CHEESE NOTES

Monday night saw a great event at Beecher’s NYC, with Gianaclis Caldwell, cheesemaker and author. Caldwell is the cheesemaker at Pholia Farm in Jackson County, Oregon, 10 miles outside the town of Rogue River.

Gianaclis and her husband and co-cheesemaker, Vern — career-Marine-turned-Cheesemaker — brought a selection of their cheeses for sampling and spoke about the challenges and rewards of farmstead cheesemaking. The Caldwell’s use the milk of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, a smaller breed (that is, ironically, neither from Nigeria nor technically a “dwarf” breed) with a milk that is higher in fat and protein than the more common breeds of dairy goat, making them excellent for cheesemaking, although like sheep they also produce less milk than the dairy-optimized breeds.

The farm is off the grid, running on solar and hydro power, and the Caldwell’s keep the operations small and efficient (it’s still an entirely family-run operation), with only as many goats as they feel their land can sustainably support, and make their cheese in a 30-gallon vat, stirring by hand, so that all of their cheeses are truly handcrafted with care and with the well-being of the animals always in mind. 

Caldwell is also the author of Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking :The Ultimate Guide for Home-Scale and Market Producers, as well as The Farmstead Creamery Advisor  (a must-read for anyone considering opening their own creamery or cheese making operation). 

For this tasting there were four cheeses on hand:

Elk Mountain, a raw goat’s milk tomme, aged a minimum of 6 months (their site notes that “The Elk really do come down from the mountain to visit the creek on our property”). This is the driest of the cheeses, with a firm, dense, slightly flaky paste, mild, nutty and grassy. 

Hillis Peak, a raw goat’s milk washed curd cheese, aged 7 months, with a rind that is rubbed with paprika and oil during aging. The paste is smooth and dense, lightly eyed. It’s not just the composition of the milk, but the flavor as well, that resembles sheep’s milk, and that comes out in the Hillis. With a earthy, slightly smokey flavor from the paprika, and a milky tang and notes of hay and nuts. 

Covered Bridge is another washed-curd cheese, with a twist: Wild River’s Nut Brown Ale is added to the curds during the make. Aged a minimum of 3 month’s, the Covered Bridge is denser and moister, lightly eyed. The flavor is milder, creamy and a little bit yeasty from the ale, with herbaceous and fungal notes. This cheese almost never makes it to the East Coast so it was a treat to be able to try it.

Pleasant Creek is their thermophilic cheese, a Gruyere-style cheese with a reddish rind. The color of the rind derives not from any B.Linens that have been added but from naturally occurring red molds that are present in the Pholia caves during the winter months. With a smooth, moderately eyed paste, in flavor the Pleasant Creek is, mild, buttery and nutty with grassy and fruity notes.

Gianaclis also discussed the realities of cheesemaking: as she is quick to point out, they are able to maintain their small, sustainable model of cheesemaking thanks to Vern having a military retirement to fall back on (he also works part time at Rogue Creamery, makers of the now famous Rogue River Blue), as well as their being one of the top breeders in the U.S. of Nigerian Dwarf Goats, and now of course her successful career as an author. Were their entire income dependent on the cheese, they would almost certainly have to scale up or find alternate revenue streams. In this sense, she cautions aspiring cheesemakers to take stock of their finances and plan realistically (her book, American Farmstead Cheese, discusses the financial side of cheesemaking in much more detail). They have also consciously chosen to forgo certain investments, such as upgrading to a much larger, modern vat with an agitator, which would ramp up production considerably but also saddle them with debt.

If you’re interested in cheesemaking, or are planning to start your own farmstead operation, check out her books right now, they’re well worth the investment. And keep your eyes peeled for her next title, coming out in the fall, which will be a guide to Raw Milk for both cheesemakers and consumers. And of course, check out the cheeses of Pholia Farms at your local counter!


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