The Crane River Cheese Club Endicott St. Danvers, Ma
The BIG BOOK of Cheese Selections
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ORDER OF THE FARMS AND CHEESE PAGE 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
BLUE LEDGE FARM- VERMONT CAMEMBRIE LA LUNA RILEY’S COAT LAKE’S EDGE MIDDLEBURY BLUE CROTTINA VALLEY SHEPARD CREAMERY- NJ CARAMEAWAY MELTER SKELTER SENORA TARTUFO SHEPHERD CREMA DE BLUE GOTOGETAGOAT TEWKSBURY HUNTERDON CALIFON TOMME SAFFRONELLA CATO CORNER FARM-CT HOOLIGAN WOMANCHEGO DUTCH FARMSTEAD DAIRYERE RESERVE AGED BLOOMSBAY
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Blue Ledge Farm- Vermont
Established in 2000 we are a first generation, family owned and run goat dairy and cheesemaking operation. Our mission is to create a high quality product built on the cornerstones of respect for consumers, land and animals as well as our local community. The milk for our cow's milk cheeses comes from a farm just four miles away in the neighboring town of Whiting. Seth and Monika at MoSe Farm milk Ayrshire cows, a breed known for having superior milk for cheese-making. Twice a week we get their fresh milk delivered and it is immediately processed into Middlebury Blue, Camembrie, Richville or a new cheese, Moosalamoo. We also blend their cow's milk with our goat's milk to make an all-original aged cheese called Riley's 2x4. We are very fortunate to have Seth and Monika, and their lovely award-winning cows, right in the neighborhood!
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Blue Ledge Farm •
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Camembrie Made with fresh Ayrshire cow's milk, this is a smooth mold-ripened Camembert/Brie hybrid! A buttery slice of bovine heaven! Goes well with a light red or white wine. A great match for any type of cured meats as well! Approx. 1/2 lb. round
Smooth, buttery, mold ripened cow’s milk cheese. Cross between a Camembert and a brie
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La Luna A favorite with kids and "foodies" alike, La Luna is a raw goat's milk original. Similar to a gouda or a havarti, this cheese is subtle yet presents a nice lingering tanginess and complex flavors. We grate this on our pizza! It pairs well with a medium brew beer.
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Riley’s Coat 100% raw goat's milk, natural rind, cave aged for three months, similar to a Manchego.
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LAKE'S EDGE Perhaps our signature cheese, this dramatic ash-veined goat cheese is aged for three weeks and is named after the stones found along our Lake Champlain. This cheese is complimented by a light red wine such as a Pinot Noir.
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MIDDLEBURY BLUE A raw cow’s milk blue, made with Ayrshire milk from the cows next door. Aged sixty days, it is both creamy and crumbly and dare we say “town meets gown”, that unique experience when good earthy Vermont grit meets smooth high brow academia with nothing short of poetic results. Winner of Yankee Magazine's "Editor's Choice Award" November 2013!
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CROTTINA This is the cheese that "put us on the map" when it took a first place award in the American Cheese Society competition in 2006. Since then it has won loyal goaty fans for it's classic simplicity. Aged for three weeks, the texture of this cheese is velvety and smooth, with a white mold exterior. It goes well with a Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc wine. We love this cheese with a dollop of honey!
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Valley Shepard Creamery- New Jersey An old fashioned creamery welcomes you and your family to a unique farm experience in New Jersey. 120 beautiful acres in Long Valley, Morris County, NJ, within an hour of New York City! We have combined years of artisan cheesemaking expertise with modern equipment from around the world and age old European sheep farming practices to create Valley Shepherd Creamery. We take pride in being able to educate and involve the visitor in daily life of a real working sheep dairy while creating over thirty styles of artisan cheeses, yogurt and butter. March and April Our year starts off in mid March when our ewes begin to give birth. On average, a new lamb is born every 15 minutes around the clock during March and April! This keeps us rather busy the entire spring. When the mothers are ready, we begin milking them twice a day on our ewenique European rotary milking parlor. While our ladies enjoy a snack, they are milked on our special carousel that fully milks the animal in one full rotation. It only takes about 3 minutes! We start shearing in April when the weather changes and our ewes don’t need their winter coats any longer. Don’t miss our Sheep Shearing Tours – they’re great for the whole family!
