 23, 2007

I can’t think of a more unappetizing name for cheese than Cow Pie.  It gives me visions of cow manure and stanky odors.  However ill-advised the name is, the cheese is outstanding.  Cow Pie from Hendricks Farm and Dairy is a mild, creamy cheese made from raw cow milk (grassfed cows!).  It has a bloomy rind that is incredibly delicious.  At room temperature, the cheese becomes gooey and wonderful, like the Camembert Hendricks Farm modeled the cheese on.

Hendricks Farm makes their Cow Pie cheese using the cow’s evening milk, which is fattier.  And the fat makes the difference here.  It’s a great, rich cheese that I highly recommend.  In fact, I think Cow Pie just became my all time favorite locally made cheese.

Cow Pie is available at the Fair Food Farmstand and Salumeria at Reading Terminal Market, their farm store in Telford, Cheese! in Phoenixville, Chestnut Hill Cheese Shop in Philly, Bakers on Broad in Souderton, and, I’m told, Whole Foods.  You can also find it at Majolica in Phoenixville.

Hendricks Farm is located in Telford, PA.  They’ll be hosting their second annual Oktoberfest at the farm on October 26.

LeRaysville Cheese Factory Sommelier

Friday, September 21, 2007

It’s rare that my husband will eat cheese that I bring into the house.  I’m an artisanal cheese kind of a girl - the stinkier the better.  My husband is a Cracker Barrel block o’ cheese kind of a guy.  And not that there’s anything wrong with Cracker Barrel - I just wouldn’t sit down and snack on it.  But I digress!  What I’m trying to say is that the stars must be aligned because he ate the Sommelier cheese from LeRaysville Cheese Factory.

LeRaysville is a very small Amish cheese factory located in LeRaysville.  When I say ‘very small’, I mean it - there are just three employees.  They source their milk from local farmers (who pledge not to use rBGH) and specialize in raw milk cheddar.  Coincidentally, they also specialize in supporting family farms.  When milk prices are low, they they set their minimum price 15% above what the factory cheese joints are paying.  I’m told they also run cheesemaking workshops, so if you’re ever out in Bradford County you might want to check that out.

The Sommelier is a Havarti cheese and won the 2002 American Cheese Society Blue Ribbon.  It’s a semi-soft cow milk cheese with added cream.  It’s an absolutely mild, lovely cheese that comes in a one pound round.  It’s quite economical, as well - an entire round is just $7.50.  I’ve been eating it with water crackers, figs, and a glass of Reisling, but I suspect it would make a superb baked macaroni and cheese.

My husband thinks the Sommelier has a provolone-ish flavor, and I can sort of see why.  I find it much more buttery in flavor than a provolone, more swiss cheese than provolone.  In any case, it’s delicious and available at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market.

Shellbark Hollow Sharp Goat

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

I absolutely love Shellbark Hollow sharp goat cheese.  Goat cheese had a pretty good tang to it to begin with, and this aged, sharp goat is super sassy!  It’s big flavor. It has a dry, sort of crumbly texture.

The sharp goat was a great addition to the roasted beet and goat cheese stacks I made last Friday.  Goat cheese is a natural paired with beets anyway, but this cheese stood up so well to the beets and the lemony zest of sorrel.  I’m thinking this would make an excellent cheese to stuff into some nice locally grown chicken breasts, as well.

The Shellbark Hollow sharp goat is available at DiBruno Bros. and the Fair Food Farmstand.

Birchrun Blue

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The other day I wandered into DiBruno’s and asked for what they had that’s locally produced.  Despite getting the new guy in the cheese cave, he immediately pulled out the Birchrun Blue.  I have been happily munching on it since then.

Birchrun Blue is an aged, natural rind, raw cow milk (from pastured cows) blue cheese produced by Birchrun Hills Farm in Chester Springs.  Birchrun Hills is relatively new to cheesemaking, only cranking out cheese for a few years now.  Of course, they’ve been the dairy business much longer than that.  It’s an absolutely wonderful blue cheese that will even appeal to those that are not blue cheese fans.

