Small Cow Farm 'Rustic' Blue

Blue vein
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
random weight portions

www.smallcowfarm.com

As we celebrate the many great things about Australia, spare a thought for our artisan cheesemakers and small dairy farmers. It might be our national day, but animals still need milking, cheeses still need turning and there's no such thing as overtime rates for working on a public holiday.

Small Cow Farm
'Rustic' Blue

While it's nice to know they're there, our artisan cheese producers won't survive unless we buy their cheese, and buy it often. If you're not sure where to start, here's a tip: all of the cheeses featured here are handmade by real people - usually in small batches, and often with milk from their own animals.

Rustic Blue is the latest creation from cheesemaker Mark Williams at Small Cow Farm. It's been available for about a year, and is still a work in progress, but its quality and character are consistent.

In shape, size and texture, it reminds me of Fourme d'Ambert, from the Auvergne region of France. It's creamier and milder than their signature Small Cow Blue, which has intense blue notes and a spicy finish. 'Rustic' Blue is more earthy and approachable - perfect for lazy grazing and casual scoffing.

So, celebrate Australia Day with artisan cheese, and help advance Australian fare.

Pecora Dairy Fresh Curd

Fresh
Ewe's milk (East Friesian)
Southern Highlands
www.pecoradairy.com.au

At about this time every year, I get very excited about fresh goat's curd signalling the arrival of Spring. This year there's a new reason to get excited: the Fresh Curd from Pecora Dairy, made from ewe's milk.

Pecora Dairy Fresh Curd

As cheese-maker Michael McNamara explained, the curd is rich and earthy in Autumn, when the ewes are reaching the end of their lactation cycle, then re-emerges in Spring with fresh, spritely flavours, capturing the essence of the new season.

The pretty pat of curd has a dense texture, almost like cream cheese, and the sweetness of the ewe's milk shines through. At such a chaotic time of year, with torrential rain, lambing and the flush of new milk to deal with, it's wonderful to know that Michael and Cressy can find enough calm moments to create such simple, beautiful cheese.

The curd is equally good with sweet and savoury foods. I crumbled half of it on top of vege nachos - like an authentic queso fresco - and gobbled up the rest for breakfast on pancakes drizzled with honey.

Country Valley Washed Rind

Washed Rind
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
Random weight wedges
6 weeks maturation
www.countryvalley.com.au

Country Valley has been supplying milk to local cheesemakers for many years, so it makes sense that they recently developed their own cheese range.

Country Valley Washed Rind

The cheeses aren't made at the farm near Picton - John Fairley and the team are too busy producing their delicious milk and sensational yoghurt - but made under licence by High Valley Wine & Cheese Co in Mudgee. If you turn over the Washed Rind cheese, you'll notice it actually has "Mudgee Rouge" printed on the back of the label.

The faint orange hue, and faintly pungent aroma, hint at the cheese's character. It's relatively mild as far as washed rinds go, but delivers a step up in flavour from their Brie. The flavour is very clean, without the unpleasant animal notes that can develop in some washed rind cheeses - testament to Country Valley's high quality milk.

Like their yoghurt, the cheese has a glossy, voluptuous texture, and is delicious dolloped on fresh, crusty bread, with a glass of something bubbly.

Pecora Dairy 'Mezza'

Semi-hard
Ewe's milk (East Friesian)
Southern Highlands
random weight wedges
8 weeks-8 months maturation
www.pecoradairy.com.au

Most wine-lovers are prepared to pay more for an aged bottle of wine, but would the average cheese-lover fork out a few extra dollars for a matured cheese?

It's a dilemma many small cheesemakers face - how to balance cash-flow with a desire to produce cheeses that require maturation of more than a few weeks. Think of it this way - every 1kg of cheese sitting quietly in a cheese maturation cellar represents around 10 litres of milk that the cheesemaker has not yet made any return on.

Pecora Dairy 'Mezza'

At peak maturity of 8 or 9 months, Pecora Dairy's "Mezza" has all the richness, complexity and elegance of the best Basque-style cheeses, the best-known of which is Ossau-Iraty.

It's a shame, then, that most of the "Mezza" sold is barely a few months old. The younger version is a very pleasant cheese with clean, fresh flavours, but the aged version fills the mouth with toasted nuts and caramel and lingers with a hint of lanolin on the finish. And there's something magical about the very fine-grained texture, which is smooth and dense and utterly scoffable.

(Scoffable, by the way, is not a technical term, and unlikely to have been used by any of the judges who recently awarded Mezza a gold medal at the Sydney Royal Cheese Show.)

So my plea is two-fold: please, wonderful cheesemakers, have the confidence and patience to give your beautiful cheeses the time they deserve to fully develop their potential. And please, dear consumers, reward their efforts by paying a little bit more for these cheeses that are aged to perfection.

Small Cow Farm 'Redella'

Washed Rind
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
180g round
4-6 weeks maturation
www.smallcowfarm.com

Your idea of a luscious red might be a fruity red wine, or a bunch of ripe cherries, but mine is a gooey washed rind cheese. Like human red-heads, these sticky, stinky cheeses are actually orange, and are renowned for their bold personalities.


