1. Bloomsdale with Rosé Rhubarb (p. 112)
2. Carré du Berry with Rosemary Rhubarb Jelly (p. 113)
3. Barbablu with Pink-Pepper Pickled Rhubarb (p. 114)
The seasonality of the produce we use in our accompaniments and the seasonality of cheese are two different subjects. Let’s start with accompaniments.
Living in North America in the twenty-first century, many of us have lost touch with the seasonality of our food. We can go to the local grocery store and get peaches, tomatoes, and corn all year round. But the reality is that fruits and vegetables grow only when they are in season. That means sometimes what we eat has been shipped from far away, wherever in the world it’s the right season for what we’re buying.
Many of the recipes in this book are throwbacks to the days when we couldn’t get whatever we wanted at the grocery store. Pickling, and making jams, chutneys, and mostardas are ways of preserving food, which our ancestors had to do in order to survive the winter. When the apricots, asparagus, berries, peaches, figs, and so on were ripe, people would can like mad so none went to waste.
The reason we eat locally grown food today isn’t just for fun. Local produce from small farms is generally better tasting and more nutritious than produce from factory farms that has traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to get to your plate. Small farms are likely growing beautiful and delicious fruits and vegetables of heirloom varieties, not those that have been bred to ripen on a truck, look bright and pretty on the shelf, and taste like cardboard. If you buy fresh, local produce and preserve it, you can enjoy better food throughout the year.
Cheese can be affected by the seasons in different ways. First of all, we have to remember that cheese comes from milk, and milk comes from dairy animals. The flavors of the milk, and therefore of the cheese, are affected by what the animals eat. As a general rule in this book we talk about high-quality cheeses made from milk that comes from smaller farms where the animals are treated well. That means in the spring and summer, they are out in the pasture grazing on grasses, herbs, and flowers. The flora is determined by season and weather, but also by region (page 126). It’s all intertwined.
Come fall, the animals are moved inside to live on grain, hay, or silage for the winter. The change in diet also changes the flavors of the milk, as well as other properties like fat content. A cheese made from winter milk is going to be different from one made from spring or summer milk. In some cases the differences are subtle, and maybe only professionals will be able to notice them. But in some cases the different seasons result in entirely different cheeses.
In this book we discuss several such cheeses. Winnimere (page 67), from Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont, is an homage to Vacherin Mont d’Or from the Jura Mountains of France. Following the same tradition, it is made only in winter when the cows are living on hay. They use the milk from spring and summer for other cheeses. Rogue River Blue (page 139), from Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Oregon, is made from spring and summer milk and is available only in the fall. (It usually sells out by early winter.)
In other cases, cheese makers choose to make certain cheeses only at certain times of the year. Some change their recipes to compensate for seasonal changes in the milk. Vermont Shepherd makes Verano from sheep’s milk in the summer and Invierno from a blend of cow’s and sheep’s milks in the winter.
These cheeses take us back, in a way, to an era before international shipping made local seasons less of an issue on the plate. Like the summer fruits of our grandparents’ childhoods, they are delicious foods that we get to enjoy for only a short time.
We believe that you should eat as much of a thing as you can while it is in season, even to the point of getting tired of it, then go without until it comes around again. In fact, we eat so much fresh local rhubarb, so many heirloom tomatoes, and so much Rogue River Blue when they are in season that by the time they are out of season we are almost relieved. Then, the next year, we start craving them again as the season draws near.