Oh Andy Hatch, you have done it AGAIN, you talented son of a gun! We received our first shipment of his seasonal soft cheese, Rush Creek Reserve, in early November and our second for the year in early December, and that’s all there is folks. Brie, like cheese buyers around the country, reserved our Rush wheels in September. In fact, Andy’s entire stock of Rush Creek Reserve is sold before he even makes a wheel because it’s just that popular and the supply is just that small. Andy and his cheesemakers at Uplands Cheese in Wisconsin only use milk from their cows in the fall when the milk is nice and fatty, ensuring the luxurious texture in Rush Creek we all love. Each young wheel is wrapped in a strip of spruce bark to age because it helps the cheese maintain its structure and imparts woody, slightly spicy flavor that reminds me walking though the woods in winter and smelling someone’s faraway fire. Basically, it’s really freaking pleasant and I can’t have a Thanksgiving or Christmas without a wheel on my cheeseboard.

The other cheese we have from Uplands Cheese is Pleasant Ridge Reserve, a wonderful cheese available all year, and the wheel we have in the case right now has made us all swoooon. With Pleasant Ridge, Andy is emulating cheeses from the Alps like Gruyere and Beaufort, and while these influences are clear in the smooth paste and nutty undercurrent, he has also made something uniquely Wisconsin. The cheese reflects what the cows are eating on the misty rolling hills of his farm, rather than in mountain pastures. And as with many cheeses made by small producers, the flavors vary at least a little wheel to wheel. I don’t know what the cows were eating this summer, but this wheel tastes like toasted popcorn drizzled with butter! No, I’m serious it does! You must come taste, it is quite the gem of a wheel. As with all cheese, room temp is where it’s at, but even if you taste it right out of our refrigerated case, I think the popcorn flavor will jump out at you. Or maybe it won’t and you’ll taste something else equally delicious! It’s a Uplands holiday, people, and I’m getting pumped! 

For the love of cheese and rockin’ holiday wheels,

Kiri