Chester County cheese makers craft wide range of tasty products
By Cathy Branciaroli, Food Correspondent, The Times
Cheese artisans Matt Hettlinger (left) and Samuel Kennedy (right) at work in The Farm at Doe Run’s Creamery (courtesy of Stacey Gentile).
Cheese is a living thing. The cheese artisans at The Farm at Doe Run near Unionville understand this and coax the best flavors from the milk produced by their Jersey cows, East Fresian sheep and Nubian goats into striking cheeses made throughout the year.
Right now, the Jersey cows are their rock stars, being able to graze throughout the winter and produce milk on the farm’s 400 acres. But the goats are on the verge of delivering this spring’s crop of babies, unleashing a torrent of awesome goat milk and thus goat cheeses. The sheep get into the summer action too so there will be much to enjoy in coming months.
The Farm at Doe Run, originally settled in the 1920’s, is set among rolling hills off an unpaved road, gotten to by another unpaved road, and is unique in the United States in that it harbors all three milk producers that enjoy its grass-pastured meadows on a rotational basis. And they have been racking up the awards for their efforts. Matt Hettlinger and Samuel Kennedy are the cheese artisans, practicing an ancient craft, carefully transforming small vats of farm-fresh milk into cheeses that are at once food and works of art.
The farm originally was the home of the late Sir John Rupert Thouron, a world class horticulturalist, and many of the cheeses are named for local wildlife and land features. For instance, there is the Hummingbird, which is a soft cheese that starts out tasting like Neufchatel, with a delicate citrusy taste. But after aging seven days it takes on a pungent aroma of cheeses from Eastern France. It is named for the hummingbirds that haunt the meadows in summer. Dragonfly, another of the soft cheeses, won top honors at the American Cheese Society’s annual competition. Hickory on the Hill is a hard cheese with a cider washed rind that incorporates bay leaves in the fermented milk.
A selection of the Farm at Doe Run’s cheeses.
I tasted the Seven Sisters, a cow’s milk cheese. It has a buttery texture and little flavor of Cheddar. Thirty pounds of milk go into each of the 20 pound wheels which are aged in humidity controlled caves below the farm’s Creamery barn. Each of the farm’s three caves is maintained at a particular humidity level suitable for the cheese being aged. I asked the origin of this cheese’s name and was told it was named for the original seven cows that fostered the current herd. Seven Sisters is a cross between a Gouda and Cheddar, which is sold as a young cheese, at age six months, and further aged, at twelve months. It won best of show in the Pennsylvania cheese competition. It was like a taste of summer resplendent of the flavors from the grassy meadows where the cows graze.
One of the more whimsically named cheeses is called “Blow Horn,” (where Route 82 meets Route 842) being named for a nearby intersection, where you might guess it’s a good idea to blow the horn before driving through. It’s a flaky, dense cheese with a nutty, Gruyere-like taste. But then I liked Bathed in Victory too, which is made in conjunction with nearby Victory Brewing Company and is made with the brewery’s beers.
We also tried a few creations which are part of the Doe Run’s Creamery Collection. These are limited batches where Matt and Samuel try out creative new ideas. One that was particularly intriguing was an Italian mountain style cheese that is washed with rye whiskey. This particular batch is sold out, but has inspired another new recipe that will be made this spring with goats milk.
Doe Run’s cheeses are served in any number of local restaurants, from the Half Moon Saloon in Kennett Square to Harvest in Glen Mills to Terrain at Styers Nursery. They are also available at retail through Talula’s Table or the Country Butcher in Kennett Square and Janssens Grocery in Greenville, Delaware. A full list is available at http://www.chestercountycheese.org/doe-run-availability
Cathy Branciaroli also writes about her adventures in the kitchen on her blog Delaware Girl Eats
