The Big Cheese
Ohio producing its share of great farmstead and artisan cheeses
In the food world, words like organic, sustainable, slow and local seem to define almost everything
that goes into your mouth these days.
Defining these food adjectives can be a bit tricky, but it seems they have made a definite impact on what many food-conscious consumers choose to buy. On a daily basis at Katzinger's, there are several customers who want to know what local products we have to offer.
What is local? Ask any farmer, food and beverage artisan, gastronome, chef or "localavore," and you're likely to get a few different answers.
In the end, it's all about personal conviction, but for the sake of this column, let's consider the whole state as local and take a look at what's going on with the state of cheese.
Ohio has quite a few producers of the curd, although there are only several that are producing artisan and farmstead cheeses. The former refers to small batches of cheese with little or no mechanization used with a focus on the cheese makers art while the latter can be considered an artisan cheese, but the milk used must come from the farmer's/cheese maker's own herd or flock.
So who are these local artisan and farmstead makers? Some may be surprised to know Ohio has its own Farmstead-Artisan Cheese Guild which is "small but mighty group" as it says on its web site www.ohiocheeseguild.com. Buckeye Grove Farm Cheese and Blue Jacket Dairy are two of the guild's biggest producers while other members, such as Cold Rain Dairy out of Pataskala, and Lucky Penny Farm out of Garretsville, both goat farmers, have been recently licensed and hopefully will be churning out some excellent cheeses in the new year.
Buckeye Grove started producing raw cow's milk cheeses several years ago with Dixie and Jake Scheiderer at the helm. The Scheiderers, who come from five generations of dairy farmers, also started the Ohio Farmstead-Artisan Cheese Guild.
The couple, now retired, have turned the family business over to their children who are still passionately producing the same raw-milk farmstead cheeses in eastern Ohio along the West Virginia border. Two stand-outs include Hillfolk, a mild and buttery double cream perfect for snacking with fruit or melting, and Jersey Emment, a take on swiss-style gruyere that's aged for six months.
Other notable Ohio cheese-makers outside of the guild include Cleveland's Lake Erie Creamery, Integration Acres in southern Albany and Oakvale Farms in London. Oakvale started producing its award-winning farmstead Gouda after years of selling grain and milk. Its young and year-aged Goudas are sold all over Ohio as well as nationally, and served in some of the best restaurants in Ohio. The company recently started producing a Gouda studded with dried habenero peppers, as well as a Gouda that's smoked with white cherry wood for up to eight hours, creating an amazing depth of flavor.
Integration Acres whose slogan "raising cuisine with conscious," is the frontrunner of both local and sustainability, which started out as a sustainable farm growing wild paw paw fruit, mushrooms and other forest farmed crops in 1996. Chris Chmiel, founder of Integration Acres, acquired some goats along the way to help with sustainable grazing of his orchards, and as his herd grew larger, had enough milk to start producing farmstead cheese. In 2007, he started producing and selling a magnificent creamy and delicious fresh chevre and a goat feta.
Whether you're part of the local movement, Ohio proud, or simply want some really great cheese, there are quite a few options out there for everyone in our very own state.
Wendy Hunsinger is the specialty-foods manager for Katzinger's in German Village.
Defining these food adjectives can be a bit tricky, but it seems they have made a definite impact on what many food-conscious consumers choose to buy. On a daily basis at Katzinger's, there are several customers who want to know what local products we have to offer.
What is local? Ask any farmer, food and beverage artisan, gastronome, chef or "localavore," and you're likely to get a few different answers.
In the end, it's all about personal conviction, but for the sake of this column, let's consider the whole state as local and take a look at what's going on with the state of cheese.
Ohio has quite a few producers of the curd, although there are only several that are producing artisan and farmstead cheeses. The former refers to small batches of cheese with little or no mechanization used with a focus on the cheese makers art while the latter can be considered an artisan cheese, but the milk used must come from the farmer's/cheese maker's own herd or flock.
So who are these local artisan and farmstead makers? Some may be surprised to know Ohio has its own Farmstead-Artisan Cheese Guild which is "small but mighty group" as it says on its web site www.ohiocheeseguild.com. Buckeye Grove Farm Cheese and Blue Jacket Dairy are two of the guild's biggest producers while other members, such as Cold Rain Dairy out of Pataskala, and Lucky Penny Farm out of Garretsville, both goat farmers, have been recently licensed and hopefully will be churning out some excellent cheeses in the new year.
Buckeye Grove started producing raw cow's milk cheeses several years ago with Dixie and Jake Scheiderer at the helm. The Scheiderers, who come from five generations of dairy farmers, also started the Ohio Farmstead-Artisan Cheese Guild.
The couple, now retired, have turned the family business over to their children who are still passionately producing the same raw-milk farmstead cheeses in eastern Ohio along the West Virginia border. Two stand-outs include Hillfolk, a mild and buttery double cream perfect for snacking with fruit or melting, and Jersey Emment, a take on swiss-style gruyere that's aged for six months.
Other notable Ohio cheese-makers outside of the guild include Cleveland's Lake Erie Creamery, Integration Acres in southern Albany and Oakvale Farms in London. Oakvale started producing its award-winning farmstead Gouda after years of selling grain and milk. Its young and year-aged Goudas are sold all over Ohio as well as nationally, and served in some of the best restaurants in Ohio. The company recently started producing a Gouda studded with dried habenero peppers, as well as a Gouda that's smoked with white cherry wood for up to eight hours, creating an amazing depth of flavor.
Integration Acres whose slogan "raising cuisine with conscious," is the frontrunner of both local and sustainability, which started out as a sustainable farm growing wild paw paw fruit, mushrooms and other forest farmed crops in 1996. Chris Chmiel, founder of Integration Acres, acquired some goats along the way to help with sustainable grazing of his orchards, and as his herd grew larger, had enough milk to start producing farmstead cheese. In 2007, he started producing and selling a magnificent creamy and delicious fresh chevre and a goat feta.
Whether you're part of the local movement, Ohio proud, or simply want some really great cheese, there are quite a few options out there for everyone in our very own state.
Wendy Hunsinger is the specialty-foods manager for Katzinger's in German Village.
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