Women feature pretty prominently in the developing American artisanal cheese movement and I think that women are experimenting and really pushing the boundaries of cheese and our conceptions of American produced cheeses. I put together a tasting of three cheeses last night all produced by Vermont women cheesemakers / farmers / etc. It was such a fun tasting to put together and a different theme, sometimes its nice to think outside the box in terms of pairing options and themes and so what did I have?
1. Lady in Blue - courtesy of yesterday's spotlight, Lazy Lady Farm, this is a raw milk blue cheese with a fabulously ashen, gamey, moldy, and vegetal rind. Semi firm blue cheese paste is paired with this funky organic exterior. A great blue and certainly not too intense.
2. Manchester - Consider Bardwell's firm goat's milk tomme crafted by Angela Miller and her team of cheese elves. Crisp yet deep, milky and smooth, round yet light, grassy and citrusy and all around fabulous. You can't go wrong with this cheese!
3. Bonne Bouche - Crafted by Vermont Butter and Cheese and Allison Hooper leading the way in the American and more specifically Vermont artisanal cheese revolution, this bloomy rind ash coated goat's milk disk is creamy in all the right ways, round around the edges just like one likes, vegetal and dynamic yet it melts in your mouth in all the right ways!
I could have continued and continued with different cheeses made by women cheesemakers but I thought this was the tip of the iceberg. A fun exploration into the world of cheese and gender.
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