Day Two Fifty Four - The Fabulous Beekman Boys and Blaak

Have you heard of the Planet Green TV show called The Fabulous Beekman Boys? If you haven't, you are missing out! Coming into its second season, it features a former VP of Martha Stewart Living and a New York Times bestselling author/drag queen/ad exec who decide that city life just isn't for them. So what do they do? Something fabulous dawwling, of course! They move to a two hundred year old farm in Upstate New York with lots of goats, some pigs, and even a llama. Why not create an organic seasonal lifestyle brand and make the transition from the hectic hussle and bussle of Manhattan to the simple farming life of Upstate New York? Well it sure is farm chic!!

Is it a success? For that you will have to watch their show or check out their website and blog at http://www.beekman1802.com/. There, you can find out about all of the various products they sell, but for our purposes, I just wanted to focus briefly on their first cheese! BLAAK!

First released in Fall 2009, this cheese was crafted in conjunction with the nearby and established farm, Cooperstown Cheese Company. Why didn't you hear about it last fall? Well that's because you have to be in the know to find out about this cheese -- it was featured at the New Amsterdam Market and then the first six hundred pound batch made last year was quickly reserved for Murray's and Stinky Brooklyn, there really wasn't much left over unfortunately. It is a blend of sixty percent unpasteurized goat's milk and forty percent cow's milk. A firm Italian style cheese aged for four months in the Beekman Farm's caves and coated with ash to encourage its aging process. A unique taste that's for sure -- it is smoky and savory with the tang of aged goat's milk along with an almost game-y, animal-y quality from the cow's milk. The ashen exterior provides an almost granular counterpart to the interior firm paste. You can see the beginnings of that caramelly, crumbly, butterscotchy feel of aged cow's milk cheeses but BLAAK isn't fully there yet. A harmonious melody of opposing tastes designed to be smooth and delight the palate! And honestly how often can you say you've had a cheese with a black rind?

Now that you are in the know, go grab some...it's worth a shot! Then you can say you tried it, right?