La Dama Sagrada, the Franco Regime & Spain's Cheesy Comeback

Dama Sagrada cheese

Spain has long been celebrated on the cheese board for its sheep's milk Manchegos, marcona almonds, and its sycamore leaf-wrapped Valdeon. The tiny prodcution Dama Sagrada, however, just hit California around 2 years ago.

Arriving late to the cheese party isn't unusual for an artisan Spanish cheese.

French's fromage has more love letters written to it than Catherine Deneuve. Parmesan graces more fridges than the number of well-dressed men leaning against espresso counters in Italy.

And Spanish cheese? Well? There's The Telling Room (4 to 5 stars), then... blanks. No TV shows about the goats that pounce the hills of Catalan who provide the milk for Garrotxa cheese. No musical break-out hits declaring eternal love for the thistle-rennet queso of Extremadura.

The reason why reads like a movie script.

During the Franco Regime from 1939-1978, artisan cheesemaking was banned. If you couldn't make top-selling Manchego or didn't have an industrial creamery that would, in Franco's view, drag Spain into modernization, you weren't allowed to make cheese. This meant that if you crafted tiny wheels from ancient or family recipes, you were torn from your calling. Some cheesemaking families went underground, but more stopped making cheese altogether. Many recipes were lost.

After Franco's death in 1975, Spain's revival, and the cheesemaking revamp was slow. There was little support for Spain's countrymen or its producers. Luckily the industry slowly regained its footing.

And ten or so years ago, Spanish artisan cheese once again started stealing hearts. La Dama Sagrada cheese is one that's won mine.

The Sacred Lady, otherwise known as Buy it When You Can, is made in La Mancha. It is robust, spicy, sweet when young, and peppery with age (or if you loose it in your fridge for a month, ahem...). Made with goat's milk in Manchego territory, La Dama Sagrada would have been impossible to sell abroad during Francoist Spain because it would have drawn attention away from the wheels that earned the country $$$, like Manchego.

In fact, La Dama Sagrada cheese is small production (I got mine through Food Matters Again distributors in Berkeley Via Forever Cheese) that if you spot a wedge of one, it's like sighting a Spanish cheese unicorn- a sign of good luck.

Dama Sagrada cheese with honeycomb

This goat's milk wheel is worthy of a cheese board or being shaved over summer's salads or grilled red peppers or peaches. Try with honey, honeycomb, or if thinking wine, pair with something equally peppery and bright like a Garnacha or Verdejo.

A Visit to Tomales Farmstead: When a Guild Class Means Baby Goats

Early December I had the lucky opportunity to visit this dear kid above. Just as snuggly as she looks, Sweet Pea (whose given name I may have forgotten) pranced up to the fence to demand head scratches and nibble on my fingers. Only a year or two from now, Sweet Pea will not only give snuggles, she will be a valuable milk supplier to Tomales Farmstead Creamery.

Classes at Tomales Farmstead mean baby goats.

This post is a photo dairy of my recent visit to Tomales Farmstead, where I taught a class to some amazing cheese lovers who bid on a class with me at the creamery to raise money for the California Cheese Guild. Bless you, cheese lovers.

After a farm tour and tasting (which anyone can arrange) I taught the class how to make cheese: whole-milk ricotta from the farm's goat milk and Straus cow's milk, traditional ricotta from leftover whey, and queso fresco with milk from the creamery's goat herd. Raw milk, ya'll. This was one of my favorite classes to teach.

Not only did I get to team up with Hadley, one of the Tomales Farmstead cheesemakers (below) and ask her geeky cheese questions, I got to cuddle with her baby between culturing and pressing the queso fresco. Classes at Tomales Farmstead can mean human babies, too.

We visited the growing babes, attempted to herd some goats to the pastures after being milked, peeked in the creamery, and made and likely each ate more cheese in three hours than one should in a week. That's all to say that we left very happy.

Thanks for the opportunity, Tomales Farmstead! I look forward to joining you again soon.