Small Cow Farm
'Redella'

For a mild introduction to the world of smelly cheese, try the latest addition to the Small Cow Farm range. Named 'Redella', it has the same smooth texture as their 'PetitVache' range, and the faint pungent aroma you would expect of a washed rind cheese.

'Redella' is intentionally mild, as it's based on a French cheese called 'Langres'. The French original is often served with Champagne poured over the top, which adds a little boost of flavour, but for my money, 'Redella' wins in the flavour stakes.

I'm also a fan of the packaging, a very French-style miniature wooden box, which prevents the soft, gooey cheese from spilling lava-like from the wrapper. It's unique in the Australia cheese-scape, and perfectly fits in with cheese-maker Mark Williams' aim to produce cheeses that are "special and different".

Highland Organics 'Fresco Pecorino' & 'Grana Pecorino'

Semi-hard / Hard
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
random weight portions (approx 150g)
3 weeks / 3 months maturation
www.highlandorganics.com.au

If you haven't tried Highland Organics cheeses for a while, they're worth another look. Cheesemaker David Snibson took over as production manager in January 2012, and the range has expanded to include new cheese styles as well as unhomogenised milk and yoghurt.

David has changed more than just the packaging, and the cheeses are now of a higher and more consistent quality.

Highland Organics 'Fresco Pecorino'
(old packaging)

The 'Fresco Pecorino' is part of the original range, and is exactly as described on the package: a soft cooking cheese. So it's perfect for things like eggplant parmigiana, toasted panini and good old mac 'n' cheese.

Matured for just a few weeks ("fresco" is the Italian word for "fresh"), it has a supple, meltable texture and mild cheesey flavour, making it a great kitchen staple.

The 'Grana Pecorino' is one of David's new additions. It's essentially a matured version of the 'Fresco', with the recipe tweeked slightly to produce a drier cheese more suited to longer maturation.


Highland Organics 'Grana Pecorino'
(new packaging)

'Grana' is a hard grating cheese, in the style of Italian Parmesan, making it another great everyday cheese to have in your fridge. While David would like to be able to mature it for up to nine months, most of it is packaged for sale at three months maturation, to meet customer demand.

At three months, it has a wonderfully flakey texture and rich, savoury flavour, which makes my cheesey heart sing, as there are so few decent hard cheeses being made in NSW.

I just have one small gripe: if your cheese isn't made from sheep's milk, please don't call it 'Pecorino'. The names 'Fresco' and 'Grana' accurately describe these cheeses - and they emulate those Italian originals very well - so perhaps the 'Pecorino' part could simply be dropped.


Country Valley 'Lush' Natural Yoghurt

Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
500g tubs
www.countryvalley.com.au

Since leaving Sydney at the end of last year, I really miss my daily fix of Country Valley yoghurt. Most days I ate it for breakfast, and it was normally the last thing I ate at the end of the day too, just a spoonful to settle my stomach before bed.

Country Valley 'Lush' Natural Yoghurt

Why do I love it? Because it's natural. And by that, I mean it is only made with two ingredients - milk and cultures. No thickeners like gelatin or vegetable gums, no stablisers, no 'non-fat milk solids' (whatever they are), no flavours, no colours and no sweeteners. Take a look at the ingredients list on so many commercially-made yoghurts these days, and most will have at least 2 of these additives; some will have all of them!

Unlike pot-set yoghuts, which often have a slightly lumpy texture and a little bit of free whey oozing from the top, Country Valley 'Lush' is thick, glossy and voluptuous.

And it's also really acidic. Yoghurt is supposed to have a sharp, citric tang, and this is one of the most acidic on the market. I'm probably in the minority, but I love eating it straight. When I told 'John the Milkman' himself, he couldn't believe I liked it unadulterated. So I asked him, if he thinks it's too acidic, why make it that way? He said he likes to give customers the option of adding honey or fruit to suit their own taste. Fair enough.

For those who just can't take that sharp, mouth-puckering tang, John and Sally Fairley also make a naturally sweetened version (somewhat confusingly labelled "Plain Yoghurt", in a blue tub), which is a lot easier on the palate. It still has a sharp acidity underneath, but it's perfectly balanced by just the right amount of sweetness.

So perfect, in fact, that it won Champion Yoghurt at the Sydney Royal Dairy Produce Show this year. Again.

Small Cow Farm 'PetitVache'

White Mould
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
1kg wheels/250g wheels
4-6 weeks maturation
www.smallcowfarm.com

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better, more consistent Brie and Camembert in Australia that those produced by Small Cow Farm. In my many years eating, selling and enjoying these cheeses, they have always been ripe and flavoursome, and with individual characteristics reflecting the seasons.

Small Cow Farm 'PetitVache'
Brie and Camembert

Both Brie and Camembert are produced with the moniker 'PetitVache' - a literal translation of "Small Cow" into French - but are distinguished by their size. Generally I find the Brie to be milder but more buttery, and the Camembert tends to have more developed flavours with stronger, mushroomy notes.

While the Williams' don't use their own Dexter milk to make these delectable softies anymore, they still source all of the milk from neighbouring farms in the Southern Highlands. The high annual rainfall and rich, lush pastures in this part of the state create luscious milk ideal for making soft cheeses.

