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.