Old Europe Cheese / Benton Harbor, Mich.
Francois Capt was born to make cheese. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all cheesemakers in Normandy, France, so naturally, fromage was in his blood. Luckily for us, he brought his art to southwest Michigan.
“There is something special about Michigan. I make new discoveries every day,” says Capt, who was brought here in 1987 by Old Europe’s parent company, Spain-based ILAS, as part of the team that launched their Reny Picot line of cheeses in the United States. The line is produced in Benton Harbor, Mich.
Capt brought the recipes for Old Europe’s signature French-style, semi-soft Brie and Camembert with him. In 2008, his French-style Brie won first in American/Domestic Brie, and third in the World Cheese awards. Reny Picot’s Camembert Fermie – a true Norman Camembert – was introduced about four years ago. The Camembert is creamy, rich and flavorful, with a rind that develops reddish stains when per-fectly ripe. Reny Picot also just introduced a Carre St. Joseph and smoked Gouda, and makes Gouda, Edam, Fontina and Manchego cheeses, thus giving Midwesterners a cheese wheel that travels the world around. Capt is also working with local restaurants and chefs to use Old Europe cheeses in their dishes. Now that’s a mission anyone can get behind.
Old Europe cheeses are available at Gordon Food Service, Jewel, and other larger grocers; Sawyer Market in Sawyer, Mich.; Roger Food Land in St. Joseph, Mich.; and Drier’s Meat Market in Three Oaks, Mich. Old Europe Cheese, 1330 E. Empire Ave., Benton Harbor, Mich. 269-925-5003; renypicot.com
Grassfields Organic Cheeses
Coopersville, Mich.
Grassfields is one of about a dozen cheesemakers in the United States that use raw milk for cheese. The creamery is owned and operated by three Meerman brothers – Luke, Jesse and Jay; the family has been farming in the Coopersville area since the 1920s. The Meermans have been grass farming for 15 years, and were certified organic last year.
Jesse attended classes on cheesemaking in Vermont and Wisconsin and is in charge of cheesemaking. A large part of his challenge was adapting recipes to the grazing habits of their herd and the family’s tastes. “His cheese has always been good, but I think it is about 1000% better now than it was in the beginning,” says Bonnie, the Meermans’ sister. Perhaps it’s because the cows are happier, too.
Milk from grass-fed cows is better, according to Bonnie, than that of grain-fed cows. Grassfields uses their own organic raw milk, which contains no hormones, steroids or antibiotics (and more natural enzymes), to hand-make their live cheeses on the farm. (Raw milk contains more vitamins and digestible minerals, and has a more intense flavor than that of pasteurized milk.) Still, they take extra measures to ensure that the raw-milk cheese is safe by grazing the cows outside and through extra sampling and monitoring.
Grassfields makes six types of organic cheeses: Gouda, Edam (a skim milk Gouda), Leyden (a Gouda with caraway seeds), Garlic n’ Onion, Country Dill and Lamont Cheddar (their only non-Gouda offering).
Tours of the creamery are available for groups, or stop by for an impromptu tour. Take a hayride through the rest of the farm while you’re there!
Their cheese is available at Sawyer Gardens in Sawyer, Mich.; Apple Valley Market in Holland, Mich.; and at Provenance Food and Wine, New Leaf Grocery and Southport Grocery and Café in Chicago. Grassfields, 14238 60th Ave., Coopersville, Mich. 616-977-8251; grassfieldscheese.com
Black Star Farms / Suttons Bay, Mich.
Love is the main ingredient in cheese from the Creamery at Black Star Farms. Owners Anne and John Hoyt met and fell in love on a farm in the Valais region of Switzerland. John was the cheesemaker, Anne the shepherd. They learned the process of making cheese at local cooperatives, and John studied cheesemaking at the Chateauneuf School of Agriculture in the Valais region.
Returning to Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula in 1991, they started the Leelanau Cheese Company in 1995, using a centuries-old process to make their fine artisan cheeses with milk from their small herd of grass-fed cows. They add no color or preservatives, “Just milk and fresh herbs” according to Anne, to produce a natural, handmade product.
The creamery produces both a sharp and a mild traditional Swiss raclette. The raclette rounds are cured on hardwood boards in a cave for more than three months. They are turned and their rinds brushed with brine daily. It’s a time-intensive labor of love to produce a mild raclette, traditionally served warm with boiled potatoes and cornichon pickles, but also used in fondue or with pastas.
Raclette is less well known in America and the Hoyts have worked hard to introduce it to the American public, with delicious results. In 2007, their sharp raclette was named the “Best Cheese in America” by the American Cheese Society. That award tripled the demand for the cheese. “We make everything we can and sell all that we make,” Anne says. Their French Fromage Blanc, also a customer favorite, is a soft, unripened cheese available in hand-blended flavors including plain, herbed and garlic.
In 2000, the creamery moved to Black Star Farms at Suttons Bay, where it shares a tasting room with the winery in a happy marriage for eager palates. Stop by for a wine and cheese tasting and watch the master cheesemakers at work through huge windows. You can even stay at the Black Star Farms Bed & Breakfast Inn and saddle up your horse at the Stables.
Leelanau Cheeses are available at Whole Foods in Ann Arbor, Mich., or by phone at 231-271-2600.
NOTE: They don’t ship during the summer because they can’t guarantee freshness. Black Star Farms, 10844 E. Revold Rd., Suttons Bay, Mich. 231-944-1250; blackstarfarms.com
MOO-ville Quality Creamery Nashville, Mich.
You could say that MOO-ville Creamery is for the kids. “We wanted to do more, but we also wanted a way to give our six kids a place they could come back to and be involved… if they wanted,” explains Louisa of MOO-ville’s Westendorp family. So four years ago, they added the creamery to their working dairy farm. Part dairy Disneyland, part working farm, MOO-ville’s signature product is Cream Line Milk, a pasteurized but non-homogenized, hormone-free milk from the happy cows at the Westendorps’ Westvale-Vu Dairy. Cream Line tastes and looks like “old-fashioned” milk, down to the distinctive, literal cream line that used to be the mark of milk fresh from the cow. Homogenization is the process that mixes the milk to the point that the cream doesn’t rise to the top and diminishes the health benefits and taste of milk.
MOO-ville also makes that summer favorite – ice cream, which comes in more flavors than Baskin Robbins and is served up fresh and icy cold in MOO-ville’s café.
The family offers farm and creamery tours of the milking parlor and the new calves, and teaches eager listeners what the cows are fed, how milk is bottled and more. Dairy goodie bags come with some of the tours; fun is included in all. And for those dairy-lovers just passing through town, MOO-ville has a drive-thru window to grab milk on the go!
Cream Line Milk is carried at all L & L Stores in Lansing, Mich., and other small stores in the Nashville and Hastings, Mich., area. MOO-ville Creamery, 5875 M-66, Nashville, Mich. 517-852-9003; MOO-ville.com
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