Six months into this horrid pandemic and we still can’t plan for the future. Will we be able to gather for Thanksgiving? Will we have holiday parties? For me, these aren’t top-of-mind questions, but if you’re a cheesemaker, you need to guess, now, what people are going to want two or three months from now. The usual customer buying patterns have been completely upended. Montenebro (above), the fabulous Spanish goat cheese, is in short supply because the cheesemaker slashed production two months ago. Iffy flight schedules still plague air-freighted cheeses from Europe.
Read moreHoping for More
For me, the life-changing cheese from the four Cheese O’Clock tastings I did in May with Laura Werlin was Shepherd’s Hope. I could not get enough of this moist, tender sheep’s milk wheel. I inhaled it. And then wanted more. Shepherd’s Hope would be a staple in my fridge—alongside the feta and the pecorino romano—if only I could get my hands on it easily. But Shepherd’s Way Farms, the Minnesota producer, is small, with limited distribution. Fortunately, if you would like to try this completely original and addictive cheese, I know where you can find it.
Read moreAwestruck
I’ve been enjoying this cheese for decades, but the wedge pictured here was the best ever. It should have been underwhelming. It had endured a lot—too much shipping and too much time in my fridge. But it was as creamy, luscious, balanced and compelling as any blue cheese I’ve had in a long time. My husband rarely eats blues with enthusiasm, but he practically fought me for this one. The creamery believes it may be the first cow’s milk blue wheel produced in America. What better choice for your Independence Day burgers or holiday cheese board?
Read moreCheese for the Win
Everyone I talk to seems at loose ends right now. What’s the right thing to think, say, feel, do when your country is experiencing an emotional earthquake? Cheese seems trivial, perhaps, but to dairy farmers and cheesemakers it is not. It’s a livelihood. It’s the future for their land, their livestock, their families.
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