We found Cowgirl Creamery just down the road from our
campsite after heading North along the coast from San Francisco the previous
afternoon. Surrounded by rolling hills,
farms and lots of green grass (it is winter) is the little town of Point Reyes
Station. Here you can find a small
supermarket, a mechanic, a gas station, a post office, and another shop
”Toby’s” that seems to do everything else.
As we sat outside drinking our coffee from Toby’s, locals called across
the street to each other about their car troubles, enquired of each other’s health,
and debated about the new bus schedule to the main town inland. Cowgirl
Creamery started in this location. They
have now expanded and moved most of their operations inland to Petaluma, and
also have two shops in San Francisco.
But here we visited their original location and the site where they
still make their washed rind Redhawk cheese.
#3: Redhawk. This is a triple cream washed rind cheese
made Jersey cow milk, aged 3-4 weeks. It is around 250-300g, basket shaped with
a light orange rind and only a small amount of white mould in surface
depressions. The rind has a light brevi/smear
aroma, but the flavour is a little stronger and slightly bitter, but this
seemed in balance with the rest of the cheese.
The rind was quite firm but not too thick, with a slight crunch. They appear to use an adventitious smear
culture from the factory environment, and we were told they had tried to move
production to their larger factory in Petaluma, but couldn’t achieve the same
product so moved production of the Redhawk back to the original factory in Point
Reyes.
#4. Mt Tam. We also tried Mt
Tam, a traditional style white mould cheese with a very soft paste under a firm
rind and a smooth, soft but unripened centre.
#5. Wagon Wheel. This is Cowgirl Creamery’s newest cheese,
aged for 60 days. It is European in
style, based on Asiago, and matured in 10-12kg wheels. It is pale yellow in colour and has a
soft-medium firmness and a floral, fruity flavour.
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