![]() ![]() While the hype that surrounds limited-production craft beers or cult wines can seem exclusive, some members of the cheese industry believe that seasonal cheese releases create community as they build anticipation. “We can’t process an entire day’s milk into Rush Creek, it’s too labor-intensive of a cheese.” Rogue River Blue / Photo by Beryl Striewski Markers of the Season In fact, Hatch sells some of the milk Uplands produces during the fall because his team can’t turn it into cheese fast enough. Each tiny wheel of Rush Creek is made by hand and carefully ripened in Hatch’s on-site caves. Whereas an operation like the Tillamook factory makes 170,000 pounds of cheese per day, Uplands produces 40,000 twelve-ounce wheels of Rush Creek in a season. “So, rather than make a generic product, we want to make something that is unique and couldn’t be made by other people or land or animals.” “We are never going to compete on low-cost production or marketing budgets,” says Hatch. This year’s iteration of your favorite seasonal cheese will never be exactly the same as last year’s. This variability can be exciting for producers and people who love artisanal products, but there’s also potential for disappointment. That’s what makes them so special.” -Sarah Simms, Lady & Larder “We should celebrate seasons as they come and be generous when we’re in them. Rogue River Blue’s 2020 vintage was characterized by “a prominent savory note akin to seared steak fat,” says Merritt, whereas 2021 has “distinctive herbal and spicy flavors with more focus on the fruity character of the cheese.” “Though we aim to maintain a recognizable flavor profile across all vintages, every one has its own unique attributes that are influenced by the growing conditions and the composition of our herd each fall,” says Merritt. But seasonal cheeses have the same sort of variability as wine vintages because they reflect the environmental and climatic conditions in which they’re made. In industrialized food systems, most foods are available year round and taste essentially the same each time. The wheels sit for a few weeks, soaking in the flavor of the grape leaves and the pear liqueur, and are then shipped and sold. Rogue River Blue is aged for 9–11 months, then wrapped in Syrah grape leaves that were soaked for months in pear liqueur. “During these months, cooler temperatures and fall rains bring renewed growth to our pastures,” says Marguerite Merritt, marketing director at Rogue Creamery.” It is during this period that our cows’ milk is at its richest and most complex.” Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue, which won World’s Best Cheese at the 2019/2020 World Cheese Awards, is made exclusively with milk gathered between the Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice in Grants Pass, Oregon, where Rogue Creamery is based. Winnimere is also spruce wrapped and only made during the colder months of the year. producers include Winnimere, a soft-ripened cheese from Vermont-based Jasper Hill Farm. Pleasant Ridge Reserve’s recipe is based on that lighter summer milk and Rush Creek Reserve’s is based on the rich winter milk. As a result, they tend to produce less milk, but with more fat and protein per ounce. The cows are also later in their lactation cycles in the winter. Hatch likens this to the difference between a strawberry and fruit leather. As the weather grows colder, the cows start eating hay, a much denser feed, given its much lower water content than fresh grass. In the summer, cows at Uplands glut themselves on an abundance of fresh, green pasture. Right: Uplands Cheese Rush Creek / Photos courtesy Uplands Cheese Understanding Winter Cheeseīecause Uplands works with grass-fed milk, the availability of the cheese is parallel to the seasonality of the grass. Others have narrow windows of availability eagerly awaited by diehard devotees. Some seasonal cheeses, like Uplands’ Pleasant Ridge Reserve, are aged and therefore can be released year round. producers whose intensely seasonal cheeses are linked to agricultural cycles that determine what animals eat and the quantity and characteristics of their milk. That’s because Uplands is one of a few U.S. Hatch couldn’t switch it up and make Rush Creek Reserve in the summer or Pleasant Ridge Reserve in the fall even if he wanted to. The seasonality of these cheeses is not arbitrary. history.) Rush Creek Reserve is a soft-ripened, fresh cheese wrapped in spruce bark, in the vein of Vacherin Mont D’Or. (It also just so happens to be the most-awarded cheese in U.S. Pleasant Ridge Reserve is an aged alpine-style cheese, like Beaufort or Gruyere. ![]() Andy Hatch, co-owner of Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, makes exactly two cheeses: Pleasant Ridge Reserve in the summer, and Rush Creek Reserve in the fall. ![]()
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