The picture you see before you represents how very much the cheesemonger loves me. I may not get diamonds or fancy trips to France….I get a big wedge of Grandpa Ed!!! Lovingly delivered by Cheesemaker Neville McNaughton yesterday afternoon. For those of you not familiar with Neville McNaughton, he is the head cheesemaker at Saxon Homestead Creamery in Cleveland, WI. If you are not familiar with Saxon Homestead Creamery, make sure you take a minute to visit their website.
Started by 3 farming families, they have created a community that focuses on ‘life-enhancing nature family business’.
Saxon’s little corner of the natural world was formed thousands of years ago. Eight inches of top soil sits on red clay loam, deposited by the lake on glacial till, sitting on limestone dominated, fast draining Karst soil. The clay loam holds moisture for our pastures. This makes for great pastureland touched by moist breezes off Lake Michigan. Other great cheesemaking regions of the world have Karst soils — the Auvergne, Southern Italy, St. Nectaire and even Roquefort, but none has topsoil on clay or a lake as big and beneficial as ours.
Grandpa Ed is startes out it’s life as Big Ed, a young, mild raw cow milk’s cheese. It is named after Ed Klessing, founding father of Saxon. It is a clean rind cheese which means it get’s it’s bottom wiped meticulously in order to have an immaculate rind. As time passes, Neville picks out some of the BEST Big Ed’s and sets them aside for aging….to create Grandpa Ed. These little buddies are aged for a full year and develop a robust flavor. As of now, Grandpa Ed will not be available until 2009…..except for that big hunk you see before you. Talk about a lucky girl. We are going to Phoenix on Friday to visit Simon’s folks…and Grandpa Ed is coming with us! You can’t just leave him home alone!!!
Oh….the beauty of cheese.
Lovely! Neville taught a class at Kitchen Conservatory in the fall - he was amazing and I’m guessing we didn’t see the 10th of it. Enjoy!