{"id":9607,"date":"2015-03-23T08:43:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=9607"},"modified":"2015-03-23T08:43:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:43:49","slug":"on-your-table-artisan-cheeses-from-the-farm-at-doe-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=9607","title":{"rendered":"On Your Table: Artisan cheeses from The Farm at Doe Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chester County cheese makers craft wide range of tasty products<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Cathy Branciaroli<\/strong><\/span>, Food Correspondent, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_7754\"<\/a>

Cheese artisans Matt Hettlinger (left) and Samuel Kennedy (right) at work in The Farm at Doe Run\u2019s Creamery (courtesy of Stacey Gentile).<\/p><\/div>\n

Cheese is a living thing.\u00a0 The cheese artisans at The Farm at Doe Run near Unionville understand this and coax the best flavors from the milk produced by their Jersey cows, East Fresian sheep and Nubian goats into striking cheeses made throughout the year.<\/p>\n

Right now, the Jersey cows are their rock stars, being able to graze throughout the winter and produce milk on the farm\u2019s 400 acres.\u00a0 But the goats are on the verge of delivering this spring\u2019s crop of babies, unleashing a torrent of awesome goat milk and thus goat cheeses.\u00a0 The sheep get into the summer action too so there will be much to enjoy in coming months.<\/p>\n

The Farm at Doe Run, originally settled in the 1920\u2019s, is set among rolling hills off an unpaved road, gotten to by another unpaved road, and is unique in the United States in that it harbors all three milk producers that enjoy its grass-pastured meadows on a rotational basis.\u00a0 And they have been racking up the awards for their efforts.\u00a0 Matt Hettlinger and Samuel Kennedy are the cheese artisans, practicing an ancient craft, carefully transforming small vats of farm-fresh milk into cheeses that are at once food and works of art.<\/p>\n

The farm originally was the home of the late Sir John Rupert Thouron, a world class horticulturalist, and many of the cheeses are named for local wildlife and land features.\u00a0\u00a0 For instance, there is the Hummingbird, which is a soft cheese that starts out tasting like Neufchatel, with a delicate citrusy taste. But after aging seven days it takes on a pungent aroma of cheeses from Eastern France.\u00a0\u00a0 It is named for the hummingbirds that haunt the meadows in summer.\u00a0\u00a0 Dragonfly, another of the soft cheeses, won top honors at the American Cheese Society\u2019s annual competition.\u00a0 Hickory on the Hill is a hard cheese with a cider washed rind that incorporates bay leaves in the fermented milk.<\/p>\n

\"Doe-Run-cheeses\"<\/a>

A selection of the Farm at Doe Run\u2019s cheeses.<\/p><\/div>\n

I tasted the Seven Sisters, a cow\u2019s milk cheese.\u00a0 It has a buttery texture and little flavor of Cheddar.\u00a0 Thirty pounds of milk go into each of the 20 pound wheels which are aged in humidity controlled caves below the farm\u2019s Creamery barn.\u00a0 Each of the farm\u2019s three caves is maintained at a particular humidity level suitable for the cheese being aged.\u00a0 I asked the origin of this cheese\u2019s name and was told it was named for the original seven cows that fostered the current herd.\u00a0 Seven Sisters is a cross between a Gouda and Cheddar, which is sold as a young cheese, at age six months, and further aged, at twelve months.\u00a0 It won best of show in the Pennsylvania cheese competition.\u00a0 It was like a taste of summer resplendent of the flavors from the grassy meadows where the cows graze.<\/p>\n

One of the more whimsically named cheeses is called \u201cBlow Horn,\u201d (where Route 82 meets Route 842) being named for a nearby intersection, where you might guess it\u2019s a good idea to blow the horn before driving through.\u00a0 It\u2019s a flaky, dense cheese with a nutty, Gruyere-like taste. \u00a0But then I liked Bathed in Victory too, which is made in conjunction with nearby Victory Brewing Company and is made with the brewery\u2019s beers.<\/p>\n

We also tried a few creations which are part of the Doe Run\u2019s Creamery Collection.\u00a0 These are limited batches where Matt and Samuel try out creative new ideas.\u00a0 One that was particularly intriguing was an Italian mountain style cheese that is washed with rye whiskey.\u00a0 This particular batch is sold out, but has inspired another new recipe that will be made this spring with goats milk.<\/p>\n

Doe Run\u2019s cheeses are served in any number of local restaurants, from the Half Moon Saloon in Kennett Square to Harvest in Glen Mills to Terrain at Styers Nursery.\u00a0 They are also available at retail through Talula\u2019s Table or the Country Butcher in Kennett Square and Janssens Grocery in Greenville, Delaware.\u00a0\u00a0 A full list is available at http:\/\/www.chestercountycheese.org\/doe-run-availability<\/a><\/p>\n

Cathy Branciaroli also writes about her adventures in the kitchen on her blog <\/i>Delaware Girl Eats<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chester County cheese makers craft wide range of tasty products By Cathy Branciaroli, Food Correspondent, The Times Cheese is a living thing.\u00a0 The cheese artisans at The Farm at Doe Run near Unionville understand this and coax the best flavors from the milk produced by their Jersey cows, East Fresian sheep and Nubian goats into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[5592,138,5593,611],"class_list":["post-9607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-featured","tag-artisan-cheese","tag-chester-county","tag-the-farm-at-doe-run","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9609,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9607\/revisions\/9609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}