"How can anyone be expected to govern a country with 325 cheeses?"
- Charles de Gaulle
Aged Boerenkaas
Rogue Creamery Reserve
Bandage Wrapped Cheddar
Barely Buzzed
Mopsy's Best
Sunset Bay ,
Petite Bonheur
Fenacho
Following de Gaulle, the view from the The Wedge, Portland's first homegrown cheese celebration, suggests that Oregon, while not in jeopardy of becoming ungovernable any time soon, is at risk of becoming somewhat unruly.
The Wedge was great fun and first among the many unexpected surprises was what to our taste was the best cheese at the show - an Aged Boerenkaas made by Willamette Valley Cheese Company. 'Boerenkaas' is Dutch for farmers' cheese' that has been hand-made on the farm using pure unpasteurized milk from the farm’s own herds. Willamette Valley's regularly available, award winning Boerenkas is a raw milk Gouda like cheese aged for a minimum of 4 months and is very good. The specially aged ( 18 months ) and unfortunately unavailable Boerenkaas ( even if you drive to the farm ) was amazing. The cheese is hard, almost brittle with caramel colors and flavors that sparkle across your mouth.
Jeffrey Roberts' Atlas of American Artisan Cheese lists 14 Oregon artisan cheese makers. If we expand our concept of 'Oregon' to include the territory covered by the Wedge ( Northern California, Washington, Utah, Oregon ), more than 25 cheese makers showcased their cheeses and the promise of good taste and small scale sophistication bodes well for the future of the northwest.
Others cheeses of note, that are available, included, inevitably Rogue Creamery's release of their incredible, Reserve Blue Cheese ( aged for 1 year, soft, creamy, intense, a little salty ), Fiscalini's Bandage Wrapped Cheddar ( aged for 18 months, very sharp, fruity, complex, even grassy ), winner of the Wyke Farms Trophy for the best extra mature cheddar in the World. This is the first time in the 20 year history of the WCA that this trophy has been awarded to someone outside of Great Britain.
In the completely out-of-the-box and delightful category was Beehive Cheese Company's Barely Buzzed promontory cheddar - hand rubbed with a Turkish grind of Colorado Legacy Coffee Company's ( the cheesemaker's brother ) "Beehive Blend" coffee ground with lavender buds, suspended in oil. ( aged, firm, full bodied, nutty ).
We loved Black Sheep Creamery's Mopsy's Best, a British style,raw sheep's milk cheese ( aged 3 months, hard, caramel color with multiple flavors that "wake up and roll over your tongue.") and sincerely hope that cheese maker and farmer Brad Gregory never goes back to his day job.
Chevre ( French for 'goat') or Goat's milk cheeses admirably populate the Oregon artisan cheese scene and of these we discovered two soft cheeses from Rivers Edge Chevre - Sunset Bay their featured cheese for October, which stands out by the fiery orange line of Spanish pimenton praprika running through its center, complementing the ash rind and the dense, creamy freshness that only 3 week old chevre can give, and their Petite Bonheur, a bloomy rind, surface-ripened cheese with a heart full of pink peppercorns.
In the last but not least category, Fenacho, from Tumalo Farms, a 2007 American Cheese Society Blue Ribbon winner, is a cheese that confounds our expectations. It is a very hard pasteurized goat's milk cheese made with fenugreek seeds ( rhombic yellow to amber colored fenugreek seed, commonly called Methi, is frequently used in the preparation of pickles, curry powders and pastes and is often found in Indian cuisine ). The seeds are sprinkled in the body of the pale yellow cheese imparting a sweet, oniony flavor and a crunchy texture.
For a complete listing of cheesemakers at the wedge - Artisan Cheese Makers in the Northwest.
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