At the start of the month, Dagny and I had the pleasure of driving to Wisconsin to visit some of our producers. We were able to see some farms, visit some cheese-making rooms, strengthen relationships, and see my cheese friends. As I have been telling people about my trip, I have been talking a lot lately about “Batch Selection”. It strikes me after my hundredth time explaining our recent trip to Wisconsin, that maybe it is time to slow down and explain: What is batch selection? Why does it matter?
Let’s begin with an understanding that the vast majority of the food we consume (whether at home or in restaurants) comes to us via a large regional distribution chain. Whether coming from a factory setting or a small idyllic farm, it goes from its origin to a large hub, where it unceremoniously gets picked off a shelf, put on a truck, and taken to your favorite restaurant or grocery store, then finally makes it to our meal. I am not here to judge this process. Even in the world of specialty retail, we rely on this complex food system chain to get many of the fabulous products that we get to celebrate at Mongers’ and The RIND.
On occasion, we have the ability and privilege to break the pattern, slow down, and have a more human interaction with one of our producers. That is what our trip to Wisconsin was about. First off, it was about thanking the people in the cheese-making room. Not just the maker but the people who are busy sanitizing equipment, brushing cheeses, and milking animals. Letting them know that their work is appreciated all the way in Metro Detroit. The added step of the batch selection gives us several opportunities. In the world of artisanal productions and natural products, each day has a different result. This is in contrast to a product such as a Dorito, where every day, regardless of “seasonal fluctuations”, it must taste the same. Beyond the normal fluctuations you might notice in any cheese, with Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Andy and his team are making a cheese from a herd of cows that are eating a fresh paddock of grass every day. Each paddock is slightly different in vegetation, elevation, drainage, etc., resulting in a slightly different cheese every day. It is a practice called rotational grazing and is a staple of regenerative agriculture. The result is that each day is an individual expression of the same idea, Pleasant Ridge Reserve.
For three years running, we were allowed to taste through a variety of production days to pick a batch to bring to you. There are only a handful of shops in the country that have the ability to do this. On my first visit to the farm, we tasted 16 days of production; the second year, Andy visited us and brought four potential batches. This year, Dagny and I tasted through nine batches. It is a fascinating experience to taste different cheeses, all meant to be the same product, and decide how you want to express the idea of this cheese to your customers. I always keep two main questions in my mind: What is it that we want to convey to the customers? And how will this batch change over time?
My highest aim is to present you with a taste of a place, or as the French call it, terroir. Even if I only have one day I can show you, I want something that tastes unmistakably like itself. It is a taste of this unique geology, the Driftless region, an area that was not ‘scraped clean’ by the glacial melt. Therefore, it is rich with minerality. The water they have in this area is also significant, with their limestone bedrock. It is ideal land for grass and grazing. This cheese is also a taste of this specific herd and a traditional style of cheese making. While there are many examples of European cheeses made in this style, there are virtually no other examples in the Wisconsin landscape and few in the rest of the country.
This year we have picked June 24th. It is a bold wheel! This wheel has a lot of the pineapple flavors that you see from older wheels of Pleasant Ridge. The texture is a bit granular, which will soften with time. From this point on until we finish our allotment of this batch, the Pleasant Ridge Reserve we have on the counter will be from this day’s production. If, like me, you taste this cheese once a week (on a slow week), you will get to see how its flavors develop over the next 365 days. I know for me it has always been the epitome of a “thinking cheese,” not a “snacking cheese.” This is not a cheese that you just eat while watching TV and giving it no mind. This is not to say you can not eat this cheese while watching TV, but it is a cheese that will demand some attention. It makes you pause and reflect on its bold flavor, asking questions like: how did Andy achieve such flavor? Or what sort of place results in such a flavor? Maybe if you are like me, it inspires you to visit and see for yourself.
I look forward to tasting this cheese alongside you at the counter for the next 12 months. Make sure to get a sample every time you come in over the next year. You can taste firsthand how the cheese will change, mature, and develop right along with us!