This month we’re featuring our very popular City Goat. The milk from the city goat comes from the farm of Todd McDonald near Freemont, Michigan.  Working with Todd and our friend and consultant, Ivan Larcher, we discovered that by changing the timing of the various feed rations the goats are getting, the proteins, fats and overall happiness of the animals has risen. Needless to say, our happiness rises with it. The butterfat of the goats is now running about 4% which results in a richer, better flavored City Goat.  To make the City Goat, we pasteurize the milk, then add our cultures to the milk and allow it to ripen for about 7 hours at which point we add our rennet and leave the milk for another 13-16 hours until the proper acidity level has been reached. We then cut the curd and gently hand ladle the curd into cheese molds. The cheeses are allowed to drain overnight then submersed in a brine solution for 40 minutes, set out and allowed to drain overnight again. The cheese are unmolded wrapped and sent out the next day. We wrap the City goats in breathable paper to allow the cheese to naturally dry and change without the interference of plastic.

To welcome in the new president, Josh has created BARACKY ROAD gelato.  Rich vanilla gelato with handmade chocolate chips, roasted virginia peanuts and handmade Zingerman’s Bakehouse marshmallows. Josh blends and tempers two types of chocolate to create large chips of chocolate that hold together in the gelato without the usual waxiness of other chips. This special make flavor is only available from January 12 through January 31.  If you’d like to order this flavor and you’re not in the area, fear not, mail order will offer it prior to the inaguration in a “Joe Six Pack” box, so you can share it with friends.  Taste You Can Believe In!

This month we’re featuring our very popular City Goat. The milk from the city goat comes from the farm of Todd McDonald near Freemont, Michigan.  Working with Todd and our friend and consultant, Ivan Larcher, we discovered that by changing the timing of the various feed rations the goats are getting, the proteins, fats and overall happiness of the animals has risen. Needless to say, our happiness rises with it. The butterfat of the goats is now running about 4% which results in a richer, better flavored City Goat.  To make the City Goat, we pasteurize the milk, then add our cultures to the milk and allow it to ripen for about 7 hours at which point we add our rennet and leave the milk for another 13-16 hours until the proper acidity level has been reached. We then cut the curd and gently hand ladle the curd into cheese molds. The cheeses are allowed to drain overnight then submersed in a brine solution for 40 minutes, set out and allowed to set overnight. The cheese are unmolded wrapped and sent out the next day. We wrap the City goats in breathable paper to allow the cheese to naturally dry and change without the interference of plastic.

To welcome in the new president, Josh has created BARACKY ROAD gelato.  Rich vanilla gelato with handmade chocolate chips, roasted virginia peanuts and handmade Zingerman’s Bakehouse marshmallows. Josh blends and tempers two types of chocolate to create large chips of chocolate that hold together in the gelato without the usual waxiness of other chips. This special make flavor is only available from January 12 through January 31.  If you’d like to order this flavor and you’re not in the area, fear not, mail order will offer it prior to the inaguration in a “Joe Six Pack” box, so you can share it with friends.  Taste You Can Believe In!

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Anyone who knows me knows that I love cheese. Few foods, few things really, are so steeped in tradition, rich in culture, and rooted in the fabric of our collective conscience. It is a food that transcends boudaries and societies. It is a life giving substance, alive itself, mutable by time and environment. Like people, cheese come in a myriad of shapes, sizes, and colors. It is a testament to human ingenuity- a way to turn the quickly perishable into something sustainable. And when all is said and done, it’s just simply delicious- a feast for all the senses.

When I was a kid in New England, I grew up about 20 minutes from a little cheese shop nestled in the first floor of a 17th century Massachusetts home. Nearly every weekend, my mom and I would load up into the station wagon and head down the winding asphalt of Rt. 2 towards Concord center. While the little cheese shop wasn’t the only place we would shop, it was always my favorite. It’s one of those places that you define your childhood by- where you laugh and eat and share those special moments with your family that stick with you forever.

That, for me, is the magic of food and especially of cheese. Every bite is a memory- past, present, or future.

I’d love to hear about your cheese and other food memories! Leave ‘em in the comments.

Buy 2 Get 1 Gelato
Every day is Wednesday in the Cheese Shop now.  You can get 3 drums of gelato for the price of 2 any day of the week.  It’s a great way to try a new flavor or pair gelatos with specific desserts.  No matter what you do with them, it’s a great deal.  

Or, if you want to go large, you can get one of our Family-Sized Gelato Tubs.  For only $25, you get 64 ounces of our hand-made gelato.  Choose from Vanilla, Chocolate, Peppermint, Cinnamon, or Pumpkin.

And finally, just because you may not live close enough to Zingerman’s to pop in and grab a drum of gelato, it doesn’t mean you can’t pile some on your next slice of pecan pie.  Click here to get our gelato by mail.

Become a Cheese Maker!

Spend a Saturday in the dairy with us learning how to make mozzarella.  We still have some room left for the December 20th class.  Drop us a line if you would like a space reserved for you.  The class starts at 12pm and goes until 2:00.  We will also be holding them in January, February and March.  Stay tuned for dates.

Cheese Trays

We are now offering pre-assembled cheese trays that you can order and pick up in the Cheese Shop.  We came up with three themes that should fit nearly any occasion, and they are all filled with enough fantastic cheese to feed 8-12 foodies for only $50.  

Learn to make mozzarella-Our most popular class where you learn to make mozzarella from milk, then you get to stretch mozzarella curd into balls, a braid surrounded by fresh greek myrtle leaves and then we make burratas which are mozzarella balloons filled with cream. You’ll leave with enough mozzarella for a party. Class size is very limited so reserve now!

NEW CLASS! Gelato Making for the Kids!  If you’re looking for a fun idea for the winter break, Josh will be teaching a hands on gelato making class in December. We’ll team up in small groups to develop some REALLY unique flavors. Cost is $25 for a two hour class. Ages 9-13

In honor of the upcoming White House changing of the guard, we’re offering an extremely limited gelato run of Baracky Road. Chocolate gelato with marshmallows and toasted virginia peanuts. (Mcandy Cane is still available under the name of Peppermint)

Great Lakes Cheshire has arrived and is available at Zingerman’s Deli and the Creamery-Great Lakes Cheshire is our only raw milk hard cheese made from a recipe that dates back hundreds of years. Cheshire is related to cheddar, with a different texture and a sharper bite. These cheeses are aged anywhere from 60 to 120 days. The cheese has a natural rind with no plastic or wax coating, so as you get closer to the rind the flavor becomes more musty.

I like fruit baskets as much as the next guy, but…for a totally different spin you can send a loved one a variety pack of gelato, which includes our award winning chocolate, peppermint, vanilla, peanut butter, argentinian caramel and local fruit strawberry. Just click on the link gelato by mail

Finally, my favorite winter snack is spicy Liptauer cheese on caraway rye bread and a pint of Guiness-well, we’ve got everything but the beer. Available at the deli, the Creamery and through mail order. Liptauer by mail