Tasting House Champagne Bar photo credit Carly Hackbarth© The Tasting House, located in the posh little downtown strip of Los Gatos, California, is way more than just a cheese shop. It is a restaurant, tasting room, wine shop, bar and we wholeheartedly believe they are worth including as a go-to spot for anyone who knows about and appreciates cheese. Founder and Owner, Denise Thornberry, translates her knowledge about cheese into curating a variety of boards for the wine-centric menu. When asked about their distinctive approach to curating, Thornberry says, “We focus on small production, qual ..read more

Mother's Day Cheese Board photo credit Lynda Baslev There’s no hard and fast rule to lean pink and sparkling on Mother’s Day. A whisky-loving mom, can celebrate the day with a cheese board crafted to pair with her favorite sip. In past pairing stories, we have explored various kinds of whisky and discovered some real winners. In fact,  to make Sequatchie Cove’s Creamery’s Shakerag Blue the cheese is wrapped in fig leaves that have been soaked in Chattanooga Whiskey. Mixologist Fitz Bailey recommends Coopers' Craft Barrel Reserve Bourbon to pair with a smoked gouda or Finnish leipäjuusto ..read more

Spenker Family Farm Nestled on 60 acres off DeVries Road in Lodi, California, Spenker Winery expertly pairs goat cheeses with wines made from estate grapes and goat experiences, all grown on site. The working farm got its start in 1902, and in 2019 it opened to the public as a tasting room and in-house event space. Marked by vibrant red barns, it’s hard to miss from the main road, and turning off proves a worthy decision if you’re looking to indulge in estate zinfandels and 100 percent chevre goat cheeses in a variety of flavors. Not to mention, more than 100 goats were born over three weeks ..read more

Cutting curds at MouCo photo credit MouCo Nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains lay one of Colorado’s best-kept secrets: a Bavarian cheesemaker with a passion not only for cheesemaking, but a commitment to community and local non-profits. MouCo, founded in 2001 by Birgit Halbreiter and Robert Poland in Fort Collins, Colorado, is a creamery specializing in soft ripened cow’s milk cheeses made with fresh milk from a dairy just 20 minutes away. Their story is one of family, community, and the blending of Bavarian traditions and Colorado creativity.   History of MouCo Colorouge ra ..read more

Passover Cheese Board photo credit Lynda Balslev If you observe Passover, don’t forget to add a cheese board to your celebratory feast. Passover is the seven-day holiday of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first night is observed with a family meal or Seder which honors the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. The ritual includes retelling of the story, while drinking four cups of wine and eating symbolic food and matzah. Matzah is unleavened bread that Jews eat in place of regular leavened bread during Passover in memory of their ancestors who fled ..read more

Ziggy von Frankenberg-Leu of Columbia Cheese and Amy Sherman photo credit Lee Sherman Volunteers passed out bright orange insulated shopping bags, and glasses of bubbly, and the band played, welcoming the first wave of attendees at the  Sonoma County Fairgrounds event center, for the Artisan Cheese Tasting & Marketplace, the sold-out signature event of the 18th California Artisan Cheese Festival on March 24th, 2024. The festival marketplace attracted 1200 cheese lovers and there were 96 vendors including 24 artisan cheesemakers who offered samples of over 120 types of cheese.  C ..read more

Range of Capriole cheeses photo courtesy of Capriole Goat Cheese Today, locally produced artisan cheeses are a staple widely available at farmers markets, cheese shops, and farm-to-table restaurants as well as many grocery stores. But in 1988, starting an artisan creamery in the United States was an unusual undertaking. “It was not a great time for local,” says Capriole Goat Cheese founder Judy Schad. “If anything, [cheese] wasn’t cool unless it was French…That was the battle of that period of time—getting people to even taste a fresh goat cheese.” Origins of Capriole Goat Cheese The roots of ..read more

Appenzeller care of Emmi USA Few cheeses fit the prototype of “Swiss cheese” in a broad sense — those with large, telltale “eyes” or holes, which are formed as a result of carbon dioxide bubbles released during aging — and Appenzeller is definitely one of them.    Swiss But Not Alpine Hills surrounding Appenzell in Switzerland While the generic term Swiss cheese doesn’t come close to being able to encapsulate all the myriad cheeses made in Switzerland, neither does the term Alpine. (Stay tuned for a future installment of what makes a cheese officially Alpine.) Often grouped in with ..read more

John and Anne Reese photo courtesy Black Radish Creamery John Reese, who founded Granville, Ohio-based Black Radish Creamery with his wife Anne, started his cheesemaking journey after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America.  “It was the culmination of everything I had done up to that point,” he says. “When I graduated at age 29, I had done business, I had started a nursing degree, I had my personal trainer certificate—but food kept calling. Cheese was physically demanding, it had the science I loved, and obviously food, so I stuck with it.” In addition to working as a cheesema ..read more

Location 402 S. 2nd Ave., Wausau, WI 54401 Milk Merchant store interior Mary Gallagher wanted to live in a big city. So as soon as she could, after graduating from college, she left her hometown of Wausau, Wisconsin—only to bounce right back. “I had a bead and jewelry store in Chicago for 10 years. My husband moved back (to Wausau) for business and I moved back hesitantly but now I love it,” she says, adding “I was looking to do something in retail.” That opportunity came in 2019 when she bought an existing cheese shop in Wausau—Naïve Fromagerie—and rebranded it entirely, with a new name: The ..read more