May thru July: While our ladies spend their summer days grazing our pastures, the hustle and bustle of the cheese room begins. In addition to our Cultured Butter and Sheep’s Milk Yogurt, we produce 30 different styles of raw and pasteurized cheeses. May is the start of many local farmer’s markets that we attend weekly throughout NJ and NYC. Late spring is an especially cute and cuddly time of year, as it’s when you can come meet our lambs! For more information regarding our spring lamb tours, please click here.
August through November: As summer draws to a close and the leaves begin to change, our hillside aging cave is filled with hundreds of wheels of cheese. Take a tractor ride up to the cave to learn more about the process of aging cheese. Once the holidays begin to approach, cheese making slows down, and our attention shifts to creating beautiful gift baskets. Farm life can be hectic, but the ability to work closely with our animals, our products and our customers is more rewarding than anything else!
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Carameaway Raw Jersey cow milk. Aged for over 3 months in a 12 lb wheel, this Dutch style cheese infused with caraway seeds to create a deep satisfying flavor. When placed on a sandwich, this cheese completes meal.
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Melter Skelter Raw Jersey cow milk. Flat 10 Lb wheels, washed for 3 months until the rind remains sticky and aromatic. Like Raclette, this cheese is for melting over food, leaving a memorable flavor and texture.
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Senora Pure, raw Jersey cow starts the process of making our gouda style Senora. We then add a hot pepper mix to the curd before we mold it into a 10-12 lb. rounds. If you like a little heat in your cheese, the creamy texture plus the taste will own. We release it after 3 months, and we like it on the young side.
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Tartufo Shepherd Raw Sheep milk. Cave aged 3-5 months in a 4-5 lb wheel. A marriage made in heaven of summer black Tuscan truffles and an aged sheep cheese.
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Crema de Blue Raw Jersey cow milk. Aged 65 days in a 2.5 lb wheel. This spicy, creamy, full flavored cave aged blue is highly addictive. An American Cheese Society Winner!
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Gotogetagoat Raw Goat milk. Pressed into a 12 lb wheels and aged for minimum 8 months. This Dutch Styled aged goat Gouda delivers a mild, creamy profile with caramel tones.
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Tewksbury Raw Jersey cow milk. Cave aged for minimum 8 months in 25 lb wheels. This nutty Alpine style can be used on cheese plates and in a myriad of dishes. American Cheese Society Winner!
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Hunterdon Raw Jersey cow milk. Cave aged over 18 months in a 18-20 lb cylinder and oil rubbed for a hard, gritty and sharp profile designed for plates and grating.
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Califon Tomme Raw Jersey cow milk. Aged for a min of 3 months in a 12 lb wheel, this Dutch style cheese is the staple of many cheese plates. This gouda-like cheese is creamy, satisfying and mild.
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Saffronella Raw Sheep milk. Resembling a Sicilian Piacentino, this 5 lb wheel is cave aged for 3 months. Infusion of saffron petals and green peppercorns yields a pleasant, fresh flavor with a kick. “Ewenique� and memorable.
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Cato Corner Farm- Connecticut At Cato Corner Farm we make raw farmstead cheese by hand from the delicious milk of our 45 Jersey cows. The cows are humanely raised on a pasture-based diet without growth hormones or subtherapeutic antibiotics. We feed a small amount of grain to complement the nutrition in the grass and hay. Our cheeses are our own unique recipes, based on traditional cheese making styles and highlighting the flavor and terroir of our pastures and our farm. Cato Corner Farm is owned and managed by the mother-son team of Elizabeth MacAlister and Mark Gillman. Here’s a bit of their story: Liz MacAlister on Maintaining the Herd and Preserving the Land I began making cheese in 1997. After raising goats and sheep since the 1970s, along with a few cows and chickens, the farm was not self-supporting. I saw cheese as a value-added product that would allow me to keep farming and earn a living. I started with 13 cows, selling cheese at farmers’ markets and a few area stores. We’ve come a long way since then! Since Mark took over the cheese making, I am now in charge of the farm and the herd, as well as managing our NYC farmers’ markets. We are milking 45 cows twice a day, and we have another 40-50 heifers and calves. Our cows are mostly Jerseys, but we have one Brown Swiss and we’ve just started to breed with Normande bulls from France. We have a closed herd, which means we don’t buy cows from other farms – we keep the best of our heifers and sell the rest to other dairies. Mark Gillman on the Milk that Makes Great Cheese I have been back on the farm since 1999. I was teaching 7th grade English in Baltimore when my mom started making cheese. After three years in the classroom, I put my books in the attic and started helping out on the farm and in the cheese room. Now I make cheese and supervise the cheese making and aging processes, I manage the wholesale business, and I take care of the finances. Our cheese starts with our cows and the pastures they graze. If you taste our cheeses throughout the year, you will be able to appreciate the changes that come from changes in the cows’ diet. I love the sweet, grassy flavors and the gorgeous yellow color that the pasture milk brings to our aged cheeses in particular. In the winter we feed local hay, and the cows produce a lower volume of a much richer milk – this makes for a super creamy texture that’s ideal for Hooligan and our other semi-soft cheeses. Cheese making produces a lot of whey – for every 100 pounds of milk, we get only 10-15 pounds of cheese and the remaining 85-90 pounds is whey. We feed our whey back to our milk cows, since it contains protein and many nutrients and is an excellent way to recycle a waste product. The cows love it! Special thanks to our staff for your work! And thank you to our customers for supporting us. We couldn’t make cheese or run our farm without all of you.
