Giveaway: Ticket to Birchrun Tasting

I have a thing for Red Cat, a bacony washed-rind made by Sue Miller. I want you to try it. That's why I am offering you, yes you, one free ticket to a Birchrun cheese (and beer) tasting this Friday at her farm in Chester Springs. It starts at 6:30 p.m. You'll have to wend your way there, along beautiful back roads. We'll pet some cows, watch the sun set over the milking barn, listen to cheesemakers and brewers talk shop, and then we'll feast. At least that's my plan.

If you'd like to be my guest, drop me a comment before 8 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, June 14, 2011. I'll roll the dice on my living room table and pick a winner. If you don't make the cut, you can still purchase a ticket. They cost $25 and should be reserved in advance. Here are the deets:

Local Cheese+Local Beer Tasting, June 17, 6:30-8

A Night at Birchrun Hills Farm,

2573 Horseshoe Trail, Chester Springs, PA 19425

Enjoy pairings of six local cheeses and beers at Birchrun Hills Farm in Chester County. Birchrun is home to Sue Miller, one of the area's premier raw-milk cheesemakers (Red Cat, Birchrun Blue). We'll taste her cheeses along with libations from Tired Hands Brewery, Victory, and Sly Fox. Sue Miller and Paul Lawler host (along with yours truly). Tickets are $25. To reserve a seat, email birchrunhillsfarm@verizon.net or call Sue Miller at 610-827-1603.

For a glimpse of Sue Miller's last tasting, click here. 

My Goat Cheese CSA

It's true. Yellow Springs delivers. Well, actually it's not quite that easy, but this is my first installment of a summer CSA program run by one of my fave cheese-making outfits in Chester County, PA.

I don't know of any other cheesemakers using the CSA model, but it does seem pretty savvy and -- on the receiving end -- quite deluxe. Every other week an organic grocery service (Panache Foods) drops off a cooler full of goat cheese, along with any meat and produce I've ordered. It's better than getting take-out.

This is the second year that Yellow Springs has offered CSA shares, a program that puts 20-24 different cheeses into the hands of their customers over a period from May to November. I paid about $250 up front for 13 deliveries; each installment includes 3 varieties of raw and pasteurized goat cheese.

Here's the first installment, unveiled:

My favorite cheese in this batch was Fieldstone (center), an earthy, firm cheese with a delectable rind. The paste was dense like a Gouda, and the flavor called to mind wild grass, prairie weather. On rustic bread, it was delicious with a touch of jam. Bliss, the bloomy cheese on the right, tasted a little soapy -- it wasn't as ripe as the last time I tried it, back in December during a farm visit. The pepper-garlic chevre disappeared from our fridge right away, tucked into lunches, alongside sliced veggies.

I'm ready for the next batch of goat-cheese stocking stuffers. It arrives Thursday. I'm excited to try a new cheese from the Renzi's, called Iron Spring -- it's rubbed with paprika and named after the natural spring that bubbles up on their land. The "rusty" rind is a nod to the high concentration of iron that colors the water.

One thing that sets the Renzi's apart: they run a native plant nursery in addition to milking Nubians. All of the "flavors" they add to their cheeses are grown on their farm, including saffron, black walnuts, fresh herbs, and honey.

Curious to try Yellow Springs cheese? The Renzi's will be part of the Stoudt's Wonderful Good Cheese Festival in Adamstown, PA from 2-5 p.m. on June 11.

Where's my robiola?

My local cheese column in the June issue of Grid Magazine focuses on this little bunting of mixed-milk cheese. It's a wonderful local robiola called Hummingbird, which has a bloomy rind and creamy interior at about 3 weeks. 

"You don't see many robiolas in the States," cheesemaker Kristian Holbrook (Doe Run Dairy) told me when I interviewed him for the story. That got me thinking. I've only seen one other artisan robiola that I can recollect, and that was in Iowa. Why don't more cheesemakers produce it?

"I like Robiola Bocina," Holbrook told me, referring to a popular Italian import, "but it's too thick for me. Too pasty. I wanted something with more lactic character that would be good at a young age."

When I wrote my column for Grid, the only Hummingbird I could find was very young -- two weeks old. It was lemony in taste and springy in texture. My friends and I ate it with homemade raspberry jam and nearly passed out from joy on the living room floor. 

A few weeks later, I clammed onto a couple older specimen that were exceedingly ripe (beyond 6 weeks, I'd guess). The downy surface mold had turned wheat-colored, and the center pooled onto the counter when I cut into the rind. Oh, momma! That robiola was strong! Hot and sharp. 

It was interesting to see a cheese change so dramatically after just a few weeks. From lemon sponge to peppery satin. Here is my plea if any cheesemakers are listening: Pssst, make some robiola! It's so dreamy. I fear that once Hummingbird catches on, it'll disappear in a razor-whirr just like the bird.

Hummingbird is produced in Chester County, Pa. at Doe Run Farm, home to 16 cows, 30 sheep, and 19 goats. In Philadelphia, it makes appearances at Di Bruno Bros. in the Italian Market and at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal.

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More Hot Bits

Check out the current issue of Culture Magazine for the spread on cheese-related tattoos. You saw a few of them here first, but there are a slew more, alongside new photos of Ezekial Ferguson and Ian Peacock of Di Bruno Bros. 

The Philadelphia Cheese Experiment takes place on June 5 at World Cafe Live. It's part of Brooklyn Brewery's national tour of food experiments, where amateurs compete for prizes...like a free trip to the brewery. There's still time to sign up or get tickets to attend. I hope somebody makes a goat cheese brownie to blow my mind.