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Janet Fletcher

180 Stonecrest Dr
Napa, CA, 94558
(707) 265-0404
{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

Janet Fletcher

  • Home
  • About
    • About Janet
    • Media
    • Client List
    • Contact
  • Planet Cheese
    • Planet Cheese Blog
    • Planet Cheese Signup
    • Cheese Library
  • Store
    • All Items
    • World Cheese Tour
    • Books
  • Classes
    • World Cheese Tour Classes
    • Other Classes & Events
    • Custom Class/Event Request
    • Cheese O'Clock Video Archive
  • Recipes
    • Spring
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    • Autumn
    • Winter
    • Comfort

Swiss With a Twist

October 21, 2024 janet@janetfletcher.com

I don’t quite get it, but not everyone loves the same cheeses I do. Those beefy, concentrated alpine cheeses I adore can strike some folks as over the top. “Too much flavor” is one critique I’ve heard but could never imagine saying myself. If you tend to like cheeses that show a bit more restraint, this Swiss beauty may be for you. It’s a little younger than many comparable mountain cheeses, and while I don’t find it remotely lacking in aroma or flavor, it’s not as in-your-face as some.

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In From: Switzerland, Milk: Cow Tags Swiss cheese, raw milk cheese, Jùscht, alpine cheese, Gourmino
8 Comments

Best Cheese You Don’t Know

March 1, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com

Maybe you know this exceptional Swiss cheese, but probably you don’t. I rarely see it at retail counters. It doesn’t get much press. Yet it’s a benchmark cheese, in my view, made by ultra-traditional methods that are vanishing. Even in the rarefied world of Swiss alpine cheesemaking, it stands out for the stringent rules that govern its production. My favorite book on Switzerland’s cheeses, Swiss Cheese by Dominik Flammer and Fabian Scheffold, calls it “the most aboriginal of all Alpine cheeses.”

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In From: Switzerland, Milk: Cow Tags Swiss cheese, L’Etivaz, alpine cheese, alpage, raw milk, raw milk cheese
14 Comments

The Creamy One

April 13, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 564 _DSC4080.jpg

If I were giving an award for “Most Likely to Succeed,” this Swiss beauty would be a contender. A relative newcomer, it has already taken root at cheese counters nationwide, and it’s a reliable audience favorite when I serve it in classes. Creamy, nutty and balanced, with alluring aromas, it’s a people-pleaser at an inviting price.

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In From: Switzerland, Milk: Cow Tags Swiss cheese, Kaltbach, Le Crémeux, alpine cheese, cow’s milk cheese
8 Comments

Peak Season

October 27, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 39 _DSC2324.jpg

If you enjoy Swiss mountain cheeses, get yourself to a shop in the next few weeks for some of the best cheese we get from Switzerland all year. Retailers across the country are just starting to receive wheels from the Alp they “adopted” several months ago, sight unseen. The eight-year-old Adopt-an-Alp [http://www.adopt-an-alp.com/learn#Abou] program links traditional Swiss cheesemakers—the kind who make cheese only in summer in remote high-elevation huts—with American merchants who want to support these practices. We consumers get to experience phenomenal raw-milk cheeses that hardly ever left their region before. Don’t procrastinate; these gems go fast.

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In From: Switzerland, Milk: Cow Tags Adopt-an-Alp, Caroline Hostettler, alpine cheese, raw-milk cheese, transhumance
12 Comments

Peak Experience

October 22, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 11.jpg

I should have known the creamy cheese at twelve o’clock would be the class favorite. Never bet against a triple-cream. This one was delightful, I agree, but I found more to love in the six aged cheeses that followed—all of them mountain cheeses from Europe, all made with raw milk and animal rennet. So much tradition and expertise represented on one plate!

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In From: Switzerland, Milk: Cow, Milk: Sheep, Milk: Goat Tags mountain cheese, raw milk cheese, alpine cheese
4 Comments

Hard to Say, Easy to Love

October 10, 2017 janet@janetfletcher.com
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It’s a mouthful in more ways than one. Schnebelhorn doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it’s a palate pleaser in every other respect. I’m not sure cheese can get any better. Raw cow’s milk, Swiss know-how and eight months in a cellar have produced a new alpine gem that you really need to know. Heirloom apples, toasted walnuts and Schnebelhorn—there’s your autumn cheese board.

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In From: Switzerland, Milk: Cow Tags alpine cheese, raw milk cheese, Schnebelhorn
4 Comments

Flower Power

August 22, 2017 janet@janetfletcher.com
Alp Blossom.jpg

 This new cheese reminds me of why I really shouldn’t leave the house without makeup. Mom always said, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts,” but the truth is, appearance does matter. How else to explain why this fabulous cheese languished in the U.S. until the producer got the idea to coat it with herbs and flowers? Since then, the sluggish sales curve has spiked. Where’s my lipstick?

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In Milk: Cow, From: Austria Tags Hubaner, Alp Blossom, alpine cheese, Columbia Cheese
2 Comments
 

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Welcome to my world: a fragrant, fascinating universe devoted to great cheese. In this and future Planet Cheese posts, you’ll find profiles of the world’s best cheeses plus insights into everything cheese: shops, recipes, interviews, pairing discoveries, classes, videos, travel. If you haven’t already done so, sign up here - it’s complimentary - and join me in learning something new about cheese every week.


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     Photographs: Douglas Fletcher, Ed Anderson, Megan Clouse, Faith Echtermeyer, Eva Kolenko,
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