Cheese Wiz: Morcella

I have been waiting for this cheese & this moment since last spring…. Let me cordially invite your life into the life of foraged perfection - Morcella.

Handmade by our great friends at Shepherd’s Way Farms, Morcella is a seasonal, soft-ripened sheep milk cheese with local morel mushrooms. Made in small batches with only spring and summer milk, Morcella is a creamy, earthy cheese with a mottled bloomy rind. Like the morel mushrooms it is named for, Morcella is only around for a limited time… this is seriously something you do not want to go with out.

From Penterman Farms out of Thorp, Wisconsin, I introduce Marieke Gouda. This gouda is classified as a “young” gouda and is aged in the traditional Dutch fashion. Aged only for 2-4 months, this cheese made from raw cow’s milk, salt, enzymes, and cultures.  

Creamy, buttery and mild with slightly sweet notes. Pair with peach preserves and toasted almonds, buttery Chardonnay or any farmhouse ale.

Expert, licensed cheesemaker, Marieke Penterman and her team, handcraft traditional Dutch Goudas using the time-tested, Old World, cheesemaking methods Marieke brought with her when she emigrated from the Netherlands. Marieke transforms farmstead-fresh, raw, cow’s milk from her family farm into award-winning cheese, which is then carefully cured on imported Dutch pine planks in temperature and humidity-controlled aging cellars.

Back by popular demand - CHEESE CURDS!

Eichten’s Hidden Acres cheese curds are sold in 8oz containers for ONLY $4!

Cheese Wiz: North Fork Whiskey Washed Munster

More cheese from the Land of 10,000 Lakes…

NEW TO US from the redheaded cheesemaker at Redhead Creamery, out of Brooten Minnesota, welcome their French-inspired-with-an-American-twist, North Fork Whiskey Washed Munster!

This American-style Munster is a soft ripened cow’s milk cheese with a washed rind of local whiskey—Panther Distillery’s “Minnesota 14 Whiskey” out of Osakis, Minnesota. This collaborative cheese experience found itself winning 4th place at the Minnesota State Fair in 2017.

Looking past the local achievement and publicity, to the cheese itself, this French-inspired munster has a russet-colored rind with a chalky-white interior. Like many other soft ripened cheeses, this Munster will become more oozy, develop a stronger aroma, and the rind will darken with age.

This farmstead cheese has notes that will remind you of the barnyard it is made in. Creamy, rich, and pungent this cheese pairs well with an array of food: Sweet fruits, such as cherries, pears, plums, and many other stone fruits, as well as rustic breads, such as rye bread with flavors of anise, fennel, and licorice.

This cheese pairs well with many lagers or pilsners, and juicy red wines: pinot noir and Beaujolais (my personal favorite red) as well as sweet white wines: chardonnay, pinot gris, and riesling.

This cheese is best served at room temperature. Leave it out for 20 minutes before diving in!        

We have become familiar with Shepherd’s Way Cheese these last few weeks, most recently the Shepherd’s Hope fresh sheep cheese. Welcome to the case Shepherd’s Hope with garlic & herbs!

Shepherd’s Hope is a unique mild, fresh sheep’s milk cheese with a gentle citrus note at the finish. Another multiple award-winning cheese from Shepherd’s Way Farms. Shepherd’s Hope is exceptional with a crisp Chardonnay and a fresh baguette or in a tomato basil salad… now with the added flavors of fresh garlic & herbs!

Cheese Wiz: Shepherd's Hope

Back again from our friends in Nerstrand, MN, Shepherd’s Way Farms, I reintroduce to you:

Shepherd’s Hope is a unique mild, fresh sheep’s milk cheese with a gentle citrus note at the finish. Another multiple award-winning cheese from Shepherd’s Way Farms. Shepherd’s Hope is exceptional with a crisp Chardonnay and a fresh baguette, or in a tomato basil salad.

But wait… haven’t we had this cheese before?
YES! AND IT'S AMAZING.

However, there is something a little extra special about this specific batch of Shepherd’s Hope.. You may recall from my last cheese update that I went down to the farm and spent the afternoon learning about Shepherd’s Hope. More specifically about the drop in barometric pressure caused all the mama sheep to give birth to baby lambs all at once. 120 lambs to be precise!
After a mammal is born, it is extremely important that they have their mother’s milk. This first milking is hyper packed with nutrients and protein and is called colostrum. This cheese IS NOT colostrum milk. Rather it is the first batch of cheese made from the mother sheep’s milk after the baby lambs have had their fill.

REALLY EXCITING MILK!

 This sheep didn’t appreciate me staring at all the butts

From TK's Desk: Friesago

New cheese this week!

Last weekend, Nic and I had the pleasure to travel down to God’s Country, southern Minnesota, where we spent the afternoon at Shepherd’s Way Farm, a sheep & cheese farm. Jodi Ohlsen Read, the Master Cheesemaker, is a master of her craft and a badass person. For her, cheese and raising animals isn’t her job, it’s her life and passion…. And just as the barometric pressure dropped (when we got that big snowstorm) ALL of their pregnant sheep gave birth, AT ONCE! This can be a common phenomenon in the animal world.

Shepherd’s Way cheese is classified as farmstead cheese - meaning that the animals are raised and milked—and the cheese is made—right on site. Not a very typical practice in this day and age.

From the farm, I present to you, FRIESAGO  (free sah go)  $28/LB -

A 2017 First Place American Cheese Society winner for Farmstead Sheep Milk, Friesago is a natural-rind semi-aged sheep milk cheese with a dense texture, pleasant mild flavor, and a slightly nutty finish. A multiple award-winner, Friesago is versatile as a table cheese and as a cooking cheese.

Substitute Asiago cheese with this local Friesago and you will thank yourself.  Grate this over your pasta, soups, salads or try this: Brown some butter, drizzle it over thinly sliced smoked ham, then with a mandoline, thinly slice the cheese over it… man, oh man, I’m making this at my next dinner party. Woof. Or put it on your charcuterie plate.  

A little tidbit about sheep’s milk & cheese… sheep don’t produce the same volume of milk as cows do (sheep yield about 1 qt of milk a day where a cow can be milked twice a day getting 8 qts). Sheep’s milk has almost double the amount of protein in it (as well as double the amount of calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc,  thiamin, riboflavin, Vit. B6 and B12, and Vit. D, and the 10 essential amino acids) - meaning there is almost double the amount of solids in it, allowing you to produce the same amount of curds with significantly less the amount of milk. Wild, isn’t it? And sheep’s milk tends to be easier on the stomach for folks who cannot digest cow’s milk.

Here are some photos I took of the farm & creamery:

OH! AND WE HAVE CHEESE CURDS FROM EICHTEN’S (out of Center City, Minnesota). We’ll let you know!