The Birchrun Blue has a lovely creamy texture and a delicate blue cheese taste, nice and earthy.  It’s perfect with slices of apple, and a fantastic melting cheese.  I made burgers using some ground beef from Natural Acres and melted some of the Birchrun Blue on top - it was delicious!  The rind is vaguely brie-ish, although pretty intense, flavor-wise.

Birchrun Blue can, as I said, be found at DiBruno Bros., and also at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market, as well as several farmer’s markets in the area.

Oak Shade Farm pepper jack

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Monterey Jack cheese is supposed to be pretty mild.  I must admit that I found the Pepper Jack from Oak Shade Farm in Nottingham, PA extra bland.  The cheese, that is.  The peppers that are in the cheese are good and spicy, which totally redeems the cheese for me.  Twenty minutes after eating a few slivers, my mouth still burns!

I can’t help but think about the stellar grilled cheese sandwich this cheese would make.

Oak Shade Farm cheese is available in the dairy case at Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal.

Raw milk cheddar

Saturday, September 01, 2007

My grandparents were farmers - cows and corn.  As a result, my mother didn’t have pasteurized and homogenized milk until she was out of high school and thought it was disgusting.  When you’re used to raw milk, everything else tastes super watered down.  I haven’t drunk raw milk since I was a baby...until recently.  I bought a gallon to make cheese, and nearly spit it out when I tried it.  It’s all what you’re used to, I suppose.

One thing even the skim milk drinkers amongst us might agree on: milk made from raw milk is far superior in taste and texture.  The flavor of raw milk cheese is so much more complex and, well, earthy.  I recently tried the raw milk cheddar from Green Meadow Farms, a farm run in Gap, PA.  It is amazing - it has a fairly sharp bite to it, which I love in cheddar.  Great texture, too - it’s a little crumbly, but smooth on your tongue.

While my bit of raw milk cheddar will be finished simply sliced and served with thin slices of apple, the cheese would make an unbelievable baked macaroni and cheese.  As the cooler weather approaches, I may have to try that.

Green Meadow Farm cheeses are made from grass-fed milk and are hormone- and antibiotic-free.  You can find their cheese at various restaurants throughout the Philadelphia area, including Fork and the White Dog Cafe.  I purchased my piece of cheddar at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market.

Nettlesome cheese

Monday, August 27, 2007

A few days ago I bought a small chunk of Valley Shepherd Creamery Nettlesome cheese.  It sat in my ‘fridge.  I just couldn’t work up the motivation to try it.  Stinging nettles in cheese?  It just sounded...wrong.

But Nettlesome cheese is so, so right!  This mixed milk cheese is really wonderful - it’s filled with dried nettles and has a great, grassy smell.  The taste, too, has grass undertones.  Not in an unpleasant way - in a very rich and interesting way.  Coincidentally, I had this idea last night during my tasting - it would probably make a really great grilled cheese sandwich.  It seems like it would melt really well, and the taste of the nettles would be really unique.

Interestingly, eating cheese with stinging nettles is pretty good for you.  Aside from all the benefits of dairy, nettles have long been used in herbal medicines to treat disorders of the muscles and joints, eczema, arthritis, gout, and anemia. Who knew you could eat cheese and treat arthritis all in one shot?!

Valley Shepherd Creamery is located in Long Valley, New Jersey.  And if you’re ever up that way, they do offer cheesemaking classes.  Valley Shepherd Creamery is also the location of the 2007 Artisan Cheese and Food Festival coming up on September 29.  It sounds like an amazing event for local food aficionados.  Over 25 small farms and artisan food producers throughout the Northeast region will be there with American Cheese Society award winning cheeses and specialty foods.

Edited to note:  Nettlesome cheese is available in the dairy case at the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market.