Hello there lovers and people that I don’t know who read my most intimate cheese thoughts.  I am back again this week with everyone’s favorite.  Another installment of Cheesepinions.

Cue the fanfare of trumpets and elephant parade.

This week, I asked Amy what she was vibin’ on.  At first, she felt too pressured and refused.  But, after I picked her up off the floor and curled her out of the fetal position, she came up with a lovely suggestion for this fantastic New York spring weather we’ve been having.  This week, Amy suggests that y’all come in and try Caprotto Madaio.  It’s an aged goat’s milk from Campania (where Naples and the Amalfi Coast are…Jay-Z eat your heart out) in southern Italy.  It’s hard and crumbly and has flavors of sweeter nuts and pepper.

Amy made the bold statement that “it’s the best goat…ever.  It’s like biting into a lemon…made of goat cheese.  It’s refreshingly sharp and nutty and lemony, but not too dry in texture.”  Mmmm.  Nothing makes my stomach grumble like the image of fruit molded out of cheeses.  Sounds like Grandma’s house.  What?

And what would Amy do with a hunk of this lactic goat treat?  “Chunk it up into nuggets and eat it with a green salad and some fresh fruit, maybe a Creminelli Casalingo.  Maybe drink with a Vinho Verde or Albarino, or a hoppy ale.  All this in the park…in the sun.”  Obviously.  Sounds like heaven.  But spending any time with Amy is like being transported straight to heaven via a giant escalator that is full of your favorite people.  Like Freddie Mercury.  And Pepe LePeu.  And Kitty.

Well.  That’s it this week.  We are developing some new ideas for different things to add to the blog roster.  Like recipes.  And cheese vocabulary.  And food history.  Do YOU guys have any suggestions?  Anything you would like to see?  Please, write a comment!  Because I get a lot of spam porn comments that I just delete.  And we’d love to hear from you.  Ok.  That’s all!  Love you guyz!

So this week I’m going to start by admitting to something decidedly embarrassing.  I spent about five minutes before I began writing anything down trying to figure out if I could somehow incorporate the lyrics from the Backstreet Boys song “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” into this opening line.  The only real thing I could come up with was “Cheese Blog’s Back!”  But, I didn’t think that everyone would get the reference.  And then I decided it was a pretty dumb reference that probably doesn’t appeal to anyone but 12 year old girls from 1999 (which is pretty much how my brain works.  Hello, Lisa Frank!). So, maybe just play that song in the background or watch this video on Youtube or something so that you can try to imagine the state of mind I was in upon trying to get this post in motion…

This week, we are getting cheese advice from our very own Mike.  Mike took a very serious approach to Cheesepinions and had to go home and mull over his decisions.  Upon his return he presented me with a piece of paper that was incredibly organized and detailed and I think that the best thing to do would be to copy down exactly what he wrote (also partially because I’m a little unclear as to what he is referencing to at points…but hey, gotta roll with the punches…).  So here we go. “Cheesepinions” direct from Mike’s mouth.

1.)    Doe’s Leap Trappist.  Tastes like yummy sweet grass.  Has a fresh snappy taste – umami.  (**Editor’s note: I had to look this word up and I basically figured out that it mean’s “savoriness.”  And it the idea behind MSG.  Cool.**) And it’s American!  Eat it with a white Touraine and cornbread made with goat butter, bacon grease, sage, and no sugar.

2.)    Battenkill Brebis.  So many different flavors and nuances in a nice balance.  Potatoes and earth, hay, berries, flowers.  And it’s American!  Eat it with a red from Languedoc, after a Navajo Taco.

3.)    Pleasant Ridge Reserve.  Like jumping in the deep end of cheese flavor.  Big taste!  Reminds me of chocolate cake with raspberry filling…that got dropped in the mud maybe.  And it’s American!  Eat it with an Ommegang Rare Vos, or cook into some mac and cheese with a meltier cheese partner.

Well, there you have it.  The specifically Patriotic choices of Mike.  I am also curious about this “Navajo Taco.”  What exactly is that?  Tortilla + Dream Catcher +See Your Animal Spirit Guide or something?  It sounds like a great drug or some sort of really dirty sex toy.  Whatever it is…I want one. (I’m now being informed that it’s a sort of fried bread tortilla topped with mutton and assorted toppings.  Sounds good, but I’ll still take one Navajo Taco between the sheets.) (more…)

Greeting and salutations blogosphere and internet lovers. Are you ready for this? It’s pretty exciting, so I’ll wait for you to sit down.

