We sampled four goat cheeses from Blue Ledge Farm, in Salisbury, VT:
- La Luna (near right)
- Riley's Coat (near left)
- Lake's Edge (middle)
- Crottina (far)
All four were bought at the same time, at the Hunger Mountain Coop in Montpelier, VT. they were sampled in Plymouth, MA a week day after they were bought, accompanied by a medley of steamed root vegetables, a cheese souffle made with the Southwind Raclette in the photo, and two beers: Mayflower Harvest Wheat and Sam Adams Octoberfest.
We all liked the Crottina the best - it was the runaway hit of the evening. That's it in the photo here. The La Luna was a mild cheese with culinary promise, but it couldn't compete with the other three, more complex cheeses. Riley's Coat and Lake's Edge split the balloting for second place. I thought the Lake's Edge was a bit overripe and I really liked Riley's nutty complexity (come to think of it, I find that appealing in my friends as well!). Richmond is usually not a fan of the soft goat cheeses, but he really enjoyed both the Crottina and the Lake's Edge.
Fortunately for all concerned, both the Crottina and the Lake's Edge are not hard to find, sometimes even available at Whole Foods.
It may be worth noting that we tried three New Hampshire tommes on the same evening, and only the best of them could compete with the Vermont cheeses.
Blue Ledge Farm has a website at http://www.blueledgefarm.com/home.html
and you can follow their news on their Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blue-Ledge-Farm/131871510235004