North Valley Farm Chevre

yesterday, grange pastry chef elaine baker and I, took a day trip to visit deneane & mark ashcraft of

north valley farm, our fantastic local goat cheese producers. having served their fantastic cheese at grange since our opening last december, I am thrilled to have finally taken the 2 hour drive north to visit the place where the goat's, along with some help from deneane and her assistants toni & jody work their magic. for those of you that have never made cheese, or been to a small artisan cheese making facility, i can honestly vouch that this is "real" work! days are long, there is a certain rhythm to the process not unlike bread baking or other similar processes where a certain quantity is produced. But, it is also physically demanding. especially, separating the whey from the curds, then ladling the curds by hand into a cheese cloth, tying them and hanging them to drain. working the curds afterwards. milking the goats, all 42 of them, twice per day! no doubt is an interesting task in itself, not to mention, the set up and clean up. as they say in my business, "you gotta love it!" if people really knew the difference, and what hand crafted, farmstead cheese production really meant, i don't think that they would ever choose a large factory produced cheese again. the care, the love, the dedication that goes into north valley farm is to be admired, supported and treasured. it is products like this, that make me excited to do what I do for a living. I am proud to have the opportunity to serve small, handcrafted cheese like this at grange. currently, we use there fresh chevre in salads and we marinated some in olive oil with lavender & rosemary to accompany our grilled trigo feurte flat bread with olives. also, we offer their chevre with herbs de provence on our daily artisan cheese selection. deneane has just started making a fantastic goats milk feta that we will now begin serving. Thank you Deneane & Mark!

Comments

[michaeltuohy.typepad.com]

Totally! Thanks Matt...I'll look out for you at the market. best,
m

[Matt Read]

Probably my favorite part of the Sunday market is getting to trade our cheese with Mark. The dilled chevre is almost enough to make me want to spurn jersey cheese, almost.

See you on Wednesday!

Matt

[Deneane Ashcraft]

Mark and I very much enjoyed having you both visit, and yes that is a fantastic pic of Pet "eating fresh and local"! It is most gratifying seeing our handcrafted products being part of the "magic" at The Grange. Best wishes and thanks to Chef Michael and the wonderful staff, and the "farm to table" focus The Grange values and practices. Keep up the great work!

[Elaine Baker]

That sounds like a good idea - just let me know when ...

[michaeltuohy.typepad.com]

Thanks Elaine........maybe...Bledsoe farm???

[Elaine Baker]

What a great picture of Pet! Where are we going next, Chef? :)