I particularly like them in Summer, because they pair so beautifully with stone fruits. The combination of ripe, juicy peach with a generous wedge of buttery brie is as perfect as,  well... peaches and cream.

Pecora Dairy 'Jamberoo Mountain' Blue

Blue mould
Ewe's milk (East Friesian)
Southern Highlands
~700g barrels
10-12 weeks maturation
www.pecoradairy.com.au

At exactly this time last year, Michael & Cressida McNamara did a really brave thing. They entered their 'Jamberoo Mountain' Blue into the Sydney Royal Cheese Show. With just under 1000 products entered into the competition that year, it might not seem like such a bold move, but here's the thing: the McNamara's had not yet sold a piece of their precious blue cheese.

Pecora Dairy
'Jamberoo Mountain' Blue

They had, however, been making cheese for over 6 years, with around 150 experimental batches, before building the confidence to launch their creation. Their hard work and determination to make an excellent product paid off, when they won the only Gold Medal in the entire class of Sheep's Milk Cheese in the show.

As a judge at that show, I recall being excited and intrigued at this exquisite blue cheese that I'd never come across before - and even more excited when I learned that it was made by a new producer from NSW.

'Jamberoo Mountain' Blue's character is still evolving, but the most recent batch I tried had delicate flavours of white flowers and apricots, with that tell-tale sheep's milk sweetness. The texture was moderately firm, with a very creamy mouthfeel. It really is ewe-nique!

Small Cow Farm 'Fettice'

Fresh (Fetta*-style)
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
180g discs
www.smallcowfarm.com

Did you know that Fetta means "slice"? A well-made fetta should be slice-able, rather than smooth and creamy and spreadable. It should also be salty, but not so salty that you can't actually taste the cheese.

Small Cow Farm 'Fettice'

Small Cow Farm's 'Fettice' - their take on Fetta - has both of these features in spades. In fact, it's about a close as you can get to traditional fetta without being made from sheep's or goat's milk.

The very sensible tub comes with 2 discs immersed in brine, so you can easily store what you don't use for another time. Not that there's much risk of that in my kitchen.

Spanakopita - that wonderful Greek pie made with leafy greens and cheese - is one of my current favourites. I particularly like it with lots of fresh mint and a generous squeeze of lemon juice - using Small Cow Fettice, of course. Yiamas!

*"Feta" is the correct spelling for the traditional Greek cheese, and the name now has PDO status in Europe. But the variant "Fetta" is more commonly used in Australia.

Pecora Dairy 'Bloomy White'

White mould
Ewe's milk (East Friesian)
Southern Highlands
100g discs
3 weeks maturation
www.pecoradairy.com.au

Isn't this the most stunningly beautiful cheese ever? 'Bloomy White' is the first of Pecora Dairy's cheeses available commercially in Sydney, the culmination of a six year labour of love by Michael and Cressida McNamara. 'Pecora' is the Italian word for sheep, and all of their cheeses are inspired by the ewe's milk cheeses of the French Pyrenees.

Pecora Dairy 'Bloomy White'

Under its delightful, ivory skin - with those tell-tale Geotrichum wrinkles - is a molten layer resembling condensed milk, followed by a very dense, rich and smooth white centre. As with all ewe's milk cheeses, 'Bloomy White' has a very rich mouth-feel and distinctive background sweetness.

Says Michael: "More than anything we wanted a cheeese that showcases the milk. The grassy, citrussy and cream fraiche characteristics of the milk really shine through.

"We spent a great deal of time making sure it looks beautiful and also offers complexity and uniqueness.  We like thinking that the multiple textures and flavours in this delicate cheese create a unique and beautiful cheese." I've no doubt there are exciting times ahead for Pecora Dairy. Watch out, Holy Goat - you now have some serious competition!

Small Cow Farm 'Small Cow Blue'

Blue
Cow's milk
Southern Highlands
2kg wheels
3-4 months maturation
www.smallcowfarm.com

This is one of Australia's strongest and most characterful blues, and it's made just a short distance from Sydney at Robertson in the Southern Highlands.

Small Cow Blue

Created by Mark and Lesley Williams, 'Small Cow Blue has quite a spicy tang, with a distinctive underlying sweetness. The milk for this cheese comes from a single herd in the Southern Highlands, rather than the Williams' heard of Dexter cows, whose luscious milk is better suited to making soft, white-mould styles.

While the maturation details are a closely-guarded secret, the cheese is allowed to ripen with a natural blue mould growing on the outside, which adds to its full-bodied character. I suspect the cheese is at least partially matured under a wax coating, which may explain its sweet, fruity notes.

At last year's ASCA Sydney Cheese Show, two version were entered. The aged version was really powerful - big, spicy, fruity, sweet - but the slightly younger entry was spot-on for me. It had the perfect balance of salt and spice, with a gorgeous underlying creaminess and a lovely tang on the finish. It reminded me of my favourite all-time blue, Valdeon from Spain (minus the Sycamore leaves).

Small Cow Blue is perfect for Winter, particularly when paired with a rich, raisiny tokay or PX sherry.