A Cheese Lover’s Guide to Hudson Valley

Miracle springs Fault Line photo credit Jaimie Cloud

With acres of rolling hills and wide-open pastures for cows and goats to roam, New York State’s Hudson Valley offers a welcoming environment for artisan cheesemakers. Aided by a statewide history of dairying and boosted by a persistent interest in locally crafted foods, the region has been turning out notable and award-winning cheeses for over the past twenty years. Coach Farm and Old Chatham Creamery may be the most well-known in the region, but there are other makers producing all manner of small-batch cheeses—

Including fresh, aged, tomme, and triple crème. Best of all, they are mouthwatering, singular cheeses made with thought, care, and skill, each reflecting the area’s terroir.

Chaseholm Creamery, Pine Plains, New York

Since 2007, says Rory Chase, he and sister Sarah have aimed to “make the most delicious cheese we can that is unique and with a real identity that's rooted in the place that we are.” To keep the family’s dairy farm alive and continue the agricultural lifestyle they love on a smaller, more human scale, they produce a wide array of cow’s milk cheeses from their herd of Holsteins, Jerseys, and Brown Swiss. Grain-free pasture management and certified organic farmland contribute to the milk’s high protein to fat ratio.

Fresh and aged cheeses, including a tomme and an award-winning chaource-style usually made with goat’s milk, are made by hand. “Nimbus, their triple crème, is super dense, salty and utterly addicting,” says Ivy Ronquillo, owner of Second Mouse Cheese in Pleasantville, New York.

Churchtown Dairy, Hudson, New York

Churchtown photo credit Caitlin Greene, A Country Road Photography

The regenerative practices of this 250-acre biodynamic farm sporting a herd of 28 Brown Swiss, Jersey, and Guernsey cows and their calves form the backdrop of the cheesemaking here. “Good milk,” says cheesemaker Matt Speigler, “with thoughtful care from the cheesemakers and a carefully considered use of cultures, will result in a cheese that best expresses the cows, the land, and the grasses of the pastures, and the farmers who care for them, the terroir."

“The cheeses are very good,” says Anne Saxelby of Saxelby’s Cheesemongers, “led by a talented young cheesemaker.” The Wendell, named after environmental activist Wendell Berry whose ideas underpin the farm’s philosophy, is a semi-firm, slightly funky tomme. The Peggy, a mild, cave-aged camembert-style cheese won a silver medal at the 2108 New York State Fair. The dairy is a beautiful white structure built on land owned by Abby Rockefeller which was originally purchased by her mother, Peggy, to prevent development.

St Stephen cheese photo credit Four Fat Fow

Four Fat Fowl, Stephentown, New York

“Cheese worth clucking about” is an apt tag line for this artisan creamery in business since 2013. Run by Josie Madison and her brother and sister-in-law, Willy and Sheena Bridgham, Madison says the trio only makes cheese they’d want to eat. They source locally “because if you find a high-quality milk source and keep that period of time as short as possible,” she explains, “you’re maximizing the quality you can get out of that milk and, thus, the cheese you make with it.”

Ronquillo says she’s in love with all of their cheeses for their “modest, hippy-ish presentation that masks exceptionally decadent cow milk cheeses.” In 2018, the company renovated its small town’s elementary school into a state-of-the-art cheesemaking facility. Best known for its rich, buttery, and nutty award-winning triple crème, St. Stephen, Four Fat Fowl also makes camembert and ricotta made with the whey of St. Stephen and ladled by hand.

McGrath Cheese Company, Hudson, New York

McGrath photo credit Colin McGrath & Melissa Boscarino

Colin McGrath has made cheese in the Hudson Valley for 17 years, first at the now sadly defunct Sprout Creek Farm, where he earned numerous awards before going out on his own in 2016. Drawn to the complexity of fermentation while attending the Culinary Institute of America, McGrath says he loves the challenge of “the endless variables of the milk side and production side.” He rents creamery and cave space from Churchtown Dairy to produce nine handcrafted cheeses from high-quality local cow’s milk. Rascal is a semi-firm, nutty cheese; Hootenanny is aged and beer washed; Bambino is soft and stinky.

McGrath’s cheeses are a staple of local farmers’ markets and farm stores. “Their cheeses are great,” says Megan Ercole, Cheese and Coffee Manager at Poughkeepsie’s Adams Fairacre Farms, “but they don't go out of their way to get press on them.”

Miracle Springs Signal Rock photo credit Jaimie Cloud

Miracle Springs, Ancram, New York

“Truly sustainable farming practices make these cheeses a little hard to find and a bit more expensive, but they're worth the extra effort and money,” comments Ronquillo. She says the minerally, bright Signal Rock gives the American classic Humboldt Fog a run for its money.

Miracle Springs is undergoing a transition as it recently partnered with Westmeadow Farm in Canajoharie, New York, selling its brand and herd of 150 Alpine goats to Westmeadow to make its cheeses. “It's a heck of a business to try to make a living, especially with goats,” says Miracle Springs owner Jaimie Cloud, who will consult and help grow the business. Both farms use many of the same sustainable farming practices.

Rory Chaseholm of Chaseholm Creamery developed recipes for Miracle Springs and had been making and aging their cheeses since the farm opened seven years ago. To ensure consistency and continuity of taste, he is training Westmeadow’s cheesemaker and the goats will eat the same hay. Now there will be room in the cave to produce Miracle Springs’ blue cheese in addition to its seven other cheeses. Membership in the cheese club and shares in local CSAs are unchanged.

Tonjes cheeses photo courtesy of Pennings Farm Market

Tonjes Farm Dairy, Callicoon, New York

Making cheeses from the milk of their Holsteins “sets this small, family-run dairy apart,” says Saxelby, who also cites the Tonjes family’s hand-stretched mozzarella and wide range of products, like cream line milk. The cows have been raised naturally in pastures, grass-fed and hormone-free, since the 1940s. Looking for an added revenue stream, in 2003 the family ventured into cheese production via a local government-sponsored mobile cheese-making facility. It proved successful, and a creamery and cave were built on-site in 2006. Their Fromage blanc, mozzarella, and ricotta are made fresh each week. Those and aged raw milk offerings including a double Gloucester-style are only available at local farmer's markets and retail stores including Pennings Farm Market, pick up only.