So this week, we are launching a BRAND NEW FEATURE on the blog. It’s called “From the Farmer’s Mouth” and is a place for you readers to learn about some of our favorite farmers and cheese producers. We are going to try to regularly feature one of our producers (and we are going to start with local products. Hey there! Buzz word!) and see what’s going on in their brains. It’s good to learn about where your food comes from and how it’s made. Knowledge is power. And food is power. Therefore…knowledge is food. For your brain. And all we really care about on this blog is good food. Problem solved.

SO – drumroll please – we are going to get started with one of the greatest sheep farms in New York: 3-Corner Field Farm! Hooray!

The Basics: 3-Corner Field Farm is a lovely 100-acre farm located in Shushan, New York – a hamlet in the Green Mountains, about 4 miles west of the Vermont border and approximately 4 hours north of Williamsburg. Karen Weinberg and Paul Borghard moved to the farm in the mid-1980’s with their family, and almost immediately set about the infrastructure needed to make cheese. About 10 years ago they went commercial, and the rest, as they say, is history. With about 150 ewes, 7 rams, and 350 lambs, these guys have their hands full but manage to produce some of the most delicious American sheep’s milk cheeses you can find on the East Coast.

This bridge comes up a lot if you Google "Shushan." Purdy.

The Cheeses: At 3-Corner Field Farm, Karen and Paul got super lucky. When they moved into the main house, which was built in 1840, they discovered that the cellar built into the foundation of the building was a perfect CHEESE CAVE. (Whaaaat! If that isn’t a sign from the gods to start making cheese, then I don’t know what is.)

There's a cave down in there.

At the Bedford Cheese Shop, we carry three products from 3-Corner Farm. The Battenkill Brebis (a 6 pound, Pyrenees-style tomme that is grassy, nutty, and earthy in flavor), the Frere Fumant (a lightly smoked Spanish-style wheel), and the scrumpt-diddly-upmtious Sushan Snow (a gooey Camembert style mini that goes great with everything. Literally.).

Karen, and her husband Paul, seem like a cheesemaking dream team. Karen has a degree in industrial psychology (which probably means she has the most well-behaved flock of animals around) and Paul has a background in business and law. After a job took them to Paris, Karen began noticing all the delicious French sheep’s milk cheeses that weren’t available in the US. Then a lightbulb went off – that farm they had been holding onto for a while would be the perfect place to start making cheese! So, not really having any clue what they were getting themselves into, Karen and Paul got some sheep (originally they were supposed to act as fluffier lawnmowers), some donkeys, and a couple of rowdy dawgs to begin their operation.

Bee-ewe-tee-full.

From the beginning, these guys wanted to keep it small. At most, during the height of the summer cheesemaking season, the farm has three or four additional full time employees and one to two interns. But, the rest of the time? It’s just Karen and Paul and four part time employees. Because they chose to keep the farm small and in their hands, Karen says that the most challenging part of her job is “balancing the needs of the animals against the needs of the people and farm.” Based on her previous professional endeavors, Karen realized that “Factory farms are designed for people, NOT for the animals.” A factory farm simply makes producing food easier for the humans, without thinking about the welfare of the animals at all, and taking all the excitement out of making quality food. Karen cares and respects her animals, making sure they are comfy, cozy, and woolly 365 days a year.

Apart from getting to wear the many hats of small-scale farmer, Karen has been working with customers face to face and establishing a loyal foodie fan base. After driving down from their farm to the Union Square Farmer’s Market for a couple of years, 3-Corner Field Farm definitely has a group of cheeseheads that love their product (our store included.) She loves hearing what customers think about her cheeses, and from time to time via customer suggestion she has changed the presentation of some cheeses – trying different sizes, formats, etc.  But she has never changed the recipes of her cheeses. Her reasoning? “Making cheese is our art. You don’t ask an artist to change their medium.”

Karen is a pretty opinionated lady. Which we like. (I believe that the perfect accompaniment to cheese is a heaping spoonful of sass, but to each their own.) She likes keeping her operation small, because as a result, she has total control over what 3-Corner Field Farm makes and who they sell to. “I’m not really into stinky, washed rind cheeses. So I don’t make those.” Karen gets to make cheeses that she likes, and when she talks about her products you can hear the sparkle in her voice. Also, because they are such small production, each batch of cheese is unique. For example, one wholesale customer called Karen asking why the Shushan Snow tasted minty. Going back and looking into her organized farm files, Karen discovered that the sheep that were milked for that batch of Shushan Snow had been grazing on a field of wild oregano earlier that day. “This is an example that cheese is alive!” and shows us that something as subtle as a scattered herb in a field can greatly change the makeup of your dairy product.

