Something that’s true: when you launch a blog about cheese, including a hunk of cheese on a Tuesday night dinner menu becomes normal. My family frequently includes cheese with our meals, but I’m pleased to report that we’ve been figuring out how to take this to the next level now that we have a mandate, or maybe an excuse, to eat more high quality cheese. I am here for this shift.
As I menu plan, I’m regularly asking myself: how can I work more cheese into our meals? Do I have a new cheese for my family to try this week? Are we having anyone over for dinner? And the other week, on a normal weeknight, I loved being able to serve Woodsman cheese from our Glendale Shepherd visit, to round out our otherwise simple meal of escarole lentil soup.
Cheese name: Woodsman
Producer: Glendale Shepherd
Purchased from: Glendale Shepherd
As we enjoyed Woodsman, I quickly realized that it would have been a lovely third cheese in our tomme style cheese tasting the week before. It’s a sheep milk cheese, with a natural rind whose flavor evokes the farm where it was produced. The tasting notes we captured between bites were: nutty, tangy, musky, with a crumbly, almost chalky texture. It was perfect with crackers and the soup, which was sweet and slightly acidic, due to the tomato, carrot, and escarole.
On A Cheese Plate: Tasting Notes & Pairings
After dinner, I tried a few of the leftover pieces of Woodsman (there weren’t many!) with fresh apricot which brought a similar sweetness and tang to balance out the cheese. This is where I’d start if I were serving Woodsman on a cheese plate: I’d look for a seedy whole grain cracker and would be sure to include dried apricots or dried plums, which have the sweetness and tang that balance the Woodsman out so well.
Where to buy Woodsman
I purchased a piece of Woodsman when we visited Glendale Shepherd earlier this summer and found that it kept well for a few weeks in our refrigerator. You can read all about our visit and the history of the farm here. Glendale Shepherd sells at the Ballard Farmer’s market as well as other farmers’ markets throughout Seattle.