I was really pleased when I was invited to join Cato Corner Farm in making cheese Thursday July 6th. Quite unexpected, but all the more delightful. It was just randomly I met Mark Gillman as he came by the cheese shop. We talked about cheese and I told him I had been invited to make cheese at Vulto Creamery, but due to very sad circumstances that was naturally cancelled. So Mark invited me straight away to come and make cheese with him.
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Tucked away in the Connecticut countryside, not far from Colchester, is the Cato Corner Farm along Cato Corner Road. I do not know which came first, the farm or the road; not that it matters either. The fun thing is that this is a farmstead dairy, making cheese from raw milk. I know about some of them, especially in Vermont. I am particularly concerned with raw milk cheese, so there are quite a few dairies that are excluded from my list, naturally. Having said that, the USA is a huge country, with such a variety when it comes to cheese making, that I am fine with not having a complete overview. Even counting just those doing raw milk cheese. Since I after all are in Connecticut for the moment, on vacation, it was sort of good fortune there was a farmstead dairy close by, doing raw milk cheese. So we were of course set off to visit, not only once, but twice.
The Cheese Shop at Cato Corner Farm, Colchester, CT.
Summer holiday is approaching and perhaps against common practice, I will not recommend any summer cheeses this year. However, you have ample opportunities to find out yourself by looking around at OstePerler.no You will find a lot of recommendations and various cheeses for any occasion. And wine to go with it. Spend some time, you will gain a little bit of cheese knowledge along the way, as well. I will spend the summer diving into American cheeses. I am quite fascinated by the topic, but my knowledge suffers from shortcomings.
American cheese is so much more than single wrapped “cheddar” slices from Kraft Foods, or Philadelphia which, by the way, is fine for bagels and making cheese cakes. As the story goes, Cottage Cheese came to Europe from America, but some insist it originally came to America with European immigrants.
The USA is the world’s largest manufacturer of cheese, in case you did not know. A lot of it very industrial, I must say, but more artisan cheese made there than most of us would imagine. Mt. Tam, pasteurized, but my first real encounter with American cheeses.
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Something of a specialty this cheese. Not because Le Saulzais is made from raw ewe’s milk but because it hails from the Berry province in the Loire, France. If there is one thing the Loire valley is not famous for, it is ewe milk cheese. Subsequently Le Saulzais is a small scale production, farmstead as it is. From the farm Les Bruyères in Saulzais-le-Potier. Along the A71 from Bourges in the direction of Clermond-Ferrand further south. Interesting road trip this, Clermond-Ferrand has a lot to offer. The Berry province is way more famous for their chèvre such as Crottin de Chavignol and Valençay to mention a couple.