When I first began talking to Karen, the first thing I noticed was the respect she held for her animals. “Sheep aren’t stupid animals. They are simply creatures of habit and routine,” Karen explained as I asked her about her flock. You can tell that she wants her animals to have the happiest lives that they can, even when it comes down to their seasonal routines. Right now, a couple weeks before lambing season and lush spring grasses start sprouting, it seems like most of the sheep are just straight chillin’. Most of the sheep aren’t even getting milked – just being fed until the summer, when cheese producing season blows up.

Qewt.

So. What is in the future for 3-Corner Field Farm? One of the short term goals can be summed up in two words: RIND PLAY. (Oh. SO kinky.) Karen wants to fiddle with the Battenkill Brebis by playing around with the rind to see how it’s going to change the pate and flavor. This will probably entail rubbing the rind with olive oil. Or ash. Or pixie dust. Just because. The other thing they are going to play around with is thistle rennet – “the true vegetarian rennet.” Karen wants to try to make something that is a little softer than the Battenkill, just to please the veggie-lovers out there. The big long term goal is to try and make a roquefort-style cheese. They have been making a stilton style blue for a while now, but they are hoping to get into something that is moister, spicier, and more buttery. But, this involves a lot more infrastructure – and more specifically, the need for a larger temperature-controlled aging facility to make sure that these guys don’t dry out.

Anything else to tell the adoring fans? Karen gave me two great words of advice. The first is for those of you who are more health conscious (and apparently are sado-masochists who like to read about congealed fat but not actually participate in the consumption of it) and worry about their intake of cheese. Karen finds that she eats less cheese on a regular basis if she makes the cheese the center of the meal. Eat fruit and a wedge of cheese for dinner, or make a cheesy-omelette. You’ll find you eat less dairy than you think this way.

The second thing she said kind of resonated with the mission of 3-Corner Farm. And I think it’s awesome. Know your cheesemaker. Know your farm. As a living thing that likes to consume delicious food, you will be happier if you know where your food came from and how the product was produced. If you know where your product is produced, you can make better decisions about what you are putting into your body. If you know a farm treats their animals well, you will be able to taste it in the cheese. Happy animals make happy milk which makes happy cheese and happy eaters.

Well, that’s all from this first installment of “From the Farmer’s Mouth.” It was a little lengthier than I expected, but there’s a lot of information in there. And when you have such a happy little farm like 3-Corner Field to write about, you’ll be amazed at how much you have to say! And thanks again, Karen, for taking the time to speak with me. You da bomb.

Talk to you guys next time! XOXO, The Blog.

…but we also sell a delicious variety of charcuterie!  Go Charlotte, it’s your birthday, we’re gonna eat serrano like it’s your birthday….

Hey there blog buddies!  We are back with round two of our “Cheesepinions” installment, this time bringing you our one and only Stephanie B-Money.  This week Stephanie is jumping for joy over our Stracchino di Capra from the Italian cheese-aging experts at Guffanti.

(Ok, so for you perfectionists out there, I know this is a pictures of Stracapra, NOT Stracchino di Capra, but do you guys have any idea how HARD it is to find a picture of Stracchino di Capra?  Seriously.  It’s bizarre.  Just as bizarre as Sandra Bullock being nominated for an Oscar.  Whaaaaaat?  Oh snap.)

This Italian goat cobblestone is in very lovely shape right now – “sweet and lactic, sticky and mouthcoating with delicate ‘goaty’ notes.”  Now who doesn’t want a little goat lovin’ all up in your tastebuds?!  And to round out the day on her bestial goat’s milk treat?  Some crusty bread, a few dried apricots, and a crisp bottle of Vernaccia (a Tuscan white wine with good acidity and strong citrus notes) to wash it all down.  Oh hey, girlfriend – this sounds like that perfect picnic we had Under the Tuscan Sun.  Minus Diane Lane…and our Italian Villa…and ignoring the fact I’ve never been to Italy.  More like Under the Bedbugs in my Bushwick Apartment.  Sounds just as romantic, right?

Well, that’s all from us here at “Cheesepinions!”  We’ll be back next week to bring you some more tasty and delightful suggestions from our eager to please cheesemongers.  And get excited.  In the near future we will be bringing you posts about a great local farm, as well as an appearance by the elusive Charlotte Kamin!  She will be filling us in on her recent trip to France and Switzerland to visit our favorite European cheesemakers.  So crack out your leiderhosen and yodel all the way home.  Until then, see you soon!