Baby Tomales Farmstead Atika

As a heads up, if you, like me love the combo tour and class events, I'll be teaching a Cheesemaking 101 class nearby at Point Reyes Creamery's The Fork on Saturday, January 13th. We'll tour the farm, visit the creamery, taste Point Reyes's lineup, have lunch, then make cheese with the same milk and cream used for beauties like Bay Blue. Queso fresco, creme fraiche, cultured butter, and ricotta. Tickets up.

Montealva: The Newest Spanish Cheese to Hit our Shores

The amount of times a "new" Spanish cheese appears in the United States is about as often as I've said no to a pint of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. So about once or twice a year or so (I make an effort not to walk down the frozen sweets aisle in the grocery store or look ice cream in the face). So when we get a new one, it feels pretty special. Montealva is the latest Spanish cheese introduction to our west coast.

Distributed by Cowgirl Creamery in California, Montealava is a pasteurized goat's milk cheese made in Andalucia. It has fresh, lightly green herbal and citrus notes, flavors of untoasted hazelnuts, and a rich sweetness acquired through 60 plus days of aging. I've even heard people say they taste mustard notes in the finish.

Though it seems to come in various ages, the one that we get is around two months. This seems to be a sweet spot for people for aged goat's milk cheese. When it's young yet firm like this it can even appeal to  goat cheese newbies because it doesn't taste too punchy. Like it a little punchier? Try Achandinha's Capricious.

The Alvarez family makes this sweet bright cheese from the milk of their 450 Payoya Andalucian goats. Fun fact? This breed was practically saved from extinction because they make such tasty, rich milk. They don't make much of it, but people who make cheese with it claim its richness is worth the effort. The Payoya have elegant curving horns, are born to climb the rocky hills of the region, and adorable curly tails. Those herbal notes you taste in the cheese? That's what those lucky foragers are snacking on in the hills.

Wine Pairing:

Last week I taught a Rich Wines and Decadent Cheeses class at The Cheese School of San Francisco  and we served this in it (hello high butterfat goat's milk). While this is a cheese that really went with any wine from un-oaked to oaked, it really shined with the heavy Roger Perrin VV French Syrah and the raspberry-noted Green and Red Chiles Valley Zinfandel. If I was at home cooking and needed a pre-dinner snack, I'd slice up a few pieces of Montealva and eat it with Andaulician's wine gift to the world- a dry sherry. I love it with en rama-style, unfiltered sherry like Hidalgo's.

Food Pairing:

Olives! Keep an eye out for a marinated olives recipe that would pair perfectly with Montealva. See that Friends in Cheese carrot marmalade in the pic? That's good with it too. I also like Montealva shaved over marinated Spanish boquerones.

Lastly, be sure to check out my blog next week. I'll be giving away tickets to the Cheesemongers Duel at the Calfornia Artisan Cheese Fest!

Twig Farm Mixed Drum Cheese: Goat & Cow's Milk Beauty

Though often harder to find in California then the size/color/style of the thing you're seeking in an Ikea store- anywhere, Twig Farm's Mixed Drum cheese is one my favorite wheels around. Any of their cheeses charm, really, but the Mixed Drum is instantly seductive. I watch for its presence on my distributer lists like a wine geek watches for the latest unfiltered, amphora-aged wine release from Slovenia. While writing my "It's Not You, It's Brie" book, I had a chance to visit the Twig Farm family in Vermont about ten miles from Middleton, in West Cornwall. Much like cheesemaker Michael Lee himself whose focus is intently on his goats and wheels since the responsibility for his ladies, farm, and making and aging the cheese falls solely on his and an assistant's shoulders, the farm is busy yet quiet. It's surrounded by a forest of tall, slim birch-like trees and oaks that shed acorns for goat snacks.

About nine miles away from Twig Farm is the Crawford Family, the makers of Vermont Ayr. When the Crawford's Ayrshires are out grazing the field, Twig buys some of their rich milk and mixes it with about twenty percent of their own goat's milk. Four to six month's later (hence winter cheese releases after being aged), viola, Mixed Drum!

