It’s not the first time I’ve heard that buying a pet goat was the prelude to owning a cheese business. Goats are adorable; we know that. But if you take home a pregnant goat, which is what India Loevner did on impulse (actually, she bought two), there is goat milk in your future. And probably more goats. A decade after Loevner introduced the prize-winning pair to her small Pennsylvania family farm, the herd numbers about 140 and the family’s cheese is racking up awards. The cheese pictured here is the breakout star, for good reason. Shave it with a plane and you’ll think you’ve never tasted a creamier cheese.
Read moreRind Your Own Business
If there’s one question I can count on getting in every cheese tasting I lead, it’s “Can you eat the rind?” I used to have a convoluted answer. Then Mateo Kehler, the wise man behind Vermont’s Jasper Hill Farm (along with his brother Andy), distilled it. “Rind your own business” is Kehler’s concise version of what I was trying to convey: Try the rind. If you like it, keep eating it. If you don’t, cut it away. Kehler also told me that he works harder on achieving a perfect rind than on any other aspect of his cheese.
Read moreCalifornia Dreaming
I’ve been trying to figure out how Central Coast Creamery [www.centralcoastcreamery.com] has come so far so fast. The five-year-old California producer has already earned heaps of ribbons in competition, and I see its cheeses everywhere. Last summer, cheesemaker-owner Reggie Jones claimed three more blue ribbons at the American Cheese Society [www.cheesesociety.org] judging, including one for Dream Weaver (above). That’s a brag-worthy feat for any creamery, much less a newcomer. How has Jones engineered his success? Are there lessons here for others…in any business?
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