I love introducing readers to new cheeses as much as I hate reporting on those we have lost. But lose them we do. “They come and they go” hardly describes the current moment, when the pace of closures—both creameries and cheese shops—seems to be accelerating and newcomers are rare. We are six years out, more or less, from Covid’s peak yet the aftershocks persist. Even producers that I thought were stable and had the business figured out are folding. Another award-winning American creamery bit the dust late last month, leaving its many fans, including me, bereft. Does a profitable model even exist for small-scale artisan cheesemaking in this country?