Name: Sagging Fence goat tomme
From: Port Orchard, Washington State
Made By:  Sagging Fence Farm
Milk: Raw goat’s milk
Curdling type: rennet
Size/ weigh: Round tomme about 4# in weight
Rind: Natural rind that is washed weekly during aging
Interior: semi firm, very pale ivory color
Aged: 3-5 months (maybe longer due to recent closures!)

This goat’s milk cheese is made by Bob and Juli Fisher on their farm near Port Orchard on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where they also pasture raise Aracana chickens for eggs. Although they have made cheeses together for years, Sagging Fence Farm (Juli says the name comes from the farm’s wire fences when hungry goats climb on them trying to get better stuff on the other side) came into being in 2014 as a retirement “job”.

Their goat milk tomme is made from the milk of their herd of 24 Nubian goats, although only 6-8 of these are producing milk at any one time. Each 4# wheel takes 4-5 gallons of milk to make, so the total production is only 4-5 cheeses per week. It is a firm, finely textured cheese with a rich, full flavor that reminds me of the cheeses of the French Basque Countries, where sheep milk predominates but goat’s milk versions also exist. Weekly washing of the rind (“to prevent unwanted growth” during aging, says Juli) adds to complexity and full-flavor to the fresh lactic flavor of the interior.

It is a rare treat to be able to sample a raw milk cheese of this quality made by dedicated artisans right in our own back yard. Although Le Pichet and Cafe Presse are both still closed due to the Governor’s mandate, each restaurant has one of these goat tommes quietly aging in our cheese caves. We can’t wait to see how good it will taste when we reopen! In the meantime, you can generally find Sagging Fence cheese at Quality Cheese in the Pike Place Market.

Now on the cheese board at Café Presse, this goat’s milk tomme from the French Basque region is perfectly ripe and ready to sample. The Basques are famous for their sheep milk cheeses, but a small amount of goat’s milk cheese is also made. These large tommes, which weight about 9#, take their name from the word “cabri” = “kid” or “young goat”. Aged for about 8 months, with a natural rind, the taste is slightly sweet/salty with flavors of hazelnuts and caramel. Miam Miam

There’s a new fromagerie in Orthez (officially in Argagnon but that is only about 4 minutes from Orthez). This is big news because 1) well things can move pretty slow in Orthez and it is therefore not that often that we arrive to find something totally new and unexpected has opened up and 2) goat cheese is not really the cheese of choice in SW France. With all due respect to Rocamadour and Cabécous from the Midi-Pyrenees, this is the Atlantic end and in the Béarn and Basque countries, the its all about sheep milk tomes, with Ossau Iraty being the reigning king.

The farm Les Chevres de Brassenx is a modest operation, with only about 60 animals and sales only at 3 local farmer’s markets and direct at the farm 3 days a week. When we stopped by, cheese making had just restarted after the winter period when the goat’s stop producing milk, which means limited supply and mostly young cheeses available. But for all that, the cheeses are beautifully made and redolent of fresh, raw milk…no surprise given that the owners (career changers like myself) learned their new craft working in the Poitou-Charente, the most prolific region in France for goat’s milk cheeses.

The other benefit of a spring visit is that the farm is literally awash in baby goats! Not to mention a border collie very insistent on playing fetch, 2 barn cats who seem a bit starved for attention and Monsieur the cheese maker who was more that happy to stop what he was doing to explain the functioning of the farm and cheese making laboratoire (and to introduce the animals).

The only thing we missed was meeting the troupeau, the herd of milking females, a mix of Alpine and Saanen goats. They apparently spend the majority of these spring days munching the flower and herb filled grasses of the farm’s pastures. Looking out across the prairie toward the Pyrenees, who can blame them?

From: Charente-Poitou, south of the Loire valley on  the Atlantic coast of France.
Made By:  Cooperative Sevre-et-Belle
Milk: Another example of a cheese made with raw milk in France but with pasteurized milk for export, as the US does not allow the importation of raw milk cheeses aged less than 60 days (and even those aged 60 days are coming under greater scrutiny…dommage)
Curdling type: rennet and bacteria
Size/ weigh: Chevrot – 3″ dia drum shape about 6-8 oz.   Mini Chevrot – 2″ drum about 3 oz
Rind: Natural rind with white and ivory molds, usually a bit wrinkled.
Aging: 20 to 60 days. Available in various stages of ripeness. The Mini-Chevrot was created to offer a cheese which ages faster than the larger Chevrot.

Historical notes: Despite the reputation of neighboring Loire valley, the Charente-Poitou is the largest goat cheese producing region in France, accounting for nearly 2/3 of the nation’s goat cheese. Popular mythology attributes the origins of the goat’s popularity in this region to the Moors, who brought goats with them when they invaded France in the 8^th Century. The invasion was defeated south of the Loire river by Charles Martell, and the retreating Moors are said to have left their goats behind in what is today the Charente-Poitou.

The Cooperative Sevre-et-Belle is a cooperative of independent farmers that was created in the early 1900’s.  The Chevrot is a non-AOC cheese made only by this cooperative. This cheese won the Médaille d’Or at the Concours Générale de Paris in 2009.

Tasting Notes:  With its wrinkled rind, the Chevrot appears to be a long-aged cheese, but in fact it is generally only aged 20-40 days.  Because of this, its flavor is mild and lactic, but with a bit of tangy acidity common to many goat cheeses and a mild goaty funk from the white mold rind..  When young, it tastes of fresh milk and hay with a mild tang. As it ages, it becomes more concentrated, denser and lingers longer in the mouth. When very well aged, it can have a very sharp acidic bite  but achieves an almost silky, dense mouth feel.

Wine to go with:  The classic wine pairing for goat cheeses from the Loire and Poitou regions is a bright, flinty sauvignon blanc from Sancerre in the Loire valley.  However, I think that the richness of chenin blanc compliments  a Chevrot on the older side especially well.   A dry chenin like the Domaine Pierre Chauvin “L’Argonette” Anjou blanc would be great with this cheese.  This wine is also from the nearby Loire valley and is currently on the wine list at Cafe Presse.

Where to find it now:  Cafe Presse