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Hooligan AWARD WINNER! Hooligan is our signature stinky cheese that many food lovers consider to be our most exciting variety. Hooligan was awarded the top prize in the Outstanding Dairy category from Gallo Family Vineyards Gold Medal Awards (April 2006), and it was selected by both Saveur magazine and Slow Food USA as one of the top American cheeses. Made in 1.3-1.5 lb wheels and aged for 60-75 days, Hooligan is a ripe washed-rind cheese with a soft creamy paste, slightly firmer center, and a gorgeous orange rind - with a flavor reminiscent of French Muenster. Hooligans are bathed twice a week in brine to encourage the growth of pungent, surface-ripening bacteria and yeasts. The Hooligan melts beautifully for a fabulously stinky toasted cheese. Pairs well with cranberry walnut bread, Belgian style ales, Zinfandel, sweet white wines, hot pepper jelly, honey, and caramelized pecans.
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Womanchego Inspired by the classic Spanish sheep milk cheese Manchego, our cows milk Womanchego is aged 3 to 5 months, making it more similar to a young Manchego than the aged version most commonly found in cheese shops. The flavor is medium mild and a touch sweet with hints of fruit and nut. Moister than its Spanish cousin, our Womanchego is a versatile partner that is delicious on sandwiches or melted - it is our favorite cheese for tortillas! Womanchego pairs with medium red or white wines and honey-brewed ales and is delicious on a water cracker with a cranberry chutnet. On limited occasions we will offer our Mrs. Robinson, aged at least 7 months, or Wise Womanchego, aged for at least one year.
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Dutch Farmstead Creamy and mild with a slight nutty undertone and a rich, round, well-balanced flavor, the Dutch Farmstead is our variation on Gouda. Consistently a customer favorite, the Dutch was recognized by both Saveur magazine and Slow Food USA as one of the best American raw milk farmstead cheeses. Ideal for sandwiches or on a water cracker with cherry jam, Dutch Farmstead also pairs well with white wines like Sauvignon Blanc and non-tannic reds like an inky Cabernet. For beer, we recommend the effervescence of Two Roads Brewerys Workers Compensation saison for a perfect match. Aged 2 - 4 months. Occasionally served at 6-8 months as Aged Dutch Farmstead, watch for a limited release of Blocks Landing (the Dutch Farmstead aged 12-15 months) every year around Thanksgiving.
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Dairyere Reserve ACS AWARD WINNER! Second Place Winner at the 2014 American Cheese Society Competition in the Farmstead category, Third Place in 2011 and 2010. Dairyere Reserve is aged 12 months or more for a drier, more granular consistency than our Dairyere. With a nutty flavor, medium bite, and sweet caramel-like after taste, it is hard to put down! Made with vegetarian marzyme rennet. Limited availability throughout the year.
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Aged Bloomsbay As Featured in Yankee Magazine! Our Aged Bloomsbay is 11-12 months old for a sharper and more intense finishthink cheddary bite that’s balanced by a touch of sweetness. This is a classic aged cheese that is a fine addition to any cheese plate, Aged Bloomsday can take the place of cheddar or aged manchego. Melts beautifully on top of a burger or grilled cheese and makes a a perfect partner for full flavored wines like a California Petit Syrah. Also pairs well with fig jam, honey, stout and Double IPA.
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