Posts Tagged “cheese”

Here is a list of cheeses to try in the new year… I think this could be a new years resolution I can actually keep!

1. Monforte Dairy Company, Millbank

In the heart of Amish country, cheesemaker Ruth Klahsen, a veteran chef well-known to patrons of Rundles and the Old Prune in Stratford where she once cooked, makes more than 30 different cheeses including the “wow” one called Piacere (pleasure in Italian), a semi-soft sheep’s milk cheese covered with rosemary, savoury, chill pepper and juniper, that’s addictive.

www.monfortedairy.com

2. Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, Picton

Fifth Town, which gets its name from its location, once known as “Fifth Town” or the fifth town to be settled in newly formed Upper Canada, makes about 15 cheeses including I Wish, an Idiazbal-style sheep’s-milk cheese (a Basque style smoked cheese), cave-aged for three to nine months, and Lemon Fetish, a soft sheep’s milk cheese that’s lightly aged and made with lemon zest.

www.fifthtown.ca

3. Upper Canada Cheese Company, Jordan

The well-stocked factory shop naturally features Upper Canada’s two unique cheeses produced using the milk of a single local Niagara herd of Guernsey cows cared for by the Comfort Family (one of only a half dozen Guernsey herds in Canada), namely the Oka-style semi-soft Niagara Gold fashioned after recipes developed by the Trappist Monks, and Comfort Cream, their camembert-style soft, white bloomy rind cheese.

www.uppercanadacheese.com

4. Thunder Oak Cheese, Thunder Bay

One of the most northerly of Ontario’s cheesemakers, Thunder Oak took the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix in 2002 for the best firm cheese for their handcrafted farmstead Gouda. The cheese company was founded by Jacob and Margaret Schep, who both came from cheese-making families in Holland.

www.cheesefarm.ca

5. Les Brebis sur le toit bleu, Oxford Mills

This small farm with a name evocative of Jean Cocteau and 1920’s Paris has been developing a special herd of dairy sheep, such as Lacaune, East Friesian and Rideau Arcott crosses, to produce Pyrenees-style Tomme, blue cheese and feta. www.sheepcheese.ca

– Margaret Swaine, a cheese- and wine-loving Toronto based writer, who makes it a point to search out both wherever she goes.

6. Black River Cheese, Milford

Historic Black River Cheese Company, located in bucolic Prince Edward County, was started in 1901 by local farmers and is still a co-operative producing tangy aged cheddar, flavoured mozzarella and even garlic curds. www.blackrivercheese.com

7. Best Baa Dairy, Fergus

As founding members of Ewenity Dairy Co-op, cheesemaker Elisabeth Bzikot and her husband Eric buy raw sheep milk from the small co-operative to make yogurt, ice cream and a fine collection of firm and soft sheep cheeses, such as Mouton Rouge, a 60-day-aged raw milk cheese and Ramembert, a creamy camembert style cheese. www.ewenity.com

8. Wilton Cheese, Odessa

Master cheesemaker Arne Jensen from Denmark founded Jensen Cheese in 1925, now Wilton’s Cheese Factory. Aged cheddars, such as Vintage Reserved that’s six years and older, is the delicious specialty. www.jensencheese.ca or www.wiltoncheese.com

9. Back Forty Artisan Cheese, Lanark

James Keith handmakes ewe milk cheese in a little fromagerie in Lanark Highlands and trucks it to the Carp Farmer’s market, the Byward Market and restaurants and shops in Ottawa, Perth and Kingston. Back Forty is known for its Highland Blue; Madawaska, with its tangy soft centre; and Dalhousie, a semi-firm brushed cheese. www.artisancheese.ca

10. Thornloe Cheese, Thornloe

A respected brand in Northern Ontario for more than 68 years, the cheese, ice cream and curds made at Thornloe use millions of litres of locally produced milk every year. Travellers love to stop at the cheese factory store on Highway 11 between New Liskeard and Armstrong. www.thornloecheese.ca

BARAMBAH Organics is best known for its milk which serious foodies in Sydney and Melbourne hail as somewhat of a national treasure.

This is old-fashioned, non-homogenised stuff – with thick cream on the top – and is used to make Brisbane’s best cappuccinos and cafe lattes.

After branching out into butter and yoghurt production, Ian and Jane Campbell started making cheeses in 2005 and these are starting to pick up awards.

Judges at the recent Dairy Industry Association awards in Queensland selected Barambah Crow’s Ash Brie as the overall champion product.

What you get is a rich, creamy brie with a white mould exterior and a coating of vineyard ash.

As it ages the skin gets crunchy and the middle becomes oozy, golden and mushroomy.

The name comes from the crow’s ash trees that Ian Campbell planted on the family’s Spring Creek farm near Murgon.

His Fig Tree Paddock double brie is named after a Spring Creek pasture dominated by a big old Moreton Bay fig.

Nowadays, the Campbells’ main dairy herd grazes under river redgums at their Glenarbon property on the Dumaresq River between Texas and Yelarbon.

This isn’t traditional dairy country and a few of the old-school locals were a bit sceptical about how friesians would go in their neck of the woods.

The herd is now thriving on perennial lucerne, and certified organic grains and molasses. There is plenty of water from the river and bores and no cattle ticks. The river soils are responding well to organic farming and the earthworms are thriving.

Cheesemaker Timothy Gadischke – who trained at Kingaroy and Witches Chase at Mount Tamborine – also produces quark and fetta and a new labna, which is a yoghurt cheese popular in Lebanon and Israel.

Traditionally it is made in the home by wrapping the yoghurt in muslin and draining it over a pot.

Once the mixture solidifies it is rolled into walnut-sized balls. Gadischke adds sea salt and fennel seeds to his version. Jane Campbell uses the balls to stuff boned-out lamb roasts. Otherwise use them as a spread on crusty bread or instead of bocconcini in garden salads.

These products are made at Barambah’s Oxley plant and are widely available. For more information, go to www.barambahorganics.com.au.