{"id":1847,"date":"2024-04-20T04:24:56","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T04:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/why-are-cheeses-and-milk-seasonal-and-does-it-matter\/"},"modified":"2024-04-20T04:24:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T04:24:56","slug":"why-are-cheeses-and-milk-seasonal-and-does-it-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/why-are-cheeses-and-milk-seasonal-and-does-it-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Cheeses and Milk Seasonal and Does it Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For those of us who grew up eating bananas, strawberries, and yellow cheddar throughout the year, the concept of seasonality in food isn\u2019t as intuitive as it would have been to our grandparents or great grandparents. \u201cWe\u2019ve become a culture where people expect to see strawberries in the store year-round,\u201d says Kat Feete, Cheesemaker at Meadow Creek Dairy<\/a> in Galax, Virginia. The idea of only having access to food at certain times of the year is foreign in an industrialized food system.<\/p>\n

But, even those who aren\u2019t making what we think of as seasonal cheese must reckon with seasonality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s All About the Milk<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\"Cows

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Cows at Uplands photo credit Christine Clark<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grass-fed dairy is in high demand these days. In fact, grass-fed dairy is \u201cthe most rapidly growing sector of the organic milk market,\u201d University of Vermont agronomist Heather Darby told\u00a0Country Folks<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>in 2019. Cheesemongers love cheese made with grass-fed milk for its complexity and buttercup-yellow tinge. In most climates, grass is not a year-round reality.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the issue of milk supply. An animal\u2019s lactation cycle can last anywhere from 90-300+ days, depending on the animal and the breed. Even if a producer has year-round access to the same kind of feed for their animals (usually some combination of hay, silage, and\/or a grain ration), if they want their cheese to be available throughout the year, they need to stagger the breeding and lactation cycles of their animals.\u00a0These cheeses may only be available for part of the year or depending on how long they\u2019re aged, they may be available year-round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Cows

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Cows in L’Etivaz by James Stringer<\/a> is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vacherin Mont D\u2019Or, for instance, is only available for a few months of the year, whereas L\u2019Etivaz can be found year-round at different ages. Both are seasonal cheeses. The prime season for various pasture-based cheeses depends on the climate in which the cows live. Sweet Grass Dairy<\/a> in Georgia, for instance, has access to fresh pasture for a higher percentage of the year than Uplands Cheese<\/a> in Wisconsin does.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On top of that, there\u2019s the issue of milk composition. Cheese is the preserved fat and protein from milk, meaning that milk with higher fat and protein content is better for cheesemaking. Throughout an animal\u2019s lactation cycle, the fat and protein content can vary drastically. More industrial producers work around that by adding and subtracting fat and protein to milk. This could be as simple as adding in protein powder or much more complicated. Many seasonal cheesemakers choose to only offer one or two cheeses throughout the year, adjusting the recipe as they go to account for the difference in the milk.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Consistency Versus Complexity<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\"Pleasant Ridge Reserve Cheese\" by artizone is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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“Pleasant Ridge Reserve Cheese”<\/a> by artizone<\/a> is licensed underCC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andy Hatch, co-owner and cheesemaker at Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville, Wisconsin makes two cheeses: Pleasant Ridge Reserve<\/a> in the summer and Rush Creek Reserve<\/a> in the fall. He looks for a balance between consistency and complexity. \u201cI\u2019ve never thought that we wanted to celebrate variability for variability\u2019s sake,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re after complexity and taste of place, and I think variability is just something that comes along with it, to some extent.\u201d One of the ways that cheesemakers, whether seasonal or not, can improve their consistency is pasteurization, but Hatch finds that it also diminishes complexity.<\/p>\n

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\"Rush Creek Reserve\" by spersper is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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“Rush Creek Reserve”<\/a> by spersper<\/a> is licensed under CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meadow Creek, who also makes cheese seasonally, also embraces seasonal change. In the spring, there\u2019s a lot of milk, but it\u2019s lower in fat and protein. Those cheeses taste a little grassier. Fall cheeses tend to be fudgier and richer.\u00a0Because they make several different styles of cheese, they have cheese to sell year-round, but their flagship Grayson<\/a> is only available about 9 months out of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are Seasonal Cheeses Better?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Seasonal cheeses, whether they be Grayson, Pleasant Ridge, or the Swiss L\u2019Etivaz, have a mystique to them. Having something only be available for part of the year makes it more exciting when it\u2019s around.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Grayson Cheese\" by artizone is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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“Grayson Cheese”<\/a> by artizone<\/a> is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But, those aren\u2019t the only benefits.\u00a0Uplands and Meadow Creek has their cows all on the same calving cycle, meaning the cows all take a break from milking at the same time.\u00a0\u201cFarming can be pretty soul-draining when it\u2019s 365 days a year,\u201d says Feete \u201cHaving those 2-3 months off\u00a0\u00a0[from milking cows and making cheese]\u00a0in the fall is great for us.\u201d They find it easier to hire staff and to maintain the farm.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a system that we\u2019re committed to for a lot of reasons,\u201d she continues. \u201cThis is the way that the grass works, so this is the way that we work. You can\u2019t have it all.\u201d Adds Hatch, \u201cSeasonal food, whether it\u2019s asparagus or strawberries or grass-fed cheese, draws us back to the realization that we depend on soil and weather to survive.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of us who grew up eating bananas, strawberries, and yellow cheddar throughout the year, the concept of seasonality in food isn\u2019t as intuitive as it would have been to our grandparents or great grandparents. \u201cWe\u2019ve become a culture where people expect to see strawberries in the store year-round,\u201d says Kat Feete, Cheesemaker at … Okumaya devam et “Why Are Cheeses and Milk Seasonal and Does it Matter?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}