Before our St Patrick's Day Feast we tried four cheeses from around the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York that we had acquired at Last Chance Cheese on our expedition into the Catskills.
We had:
- Red Hudson, a Pampered Cow cheese from Twin Maple Farm - (upper left) This was a good semisoft washed-rind cheese, but we have have an Epoisses at least once a month and we've become so spoiled by some of the eastern Vermont washed-rind red cheeses that this could not enter that crowded field.
- Stella Vallis Tomme - (lower left) Richmond and Annette both liked this best. It had a complex flavor that continued to unfold in the mouth, but I thought it a bit rich and unbalanced. I think it would have been more copacetic with a big red wine than tonight's Irish-theme cider and porter.
- Harpersfield Farmstead Cheese - (upper right) Lorna and I liked this quite a lot, and Richmond gave it a strong second-place. It had a good tang that made me think of putting it in a lobster-mac-and-cheese. It had enough complexity to be a pleasant nibbling cheese, too. I would set it out down at the Old Colony Club.
- Cooperstown Cheese Company Toma Celena - (lower right) This was my choice for Best of Show. It is an Italian style with a warm nutty flavor that was great with the cider. I would buy this again.
- The oddball on the middle right is a leftover bit of a forgettable Irish cheddar that Lorna and I had nibbled on in the car and set out for St Patrick's day.
The first three were bought at the natural foods store in Rhinebeck, NY. The last was bought at Last Chance Cheese in Tannersville, NY.
They were sampled in Plymouth, MA the day after they were bought, with some help from Slumbrew Porter Square Porter and the last of the 2011 homebrewed cider.
Unlike the discovery of the Nezinscot Farm cheeses, this was not intended to compare and contrast the offerings from a single maker, but rather to show us "what's happening now" in the artisan cheese scene in upstate New York.
I am happy to report that small farms are producing good cheese. Some of it was very good indeed, as good as what we have seen in Maine and most of Connecticut, even if none quite reached the heights routinely seen in neighboring Vermont.