Cheese

Bella Bantam With the comforting aromas of fresh, buttered popcorn, Bella Bantam is supple and creamy, making it the perfect snack time staple. Bella Bantam, a toma-style, open textured cheese. Mild, sweet and tangy, an easy-eating cheese, great for melting.
AGE: 1-4 MONTHS
PAIRINGS: BELGIAN FARMHOUSE ALES (NORBROOK FARM BREWERY SAISON), CHARDONNAYS (PAUL HOBBS CROSSBARN OR DECOY SONOMA CHARD)
Arethusa Farm Dairy
Bantam, CT
In 1996 two ex-executive at Manolo Blahnik footwear, Anthony Yugaitis and George Makelmus purchased a century old horse farm across the road from their home in Litchfield, CT, and decided to revive the original dairy that stood in that spot a century before. They started out selling milk from their herd of Jersey, Brown Swiss, and Holstein cows which later evolved into a cheese-making venture. They use only milk from their highly pampered, purebred cows. They pride themselves on providing the absolute highest level of care for their animals and like to say “Great milk comes from great cows, and great cows come from Arethusa”.
 

Grey Barn Prufrock (Martha’s Vineyard)
Awards: Good Food Award, 2020  | World Cheese Awards 2019  | American Cheese Awards 2017
Certified Organic  |  Pasteurized, washed-rind cow’s milk cheese
“A so-called “critical darling,” the pungent inner paste of Prufrock has a beautiful, thick, soft, and yielding texture. It’s a delicate washed-rind cheese whose tradition and technique hails from Normandy in northern France. But we’ve twisted that tradition and technique for a nutty flavor with hints of tropical fruit and sour cream. When ripe, the cheese has a salty and savory flavor that perfectly complements its sweeter overtones.
Over the first several years we had been developing cheese and waiting for our milk to take us to where it wanted to go. To talk about our cheese we must first talk about our milk. The farm produces the most lovely raw organic cow’s milk you have ever tasted and we believe that our herd of twenty-five grass-fed cows are the reason. Eating a grass-only diet, the herd’s milk becomes infused with the flavors of the pasture through the different seasons. We found that the mild and damp climate of Martha’s Vineyard, where the air is perpetually permeated with a salty tang, was the perfect environment for a washed-rind cheese. It was from this discovery that we began to research other washed rind cheeses and found that our Prufrock is much the same as cheeses from the coasts of Ireland and France.
The final result is a supple and stinky cheese known as Prufrock. The rustic orange rind that has developed in the cave encases a delectable soft paste that is golden in color. This hand made certified organic cheese is unique not only because it is lovingly made on Martha’s Vineyard but also because the changes in the pastures seasonally gives subtle changes in our milk. Those subtle flavor changes are transferred into our cheese.”
Serving Suggestion:
Prufrock is luscious served with a sliced warm baguette and bit of chunky apricot jam on top – even a spicy mango chutney works nicely. In the summer months when you have burgers on the grill serve it as the cheese on your cheeseburger along with a warm bun, onion relish and a bit of sweet ketchup. Prufrock is also terrific as a grilled cheese.
Pairing Suggestion: A wonderful heady Belgian Trappist Ale.
MILK: Pasteurized cow’s milk from our Grey Barn cows.
AGED: Four weeks
FLAVOR: With apricot, salty mixed nuts and carrot leading the way, Prufrock carries with it wonderful yeasty notes of fresh baked bread.
COLOR: Prufrock has a subtle and modeled orange rind with touches of pink and white and the rind is edible, in fact it adds to Prufrock’s complex flavor profile when eaten.
TEXTURE: Its interior paste is thick and gooey in texture when allowed to rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving.