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!