With May on the horizon, it’s prime time for fresh sheep cheese. The ewes are back on the job after some winter R&R and they are giving their all right now. To manage the surge of spring milk, a few creameries produce a soft, rindless, spreadable sheep cheese that I vastly prefer to fresh chèvre. This category hardly existed a decade ago. Now your favorite cheese counter should have (or can get) at least one of these lovelies. Slathered on whole-grain toast (scroll down for the easy Icelandic rye bread recipe), stirred into pesto, dolloped on pizza…what an endlessly useful cheese.

Bellwether Farms Sheep Cheese (California): When sales of its aged cheeses plummeted during the pandemic, Bellwether debuted this fresh sheep log. Long, slow fermentation (almost 24 hours) develops its lemony flavor and tang. The curds are bag-drained for a day with light pressure, then salted, chilled and packaged as 3-ounce vacuum-sealed logs. Owner Liam Callahan says vacuum sealing extends the shelf life, but still, you want it fresh. This cheese is firm when cold but luscious and spreadable at room temperature. Be patient! For availability near you, check the store finder on Bellwether’s site.

Garden Variety Cheese Sweet Alyssum (California): From a small farmstead producer on the Central Coast, Sweet Alyssum is smooth, moist, delicate and fluffy. Cheesemaker Rebecca King uses it in cheesecake and on pizza and says chefs have used it in custards and bread pudding. Check the website for retail locations in Northern California.

Green Dirt Farm Fresh Sheep (Missouri): Owner Sarah Hoffman says she makes this tub-packed cheese (pictured above) almost year-round, using frozen milk in the winter months. (Sheep’s milk freezes well.) She sells a lot to restaurants but consumers who can’t tolerate cow’s milk are another enthusiastic audience. I love how fluffy and lemony this cheese is, especially when freshly packed. Check the date stamp. Many Whole Foods stock the 3.5-ounce tubs.

Hidden Springs Creamery Driftless (Wisconsin): Brenda Jensen has been making Driftless since her creamery launched in 2006, so it’s the granddaddy on this list. I haven’t tasted it in years but the creamery describes it as “light, creamy and spreadable.” Alas, distribution is limited. Wisconsinites can find it at Whole Foods, Metcalfe’s and Willy Street Co-ops.

Nettle Meadow Fresh Sheep (New York): Most of this product goes to East Coast chefs but the creamery has recently started packing some in five-ounce tubs for retail (VT, CT and MA only so far). It’s made just like fresh chèvre but on a tiny scale, from 30 gallons of milk at a time, at most. The milk is cultured overnight, then drained in cheesecloth bags for a day, then salted and packed. This small Adirondacks creamery is first and foremost an animal sanctuary; cheese is what pay the bills.

Shepherd’s Way Farm Shepherd’s Hope (Minnesota): This cheese is a bit of an outlier because it is sliceable, not spreadable, but I like it so much I had to include it. Made on a family farm and sold when it’s just a few days old, it is rindless, moist and open in texture, like a fresh, barely salted feta. Shepherd’s Hope has a buttermilk-like tang and tender texture. It resembles no other cheese I know. Available at Byerly’s/Lunds, Surdyks and local farmers markets in MN; Culture & Co (Nashville) St. James (New Orleans); Small Goods and Venissimo (San Diego); Agnes (Pasadena) and Lady & Larder (L.A.).

Doug’s Icelandic Rye Bread (Rúgbrauð)

Most recipes for rúgbrauð are quite sweet. My husband, the house baker, has cut the molasses way back, which suits our taste. There’s no yeast and no kneading. You can mix up the batter and have it in the oven in 10 minutes, like an Irish soda bread. Doug uses metric measures, which I have converted, but follow the metric measures if you have a scale. His recipe is inspired by a recipe from King Arthur Baking.

• 3-3/4 cups (475 g) rye flour

• 1 tablespoon (10 g) baking powder

• ¾ teaspoon (4 g) baking soda

• 2 teaspoons (6 g) kosher salt

• 2-1/2 cups (590 ml) buttermilk

• 2 tablespoons (30 g) molasses or golden malt syrup

• 1 tablespoon (15 g) vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly grease a 9-inch pullman pan or 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, molasses and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread it evenly. If using a pullman pan, grease the lid and put it on top. If using a loaf pan, top with greased aluminum foil and seal tightly.

Bake 2 hours, then turn off the oven and remove the lid or the foil. Leave the bread in the turned-off oven for another 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Makes one 9-inch loaf