Blue cheese lovers take note! This week’s cheese pick, Highland Blue, by Back Forty Artisan Cheese hails from Lanark County. A true artisan farmstead blue cheese for the blue cheese lover, this regional favourite and award winner at the Royal Ontario Winter Fair is named after our local Lanark Highlands. Highland Blue’s popularity puts it in high demand – get yours before it’s gone for the season.
This tall, regal, rustic, semi-soft unpasteurized sheep’s milk blue cheese has a dense, antique ivory to golden paste with prominent vertical teal-blue colored veining throughout, and a mottled natural rind. You’ll notice a distinct sharpness, salty richness and earthy flavour with a bit of a kick in the piquant finish. Traditionally, this cheese pairs perfectly with a glass of Icewine, Late Harvest Vidal, or traditional Port. For a different twist, try an Apple Ice Wine from Quebec, with dried apricots as garnish to bring out a bit of extra flavour pop.
FACTBOX:
Cheese: Highland Blue
Producer: Back Forty Artisan Cheese
Interesting Fact: Blue cheeses turn blue from the addition of bacterial culture Penicillium roqueforti to the milk during cheesemaking, then exposed to air when the cheese is pierced with needles.