Nettle Meadow Farm has supplied Honest Weight with a variety of delectable goat cheeses for years, but this year they are offering a new cheese in addition to the wonderful Kunik cheese, both of which are perfect for entertaining or even treating yourself! This new cheese, the Honey Lavender Fromage, is a soft chevre type cheese that is cultured with a dose of very strong, freshly brewed lavender tea added to the goat milk. After the whey is drained, honey is added to the solids, and the result is a delicately floral, absolutely addicting soft cheese that satisfies the most discerning of palates. It would be wonderful as a dessert cheese, but it pairs with other savory flavors as well, and is good just on a simple wafer. Their Kunik, an Honest Weight standard, is like a triple cream camembertstyle cheese. This is made with 25% locally produced Jersey cow cream and 75% goat’s milk. It is devastatingly rich and creamy on the inside, with clean goat cheese taste mixed with the traditional aged flavors that remind one of wine casks and mushrooms. Like the Honey Lavender, this cheese is appropriate to serve as an hors d’ouerve or on a dessert platter with fruits and nuts. The Kunik has been listed on Murray’s top 300 cheeses in the world and is being featured in the Williams & Sonoma catalogue this season!

Located in the tiny village of Thurman, Nettle Meadow Farm changed hands in 2005 when Sheila Flanagan and Lorraine Lambiasi bought it and began to expand its production. They have added a barn and rehabilitated another since coming to the farm, and now employ four fulltime workers as well as some part-timers with the goats and in the cheese room. Their herd has increased from 35 to 140 summer milkers, but they also milk goats all winter. They buy some goat milk from two other nearby farms who follow the same kind of farming practices of organic hay, pasture and supplements, and non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) grain. Goats are pastured in a circular pattern, changing their grazing location every two weeks or so as the pasture is consumed.

One way in which Nettle Meadow is drastically different from other dairy farms is that they do not practice culling; that is, they do not sell their animals to be butchered, but give away male kids to homes for pets for free, and to maintain a retirement herd of ladies. Sheila will tell you that although the quality of their hand-made cheese is a priority, the goats are even more important to them. She says that their motto is “Happy goats, great cheese,” and if you try either of these cheeses suggested for the holiday season, you will see that this is true. They welcome visitors every day from 10 to 4.

The Old Chatham Sheepherding Company’s camembert is also recommended for holiday serving. It is similar to a triple cream cheese, made with a blend of one-third sheep’s milk, one-third cow’s milk and one-third cow’s cream. The cow’s milk and cream come from farms near the sheep farm. This cheese is good as is, or in cooked form.

The Old Chatham Sheepherding Company is located on Shaker Museum Road in Old Chatham, on 600 acres owned by Nancy and Tom Clark. They have a herd of about 700 sheep, with about 300 milking at one time. The sheep graze on organic pastures and hay, and only receive grain when they are being milked. They are hormone free. You can learn more about their farm at www.blacksheepcheese.com.

Last, but not least, is the honey produced by bees at Partridge Run Farm in Berne. The farm is located on 100 acres next to Partridge Run Game Management Area, which is owned by the state. Their own farmland has not been cultivated since the 1950s, and is free of pesticide residues. The bees have been managed in a nonpesticidal way for the last two years. The beehives are kept in a carefully fenced area to prevent bears from destroying them.

Richard and Mary Ann Ronconi tend 22 hives in a magical way that offers us a taste of a particular time period during the summer or fall. Richard does this by harvesting frequently in small batches from each hive when it has enough honey to do so, and putting it into jars immediately. This practice captures the honey produced during a particular few weeks or month, which allows us to sample the nectars of the flowers that were in bloom at that time. Richard labels the honeys by the time period in which they were produced, and in some cases by the particular flower that predominates in the honey.

These different honeys have color and taste variations that are significant. One example of this is the beautiful red Japanese Knotwood honey. The hives were near a stand of Japanese Knotwood, which is an invasive species the Ronconis were not pleased to have growing. In the beehive, the red nectar from the white flowers of this bamboo- like plant distilled into an intensely flavored and colored honey which the Ronconis have come to appreciate. Mary Ann says that, generally speaking, the honey from spring is lighter in color than that harvested later in the season. The different nuances in flavor are harder to describe and are best sampled in person.

There are always good things to try at Honest Weight Food Co-op. These particular items were chosen by Gustav and Ken in our Cheese department as local specialties that will please anyone — for entertaining, gift giving or spoiling yourself. Even as vegetable fields and orchards close down for the season, we still have resources of fresh, healthful, delicious foods available. Enjoy the season with the milk and honey that flows all around us!