Day 469 : SCS Version 4.0, Dispatch #3

As I'm discovering more and more about the cheeses produced in Massachusetts and Portugal, I have come to notice that each locale has a very particular cheese point of view and unlike other SCS spotlights we have had, it is increasingly hard to find completely distinct cheesemaking styles in each. Each week, I aim to find something new to introduce you to that will be an example of the versatility present in cheesemaking based on a focused region and Massachusetts and Portugal are surely not the easiest. At the end of next week's spotlight, I will unpack my vision of the characteristic cheesemaking styles present in each place. But for the moment, lets continue introducing you all to new cheeses!

Cricket Creek Farm is located in Williamstown, Massachusetts and boasts 500 acres of green grazing hills for their forty cows (a mixture of Brown Swiss and Jersey cows) to enjoy. It is actually one of the oldest dairy farms in their region, owned since 2001 by the Sabot family. They currently produce three distinct cheeses, along with having milk, beef, pork, eggs, and bakery items for sale. This week, we will feature their extra aged Maggie's Round -- crafted in the style of a farmsteady Italian semi-firm raw cow's milk cheese, like a nice toma. Nutty and rustic with lightly buttery, floral and caramelly notes and a grassy, farmsteady finish. Maggie's round is offered for sale at the earliest, after four months of aging but I find it better when it has been aged for close to a year, the cheese becomes crystallized and crumbly in all the right sort of ways.

Image courtesy of http://www.culturecheesemag.com/

And from Portugal, another aged cheese, but not as long as our Massachusetts counterpart, Evora is traditionally aged for two to three months. A firm copper colored cylinder of raw Merino sheep's milk cheese that has been coagulated with cardoon thistle with a pale yellow-ish interior paste. Named after the capital of the Alto Alentejo province, located about 150 km east of Lisbon. With aging, the salt content of this cheese is dialed up a notch so it is great as a grating cheese in vegetable dishes. Smooth and rustic with notes of olive oil and hints of a spicy kick -- great with a glass of white wine. Want to know a fun factoid about Evora? It was once traded as a currency in the Portugal of yesteryear.

Image courtesy of http://www.artisanalcheese.com/