Summer is the best time for food lovers: all our favorite fruits and vegetables are ripe and in season, as, too, are grass-fed artisanal cheeses. Like any other agriculture product, cheese is a seasonal food. Our August cheese of the month illustrates the true beauty that lies in the milk of cows grazing on pasture in full summer bloom. While we often celebrate fresh cheeses like burrata and feta at this time of year, we must also praise the less obviously seasonal cheeses, like this buttery Appalachian from Meadow Creek Dairy, in Virginia.
The diet of the animals producing the milk heavily influences the flavors of the cheese. Many classic Alpine cheeses, like Gruyere, are made only with summer milk, when the cattle have access to pastures with fresh, diverse plant life. Compared to cheeses made from cows that are fed a winter diet of dry hay and grain, these cheeses have a lighter flavor, more buttery texture and a deep yellow color as a result from the added beta carotene.
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