Description
We are a family dairy farm located on scenic Clover Creek in Central Pennsylvania where we produce our own artisan cheese, raw milk, and grass-fed beef. Our farm is 126 acres of pasture and woods. We milk 40-60 Milking Shorthorn, Jersey, Fleckvieh, Meuse-Rhine-Issel and cross-bred cattle, rotating them to fresh pasture at least after each milking. We milk in a New Zealand-style swing parlor, and two generations are involved in the operation. We plan on our cows calving in March and April and eating the majority of their ration as pasture. In the winter they are fed grass hay. We built our own cheesery in 2007 and have our own pasture-fed raw milk cheeses for sale. Our cheese is not another push-button cheese. We are a seasonal dairy, making cheese only when the cows are eating fresh green grass. Each vat is filled slowly, using a stainless steel pipeline direct from the milking area. Cultures are then carefully added and the milk is gently stirred by hand, not beaten by stainless steel paddles. After the right amount of time, veal rennet is added following the age-old tradition of making great farmstead cheese. After coagulation, the curds are quickly cut, allowed to rest and heal, and then gently stirred by hand. The curds are eventually packed into molds and pressed by hanging weights for the allotted time. Cheeses are then aged in one of our climate-controlled cellars, on locally grown wood shelving. Instead of suffocating them in plastic, they grow a natural rind that gives additional character and flavor to the cheese. Each wheel is turned, wiped, scrubbed, washed, and watched until it has aged to its greatest potential. At just the right time, we remove them, package them, and sell them to discriminating customers. Welcome to the taste and quality of true farmstead artisan cheese! We hope you enjoy our cheese as much as we enjoy making it! Our cheese varieties include: We named this smooth, rich cheese after the man who helped us build our cheese plant. Galen's Good Old Cheese is a secret recipe and procedure given by our cheese consultant, based on the famous Gouda from Amsterdam. Once you've tasted it, you'll know what great farmstead cheese tastes like. Its smooth texture and great taste combine to please any palate. You will never return to store-bought cheese. Smoked Galen's is our Galen's Good Old (Gouda style) complimented with a smoked flavor that brings back memories of cool mornings and a warm wood stove brightening the day. It continues to be one of our best sellers at farmers' markets. When we contemplated the proper name for an Alpine-style cheese, mountains and travel first came to our thoughts. To get anywhere from our farm we need to cross at least one mountain. One often traversed is Royer Mountain, and we chose that as the name for this cellar-aged cheese. Our mountains are nothing like the Alps, neither is our cheese like any other. Closely watching the temperature and tasting the cheese daily brought us a flavor that is full of zest and mountain breezes blowing through our fresh green pastures. We've been told our aging process gives this cheese an Italian twist with a flavor of Romano, so perhaps it is the Italian Alps? We love the sharp and yet smooth texture of this cheese. Everybody has a cheddar but not everyone has our original mix of grasses and clovers. Combined with a mixed breed herd of cows that give us the right butterfat and protein we created a different taste. We have tweaked our recipe for full flavor and you won't believe what your taste buds are exclaiming. No one can match the perfection that comes from aging in one of our temperature-controlled cellars in a natural rind. You like it mild? We age it for under six months for our regular Clover. You like it sharp? We age it for over a year to become our Four Leaf Clover. Why settle for ordinary cheddar? A chef informed us that our Four Leaf Clover is world-class and as good as cheddar imported from England. We love the taste of fresh from the garden tomatoes, homegrown basil, and a touch of garlic. What could be tastier than this complete flavor of Bruschedda sliced on top of a freshly toasted baguette? Everyone comments, "Wow, that is good!" We love it melted on an open-faced sandwich, cubed in salads, and mixed with eggs for breakfast. We started with the easiest cheese recipe we could find, changed it to fit our cheese-making style, and ended up with sensational cheese. Our children's Uncle Joe offered us a bottle of vintage homemade wine for a special finish, so we named this cheese after him. We've made more cheese than he made wine; we now use Vineyard at Grandview's Sapphire White to wash the rinds. The cheese flavor is supplemented by the fruity flavor of the wine, giving us a unique taste that no one else can copy. We've renewed an old friendship by stopping at the Vineyard at Grandview. They asked us to complement our cheese with their Cabernet Sauvignon. We marinated our Uncle Joe's for several days to create Winemakers' Select cheese. We used a younger cheese and the result has strong wine and mild cheese goodness. See if you agree with the winemakers' selection of complimentary flavors. We've always wanted to try a cheese with mushrooms, but we had a hard time finding enough to make a full batch of cheese. We met a wild purveyor of mushrooms at a local market. We have worked together to develop a Wild Mushroom cheese. It is one of our favorites because the flavor description escapes us. It has a hint of bacon, but yet the flavor is more like earthy goodness. The chives give an almost onion, or is it garlic flavor? The cheese is so smooth and soft it melts on the tongue. We need to taste more to figure the exact flavor. We started with the recipe for a Greek-style cheese, brined it for 60+ days, and then continued to age it in its' natural whey brine. The sharp salty flavor and crumbly texture were perfect. This left us with an excellent cheese that can be used to top salads, pasta, and steamed fresh vegetables. Try some Alpha & Omega on top of your next healthy meal! Our cheese consultant challenged us to taste molds before we cut them off and throw them away because we might find a pleasant surprise. We finally were brave enough to try that with our Pirate Blue. The tangy, crusty rind gives it a hearty flavor that is definitely a trait of pirates. The chalky salty edge brings back childhood memories of crossing the bay to get to the ocean. The smooth interior crossed with blue veins shows the goodness and kindness that hides in many a pirate heart. Are you ready for a high sea adventure? Cheese can be sent through mail or UPS during cool weather. Check out our website for pictures of our cheese and blog posts about our farm and cheesemaking process from the farm!
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