St. Malachi Reserve: Award-Winning Originality

This cheese from The Farm at Doe Run stands apart

St. Malachi Reserve: Award-Winning Originality

Like its namesake, a centuries-old Catholic church nestled in a primarily Protestant section of Coatesville, PA, The Farm at Doe Run’s St. Malachi Reserve cheese stands apart in the cheese world.

“This cheese doesn’t fit into a category in terms of cheese type,” says Matthew Hettlinger, who serves as the farm’s co-cheesemaker with Samuel Kennedy.

When the two began working together at the end of 2013, St. Malachi was in the research and development phase. Unlike many award-winning cheeses, however, this one didn’t require much trial and error to perfect.

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The Swiss Chällerhocker Renaissance

Putting the innovation back into Swiss cheese

The Swiss Chällerhocker Renaissance

For decades, the words “swiss cheese” were riddled with sapless connotations and visions of yellow apertured cheese with a bland texture.

The reputation was gleaned largely from large, format-style cheeses, including mass produced versions of Emmentaler, Gruyère and Raclette, which were exported at the expense of artisan varieties. But those days are over. Once ruled by the subsidies and production controls of the government-funded cheese cartels, the Swiss cheese market has experienced a renaissance, as cheesemakers have begun to reimagine the identity of this variety.

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Rogue River Blue

Rogue River Blue

Beginning at 5 a.m. on a summer’s day in June, the folks at Rogue Creamery spent their morning in southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley, picking Syrah grape leaves that will be macerated in local pear brandy from Clear Creek distillery — to later serve as an earthy wrap for the creamery’s Rogue River Blue.

Tied with a raffia ribbon, it is Rogue’s seasonal gift to Blue cheese lovers, released on September 23, 2015 and available through the beginning of 2016. Aged from nine to 18 months, Rogue River Blue can credit its popularity to attention to detail, including its unique grape leaf wrapping, seasonality and farmstead milk from Rogue’s own pampered cow milk dairy.

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Bayley Hazen

Sweet And Creamy Blue For All Cheese Lovers

Bayley Hazen

Why buy the cow? For brothers and cheese-makers Andy and Mateo Kehler it wasn’t about getting the milk for free. Their farm in Greensboro, VT was the result of “the quest for meaningful work in a place we love,” says Mateo. For more than a century, members of the Kehler family maintained a summertime romance with Greensboro, a sleepy village nestled in the foothills of the Green Mountains. So in 1998, the brothers consummated their relationship with the town by buy-ing the out-of-business Jasper Hill Farm.

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