Mixed Drum is a wonderful collaboration between the two farms. Many of the flavors shout Crawford, and the shape, natural rind, and the splash of goat's milk are all Twig.

The rich, earthy, melted butter, and lightly peanut notes of the cheese are reminiscent of those found in the Crawford's Vermont Ayr. As is the silky texture provided by the high-butterfat content of their cows. The little lively punch? That's the goat's milk- keeping it real, keeping it fresh. The natural rind and squishy shape? That's cheesemaker's Micheal Lee's touch- he keeps it real and fresh too. If the cheese wants to look like a Flintsone car wheel, so be it. It's cute and delicious.

I loved this beauty with a light, un-oaked malolactic white like a white wine from the Savoie region, a Muscadet from the Loire, or a lightly oaked Marsanne or Roussanne. Wasn't a big fan of the citrusy Sauv Blancs with this one.

If I were in an area that wasn't experiencing record highs in January and wanted to try this cheese in another way besides au naturel, I'd take this, some semi-soft Alpine-type cheese, and melt them raclette style, on ham and potatoes. Or anything I could think of.

Happy Winter.

Mother's Day: Visiting Baby Goats and Cheese of the Month Club

Mother's Day is this Sunday. And if your mother is anything like mine, the day involves massive amounts of cheese (for breakfast, lunch, and day snacks), visiting a creamery, playing with baby dairy goats, and (mom, stop reading) possibly a Cheese of the Month Club present. Are you sensing a theme here?

Yup, to celebrate the woman who raised me, we're going full cheese force. But this isn't like gifting a host a bottle of wine you've been meaning to buy for yourself and hoping your friend opens it at the party. Nope, this was all her idea.

For the past two years on Mother's Day, my mother has requested we go to Redwood Hill Creamery's Spring Farm Tours. Or, rather, last year, my father walked into the wine shop where I work part-time, and informed me that they were going on a fabulous Sunday adventure! They were going to visit baby goats at one of their favorite creameries! I asked, Dad do you mean that you're going this Sunday, on Mother's Day? He replied, How about that! I guess so. Then after I asked if it was okay if I joined, since it was Mother's Day and all, he said that he'd get back to me. As I found out from one or two follow-up phone calls, and as demonstrated by the photos on this page, they decided to let me join!

This year they're letting me join again! Better yet, they're letting Oma Olga come along too. Olga's my grandmother- not my blood grandmother, but pretty much my official grandmother due to copious amounts of grandmotherly love she dishes out and the fact that my own one has passed away. She's pretty much perfect. She's ninety-six, super sharp, thanks the mug of beer she drinks everyday for her longevity, and has become more comfortable with loudly remarking upon the fineness of Brad Pitt's appearance in theaters as she ages.

This is also our Mother's Day gift to her. That and some homemade cookies (stop reading here, Olga) because she likes to have a cookie with coffee for her first breakfast every morning. She grew up on a farm and visiting the babies brings up some lovely memories for her.

If your mom is the sort who loves cheese and baby goats or sheep too, I urge you to check out what farms are open near you for visitation. If not for mother's day, then soon after. It's baby goat and sheep  season!

And if she's the sort that likes cheese of the month clubs, maybe she'd like to kick it off with May's "It's Not You, It's Brie" Cheese Club, which ships anywhere in the United States. One of my three cheese picks this month is a triple-creme like the beauty above. Kunik, from Nettle Meadow- goat's milk and cow's milk cream to celebrate the season. For moms into dairy: the club includes three cheeses, a custom recipe for one of the cheeses in the club (see a sample here), my write-ups, and a monthly club newsletter with more writing and photos galore. If you sign your mother up for twelve months, I'll throw in a signed copy of my book to say thank you.

Whether you go full-cheese force, visit goats, or have a brunch, whatever you decide to do, Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there! I hope that you enjoy the day, whether you spend it with your own mom, someone else that means a lot to you, or just you, you're lovely too!