In my other life I may have been a mouse, because in my household there is one never-to-be-given-up food, and that’s cheese. Thus, when casually delving into a platter at a recent event, I was knocked out by tastes and textures that were totally amazing and unfamiliar to me. It turned out they came from Saxelby Cheesemongers whose only focus is America’s farmstead cheeses.
Similar to a winemaker’s persnicketiness, Saxelby’s pays special attention to the “terroir” of the cheese — it “should taste like the place it comes from.” This means that hints of the flowers, herbs and grasses on which the cows, goats and sheep feed determine the taste of the cheese, making for some beautifully dense flavors.Try some state-made Mecox Cheddar produced from raw cows’ milk on a farm in Bridgehampton for a “sublime, grassy finish.” Or, pick up one of their other cheeses from where founder Anne Saxelby once worked, like the powerfully gamey Fil-A-Buster from Westfield, Vermont, whose essence falls “somewhere in between butter, wet bark and pine needles scattered on a forest floor. Bound in birch bark to keep it from running all over the place… and it just barely does the job.”Added bonus! On top of the incredible tastes, you’ll also be helping to support small-scale, local farmers. Saxelby’s only does business with farms that have an average of 40 cows.
Check out their store located on the lower east side at the Essex Street Market (Delancey stop off F Train) in New York, or visit and order from them right here at their website, saxelbycheese.com. They ship.
