Pepito and the Last of the Radishes

 

Sometimes the earth makes my head spin, like when I cut open this giant Beauty Heart Radish from our community garden and the cleaved halves looked like a pair of pink lungs.

This radish was spicy. Almost too spicy to eat, but I couldn’t stand the thought of it lobbing so much beauty into the compost bucket. So I found it a mate, a hot-headed companion: Pepito.

Pepito is made by Yellow Springs, a goat dairy in Chester County, PA. The recipe is based on a traditional Italian cheese, called Pepato (meaning “with pepper”), a Pecorino speckled with whole peppercorns. It’s not a fancy dancer, but it has some can-can. When you need a kick, Pepato – or Pepito --  can be a frisky addition to the cheese plate. It's also great with a crisp, summery beer.

This particular Pepito landed in our fridge via the goat cheese CSA I signed up for this summer. Look at that rind – it almost looks like the surface of a root vegetable. You know I like a little surface mold. It’s the sign of a healthy cheese. A living cheese.

The taste of this cheese is sublime – it’s fudgy and clean-tasting, not at all tangy. The only zest comes from the spicy peppercorns, which add a springy, almost floral note.

This is the key to cheeses with “flavorings” or spices. They shoudn’t overpower the milk. Next time you nibble a flavored or smoked cheese, see if you can still detect the milky taste of the cheese itself. If you can’t, that’s a flaw.

For an example of this balance, try Marco Polo, a sharp cheddar from Seattle, dotted with green and black peppercorns. The company, Beecher’s, just opened a cheese omniplex in New York. It's worth making a trip for a wedge.

Or, grab a hunk of original Pepato.

Yellow Springs Delivers: Week 2 & 3

Earlier this summer, I promised to post about my goat cheese CSA. Well, Week #2 and #3 have been delivered and devoured. It's time to report from the doorstep. Here are the recent arrivals.

The highlight of Week #2 from Yellow Springs Goat Dairy was a new cheese called Iron Spring (below, middle). This rusty looking wheel was rubbed with paprika and dried herbs, which are grown on the farm.

Al and Catherine Renzi don't just make cheese, they grow plants -- native plants. Their native plant nursery contains over 200 species, along with a variety of fresh herbs, like oregano and Spanish paprika. Native? Probably not, but delicious and beautifully incorporated into this cheese. It reminded me of a soft ricotta salata with a hint of warm spice.

Iron Spring is a perfect example of a flavored cheese where the flavor serves as an accent, rather than an overpowering gesture. I liked the clean taste of this cheese, which was bright but mild, with just a nudge of heat.

The week's batch also came with a tub of Italian herb chevre. We crumbled it over a fresh strawberry salad, lightly dressed with two of my favorite new cupboard staples: raspberry vinegar and good Spanish olive oil, from Alhema. They're a bit spendy, these two, but you don't need more than a splash of each to buck up a little ol' salad.

Goat Cheese CSA, Week 3





Week 3 brought a gorgeous aged raw-milk goat cheese, called Spring Fever. She had such a pretty rind and so many subtle grassy notes, I had to pack her up for a car trip with Paul Lawler (cheesemonger) and Mike Geno (cheese artist).











We enjoyed Iron Spring with a series of beers at Victory Brewing. Paul, who has a palate of gold, promptly sniffed this beauty and called out, "Ahh, egg whites." I'd never looked for creamy egg-white notes before, but there they were. That's the beauty of breaking cheese.

To top off our farm-to-table experience, we dropped by Yellow Springs Farm for an open house that evening and got a chance to see the goats who provided the milk. We also caught Al and Catherine Renzi feeding their kids.

The next batch of CSA cheeses arrive this week. In the meantime, if you know of anyone looking for some goat interaction, here are some opportunities at or near Yellow Springs Farm in Chester County, PA:

We currently have 3 job opportunities available at Yellow Springs Farm. The first opportunity is a part-time goat milker to pick up 3-4 shifts per week. We milk twice a day at 7:00am and 5:00pm. Each milk shift lasts 2 hours and includes goat milking, filling water buckets, mucking stalls and feeding hay.

We are also seeking an intern for the 2nd half of the season starting in August through December, Duties will include goat herd management, goat milking, cheesemaking, nursery management and general farm duties.

The third job opportunity is a part-time position at Lundale Farm. We will be leasing space for our goat herd and we are looking for someone that lives in the Route 100 corridor between RT 401 and Rt 422. We will be keeping a small herd of goats there. They will require daily inspection, feeding and water through mid-November. This is about 3 hours per week.

If you or anyone you know may be interested in either part-time opportunities or our internship, please contact us. We would welcome the opportunity to elaborate further.

-- Catherine Renzi (catherine@yellowspringsfarm.com)

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.

The Science of Cheese: A Tasting

Stichetlton Microbes, by Rachel Dutton

If you've ever wondered about the microscopic life of cheese, come to "The Artisanal Microbe," a cheese talk and tasting hosted by the Franklin Institute at Di Bruno Bros. (1730 Chestnut St.) next Wednesday, April 20 at 6:30 p.m.

I'll be there, along with scientist-turned-cheesemaker Al Renzi of Yellow Springs Farm. Al and his wife Catherine make award-winning goat cheese in Chester County, including Nutcracker and Red Leaf.

"The Artisanal Microbe" is a free event, but you'll need to grab a ticket. The Philadelphia Science Festival runs through April 28.