Spring cheese
3 cheeses to usher in the season
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Last night I taught a cheese tasting class at the charming Wheat & Vine provisions in Doylestown. I LOVE sharing my love for cheese, and this feels like such a sweet spot for me. Wheat & Vine has an all-local(ish) cheese lineup, which is so cool. I often discover something new. I wanted to share a few faves from last night - and one just because fave.
Did you know that cheese is a seasonal product? Milk changes in composition and character throughout the year based on what the herds are eating, the temperatures outside and animals’ reproduction cycle—when cows (or sheep or goats) are going in and out of lactation. (If you’re interested in the seasonality of cheese, I wrote a whole article about it!)
To me, these three cheeses taste like spring. I’m just home from a walk, and people were wearing summer dresses and sandals (!!). A revelation.
Merry Goat Round from Firefly Farms
This little bloomy goat wheel is smooth as silk. The one we dug into last night was perfectly, gorgeously ripe, melting gently away from its creamline. Creamy, tangy, melting ice creamy. It’s made in Accident, MD (a real place! And my homestate!). I’d like this at a picnic with a bubbly rose and crusty baguette.
My friend thought this tasted like Raclette, and she’s not wrong. This washed rind goat and cow’s milk cheese is made outside of Pittsburg and washed with beer from Cinderlands Beer Co. It’s both approachably mild and intriguingly funky, with notes of prosciutto and salty peanuts. I loved pairing this with salami and cashews. This was a crowd favorite last night.
We didn’t have this last night, but it’s a new obsession of mine. This is a gorgeous new addition to Jasper Hill’s cheese family, and they really don’t mess around. Beyond the mottled ash rind you’ll find a lushly creamy button of goodness, made with grass-fed cow’s milk and added cream for a pillowy, room temperature butter sort of texture. Notes of fresh cut grass and buttered mushrooms. Just spread on a flatbread and float up and away.
I also wanted to update you on Write Up! Here goes.
When I wrote to share about the launch of Write Up a few weeks ago, I had know idea what the group would be like, or if people would even sign up.I sure hoped they would!
(Write Up is a group of freelance writers working together and supporting each other to bring our careers up to the next level. We start April 10!)
Well...we're filling up. We're turning out to be this genuinely inspiring, absolutely impressive cohort of writers. We have students from Mexico, Spain, and California. We have writers who are ready for a major pivot or a new beat. We have writers who have been working as freelancers for their whole careers, and ones that are just starting out. I'm going to learn so much from this group.
We also have a lineup of incredible teachers: Sally Eckus, Tim Herrera, Hannah Selinger, Irene Kaoru and Lauren Magenta. The way it shaped up is that I just asked all the most knowledgeable people I could think of if they would join us, and...everyone said yes. Plus mentorship from me, of course.
We have a few spots left, and if you want to snag one of those spots - or talk to me more about what that entails - please reach out!
I AM SO EXCITED FOR APRIL.
xo,
Hannah
PS Here’s cheese tasting Hannah!
