Farmhouse Cheeses

There were a couple of new cheeses at the market last weekend so we brought home a sample of each. Both were from the Meadow Creek Dairy in southwestern Virginia. They make the cheese with milk from their herd of Jersey cows.

The cheese on the bottom left in the picture is Appalachian, the original cheese from this producer. It's a semi hard, lightly cooked, pressed curd cheese that is aged for at least 60 days. Nice firm texture and good mouth feel. I could sense white mushrooms and earthy flavors here. Nice bit of acid in the cheese as well. The dairy's website says the cheese is similar to a French tomme.

The cheese on the right was a true delight, a semi soft, washed rind cheese called Grayson. Runny and gooey, the cheese has quite a nose to it, though that tends to dissipate quickly. Dense, earthy, strong and just flat out good. It's very similar to Tallegio from Italy, but has a more potent nose to it. A truer photo would have shown the cheese with a longer time out of the refrigerator. The cheese bulges and oozes and is great with some crusty bread.

The cheeses are only available at retail locations, as there is no ordering from the company web site. There's a list of stores at the web site.