Tag Archives: Goat Cheese

Last updated by at .

Funding Sought for Independent Film about Pug’s Leap Farm

Posted on July 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

Just last week, I breathlessly reviewed Pug’s Leap’s Farms’ outstanding goat cheeses, the Pavé and the Petit Marcel. Pug’s Leap, founded by ex-San Franciscans Eric Smith and Pascal Destandau, is notably dedicated to slow food and sustainable practices. And did I mention that their cheese is out of this world? You really can taste the careful hand-crafting.

Wonderfully, filmmaker Alexandra Austin has also discovered Pug’s Leap, and she is in the process of creating a documentary about Eric and Pascal’s move from corporate San Francisco to their rural Sonoma goat farm. The film is called “Leap of Faith”. Woven throughout the mens’ personal story are the issues of slow food, small farms, and sustainable businesses. John Raymond (Raymond & Co. Cheesemongers) and others are interviewed in the film.

“Leap of Faith” is, at heart, the story of finding meaning in one’s life, something that seems to drive many to the land and to living locally.

Filming is completed, as is some of post-production but, as we know, filmmaking is an expensive endeavor, and more funding is needed to get the job done. There have been many in-kind donations and deferrals from musicians and editors because so many people believe in this project. Alexandra is hoping to finish production in time for a pre-set premier on September 19.

You can see a clip of this wonderful film-in-progress and learn more about it here.

Contributions to the film are tax-deductible and no donation is too small. In addition to creating “Leap of Faith”, the filmmakers are working with the Farm to Consumer Foundation and plan to use the film to raise awareness of Congress’ over-regulation of small farms like Pug’s Leap.

I wish Alexandra all success in funding, completing and distributing “Leap of Faith”. I want to see it at film festivals!

pugsleap

Photo: Susan Sachs Lipman

Pavé is topmost, and the Petit Marcel is at the bottom.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Leave a comment

Posted in Butter and Egg, Slow News, Sustainability, Who Moved My Cheese?

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Cheese of the Week: Pug’s Leap Pavé & Petit Marcel Goat Cheeses

Posted on July 19, 2009 | 2 comments

pugsleap

I recently had the privilege of visiting Raymond & Co. Cheesemongers in Glen Ellen, CA, and partaking in a little tasting. Yum! Everything they offered was tantalizing and top-of-the-cheese-game, including two farmstead goat cheeses, the Pavé and the Petit Marcel, from the relatively new Pug’s Leap Farm in Healdsburg.

(In the photo, the Pavé is topmost, and the Petit Marcel is at the bottom.)

Pug’s Leap, founded by ex-San Franciscans Eric Smith and Pascal Destandau, is notably dedicated to Slow Food and sustainable practices. They have stated that “buying locally brings health, economic, environmental, and social benefits to the community.” Their single goat herd of Saanens, Toggenbergs, Sables, and some cross-breeds, is fed organic feed. Their cheese production is relatively small-scale and done largely by hand. The farm is solar-powered.

The Pavé is unusually dry in texture, especially for a goat cheese. It’s extremely flavorful — tangy, with strong goat tones and smells, earthy, ashen and mushroomy. The complicated flavors linger nicely on the taste buds.

The wrinkled rind is wonderfully bloomy and the cheese nearest the rind has a great gooey texture. The processes used at Pug’s Leap greatly influence the Pavé’s taste. For one, the fresh curd is treated gently, to produce a rind with external mold, which in turn influences the taste of the ripening cheese. To create the especially dry texture, the whey is expelled.

The Petit Marcel is another winner. It also has a great goat flavor and an even more pungent goat nose (which I like). It’s also dry in texture, though less so than the Pavé . The younger Petit Marcel is sweeter and milkier than the Pavé. The taste, while great, is ultimately less complex, less special, than the Pavé.

As for pairing, both cheeses are wonderfully versatile. Grapes, peaches and cherries are some fruits that work with them. Almonds make a nice accompaniment. The stronger Pavé can take Cabernet and other red wines. I’d stick with a fruitier Syrah or Pinot, or a Chardonnay for the Petit Marcel.

Either way, get yourself a little goat round and enjoy!

Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

2 Comments

Posted in Butter and Egg, Slow News, Sustainability, To Market, Who Moved My Cheese?

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Cheese of the Week: Juniper Grove Tumalo Tomme Goat Cheese

Posted on June 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

cheesejunipergrovetumalo

The world’s longest lasting cheese course (lucky us!) continues with a Tumelo Tomme Goat’s Milk cheese (also known as Tumelo Classico) from Juniper Grove Farm in Redmond, Oregon. This is a lovely cheese, with a firmer texture than you might ordinarily find in a goat cheese, which results in something like a goat gouda. It’s a solid, pleasing cheese, with a lot of body in the mouth.

The goat aspect takes a moment to hit you and, when it does, it is equally pleasant and on the mild side. (The Haystack Mountain Queso de Mano, which was on the same plate, is bolder.) There are nutty and sweet, even caramel-like notes, along with an earthy, slightly mushroom-y taste.

Redmond Grove Farm’s owner/cheesemaker, Pierre Kolisch, studied cheesemaking in Normandy with master cheesemaker Francois Durand, and cites European “tomme” cheeses as an influence. (“Tomme” loosely means small cheese from partial milkings, with the “tomme” and “toma” names in particular use in the French and Italian Alps.)

Tumalo is a raw-milk cheese, made from milk from Redmond Grove’s herd of goats, which feed on alfalfa year-round on beautiful land east of Oregon’s Cascade Mountain range. (Indeed, Tumalo bears the name of a local village.) Kolisch employs traditional farmstead methods in his cheesemaking, such as separating curds from whey, and then brining, stacking and hand-turning the washed-rind cheese, as it ages on pine planks in a dry, cool environment for three months.

The result is this nice, lovingly made goat cheese.

The Tomalo Tomme works well with crackers, grapes, apricots, or a fruity red wine, such as Pinot Noir or Merlot.

Girlfigcheesecourse

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Leave a comment

Posted in Butter and Egg, Field Trip, Who Moved My Cheese?

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Cheese of the Week: Haystack Mountain Queso de Mano Goat Cheese

Posted on June 8, 2009 | 1 comment

haystackqueso

Continuing down our Girl and the Fig cheese plate, I really enjoyed the Queso de Mano goat cheese, from Jim Schott’s award-winning Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy in Niwot, Colorado. This is a superb raw-milk cheese — it has a wonderful, prominent, goat taste that is slightly sweet, and carries with it an undertone of nuttiness, as well as a hint of its farmstead grass and herbs. All that makes it terrifically complex and interesting, especially if you love goat-milk cheeses, as I do.

The Queso de Mano also manages to combine a firm texture with a velvety mouth feel. The cheese is aged four months and has a natural washed rind. It would be great with toasted almonds, fresh cherries or apricots, and a good fruity red wine.

For a long time, Haystack Mountain was the last remaining dairy in Boulder County. Sadly, local and other business expenses forced the company to sell its goats to the State Prison in Canon City, Colorado, which has operated an inmate-run dairy for 70 years. The upshot, though, is that the company is still producing and distributing its fabulous cheese from its headquarters in Longmont, Colorado, inmates at Canon City are doing fruitful work and learning a skill, and the Nubian, LaMancha, Sanaan and Nubian Cross goats are continuing to thrive and produce the milk that goes into Haystack Mountain’s cheeses.

The Queso de Mano is the second cheese from the right:

Girlfigcheesecourse

Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

1 Comment

Posted in Butter and Egg, Who Moved My Cheese?

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,