Say Cheese: Amish, Aged And First-Rate

I admit that I have harbored some stereotypical notions about Amish cheese. You probably know the kind of cheese I’m talking about: big blocks of shrink-wrapped orange cheddar-style cheeses, thick half-moons of baby Swiss, Dutch-style Goudas, generic bricks of “farmer’s” cheese with lots of flavored variations including bacon, caraway and salsa. In general these cheeses are good, but not great, wholesome yet somehow underwhelming.

Then Tom Tompkins set me straight.

Tompkins sells Amish cheeses at three Alexandria farmers markets, including the Saturday morning market in Del Ray, which is where I met him. While some of the cheeses he sells are the aforementioned classics, he also carries two raw-milk cave-aged beauties that are about as good as any I have come across. The cheeses are produced using the milk of eight Amish dairies in Lancaster County, Pa., from cows that are pasture-raised and free of hormones and antibiotics.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Washington Post