CHEESE HAS 3 EVER-SO-IMPORTANT M’S:
MILK, MANUFACTURING, AND MATURATION.
We set out to perfect all three. Before we even started our first cheesemake.
Our cheese is cave-aged in a state-of-the-art underground affinage. Right on site at the creamery.
Producing the best sheep’s milk is an art and a science. Every dairy farm has its own terroir and produces milk of unique quality, taste and aroma. For us, the art is caring for the sheep, assuring they’re always strong, healthy, and comfortable. The science is improving the flock’s productivity in our unique terroir. Both take time, dedication, and resources. But you can taste the results in the richness and sweet aroma of Harlan Ridge. The French -- who know a thing or two about aging cheeses -- identify two stages in cheesemaking: first the cheesemake (manufacturing), which turns liquid milk into fresh cheese curds, and then maturation, which transforms fresh curds into an aged cheese.
The art of manufacturing cheese is knowing how the curd should look and feel, when it’s time to cut and whey off, the use of moulds to shape the curds, and applied pressure to remove the exact amount of whey to ensure a moist interior paste. The science of manufacturing is perfecting a recipe for our unique milk - finding the sweet spot in the combination of ingredients (milk, cultures, rennet, salt) together with temperature and time. The art and science of manufacturing takes trial and error, learning from your successes and failures. It’s about fine-tuning the taste, aroma, and texture of both the paste and rind in each successive cheesemake and waiting months to get the results. Then, if you’re lucky enough to produce a winner, you must prove you can produce it consistently over time. The art and science of manufacturing takes time, persistence, and resources. Rainbow Cowboy is our first winner.
Affinage is the art and science of maturing cheese to achieve peak ripeness, texture, and flavor, as well as the facility in which the cheese is matured (historically a climate controlled cave or stone cellar). Our underground cave affinage facility provides the perfect environment of humidity, temperature, and air flow for our cheese as it matures. Our cheese is cave-aged the old fashioned way -- unlike most American artisan cheeses that are matured in simple, above-ground, electric refrigeration. The reasons for this are obvious: putting in an above-ground cold storage refrigerator is significantly less expensive and quicker to install than digging an underground aging cave. However, cold storage refrigeration lacks humidity and air flow controls that are necessary to create the ideal microbiological environment. By contrast, in Europe (France, especially) expert affinage is standard practice. This might help explain why many European cheeses taste so much better than American artisan cheeses.
We wish we could push the smell of our affinage through this webpage because it is simply delightful: think a wafting cloud of sweet cream, butter, salt, and a hit of strawberries and lush alfalfa hay blossoms. Our affinage process assures meticulous care of each wheel of cheese as it matures to its peak. We see every cheese every day. Our affinage perfects the unique taste, texture, and aroma of Harlan Ridge.