CHEESES OF THE MONTH
£52
Minimum 1.2kg total. Feeds 4 people for a fortnight or a dinner party of up to 15
Waterloo rich, buttery, Guernsey milk soft cheese
Tymsboro smooth, zesty and pleasingly goaty
Harbourne Blue crumbly, floral and raisin-sweet
Appleby’s Double Gloucester silky-textured, lactic and warm
£200 to order quarterly, £295 bi-monthly and £565 every month
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The uplands of South West Wisconsin, also known as the Driftless Area, is a rolling upland plain, deeply cut by streams into a maze of narrow, twisting ridges and valleys. Up on the ridge-top near the Old Pleasant Ridge area north of Dodgeville is Uplands Cheese owned by Mike and Carol Gingrich and Dan and Jeanne Patenaude where they and Andy Hatch make Pleasant Ridge Reserve.
Their farm is particularly suitable for growing diverse grasses, herbs and flowers and pasture is managed by keeping a set of paddocks, which the cows are moved through as the grass reaches its optimal condition; not too tall and fibrous and still moist. Their herd calve in the spring and are milked through the summer and autumn. In winter they stop producing milk and are dry until they calve again the following spring. Spring calving and pasture feeding is the least intensive way of dairy farming; more in line with the natural way that cows evolved than practices common in larger dairy herds, like keeping the herd indoors and feeding manufactured feed. Following the more natural calving pattern is a particular point of difference in the USA and although by comparison to most of the farms we buy from, the difference is not so great, at Uplands Cheese, they go one step further to ensure the flavours of their cheese. They select only the best milk for Pleasant Ridge by keeping an eye on how good the pasture has been just before milking. In addition, they start making cheese only in late spring when the cows are fully adapted to the fresh pastures and stop before pasture quality has deteriorated in autumn. The milk is used only minutes after milking finishes so it is extremely fresh.
The inspiration behind Pleasant Ridge was the cheeses of alpine France, a region where cheese is still hand made, unpasteurised and seasonal. Pleasant Ridge Reserve, the result of many experiments and tastings with friends, although reminiscent of Gruyere, has its own distinct character. The cheeses we have at the moment were made in June 2008. Andy Hatch gave us the following notes on them:
‘We chose these batches…because they're great examples of our favourite milk. By early June the cows have come through any early lactation wonkiness and are nearing the peak of milk production. The pastures last year were still putting up sweet, young grasses and hadn't suffered from any extreme heat yet. Moisture was great. For us and the cows this was full stride.’
The cheeses are rich, butterscotch-sweet with a long, complex tangyness. We’re excited to sell them not only because Andy Hatch is a friend and ex-colleague of ours, but it’s both fascinating and inspiring to introduce people to some of the great USA farmstead cheeses that there are now and, by tasting their cheese, share with our own specialist cheesemakers what their artisan industry is doing and take inspiration from some of their ideas. |
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BEER & CHEESE
Wednesday 16th September
7:00 - 9:00pm
The combination of cheese and wine is well known. Almost to the point of cliché. However even a few die-hard wine drinkers are coming round to the idea that beer may be a more compatible partner for cheese.
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MODERN TRADITIONALS
Wednesday 23rd September
7:00 - 9:00pm
New world meets old as we examine the contemporary British cheese makers creating modern classics using both traditional and not so traditional techniques.
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THE BRITISH NEW WAVE
Wednesday 30th September 2009
7:00 - 9:00pm
The past 30 years has seen an enormous resurgence in the production of British and Irish artisanal cheeses. This growth has been reflected in the numbers and range of cheeses available on our shop counters.
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MAIL ORDER (left)
July’s Cheese of the Month Selection
PLEASANT RIDGE RESERVE (below left)
A new cheese from Wisconsin
OUR SHOPS & MARKET STALLS (below)
What's especially good this week.
FEATURED ITEMS (scroll to bottom of page)
Tutored Tastings for this Autumn
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BOROUGH MARKET |
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| PARTICULARLY GOOD AT THE MOMENT |
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TYMSBORO
One of the best batches of Tymsboro for a couple of years, literally. Balanced, goaty, lemony and meltingly creamy.
HAFOD
Milky, creamy and rich with a fresh but aromatic citric flavour almost like lime or lime zest.
APPLEBY'S CHESHIRE
Some really phenomenal cheeses, flaky, moist, savoury, mineral and lactic. |
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| ON THE COBBLES |
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Featured on our outside till this week we'll have
MATURED WATERLOO
As with our Wigmore, we’re keeping the Waterloo a bit longer in our maturing rooms and the flavours are richer, more buttery, more earthy and complex as a result. |
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COVENT GARDEN |
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| PARTICULARLY GOOD AT THE MOMENT |
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CARDO
Floral, goaty and creamy with a pungency and savouriness from the orange b linens rind.
HARBOURNE BLUE
Raisiny sweet and succulently moist. Tastes floral and delicate with a richness that’s a little like white chocolate.
MILLEENS
Martin is particularly pleased with the batch of Milleens that he tasted today and that will be on the counter at the weekend. Savoury, meaty, creamy and lovely.
TYMSBORO
On spectacular form at the moment as above.
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OUR MARKET STALLS
We attend a couple of markets around London bringing a small selection of cheeses to sell.
This week we'll have: Montgomery’s Cheddar, Stichelton, Ticklemore and Gorwydd Caerphilly.
Sleightlett from Mary Holbrook
St James from Martin Gott in Cumbria (washed rind sheeps milk) and rich, double cream Finn from Neal’s Yard Creamery in Herefordshire. |
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