by Austin Coe Butler
Now that both the American Cheese Society (ACS) Judging and Competition in Minneapolis and ACS Conference in Des Moines have passed, we know the winners of this year’s coveted ACS awards. To our delight, we carry many of these cheeses, so for the next month we’ll be promoting ACS award winning producers and the cheeses they make, celebrating one maker each week. First up, Blakesville Creamery in Port Washington, WI, who won big in the following categories:
Linedeline – 1st place – Soft Ripened Cheeses made from Goat’s Milk
Shabby Shoes – 1st place – Goat’s Milk Cheese aged 31 to 60 days
St. Germain – 1st place – Goat’s Milk Cheeses aged over 60 days
Sunny Ridge – 2nd place – Washed Rind Cheeses made from Goat’s Milk
Blakesville is led by head cheesemaker Veronica Pedraza alongside their dedicated team of cheesemakers and farmers. Veronica, who may have the best laugh of anyone in the cheese business, has an impressive career in cheese-making, working at Sweet Grass Dairy, Jasper Hill, and Meadowood Farm before leading Blakesville. There’s a playfulness in the cheeses reflected in the names—Shabby Shoes being a play on the French Chabichou; Linedeline, a sly reference to the beguiling pronunciation of Lynde Uihlein’s, Blakesville’s owner, first name (pronounced Line-DAH-line not Lin-DAH-line); and Holiday Cheer, a nod to the Wisconsin brandy Old Fashioned). Recently, Alisha Norris Jones, the mind behind of the inimitable Immortal Milk, creator of edible art installations, joined the Blakesville crew as Sales Manager, and the energy at Blakesville has never been more “chaotic good.”
Blakesville makes an impressive array of cheeses for a young creamery, including everything from fresh chèvre to aged blues, melty goatclette (goat raclette) to Basque-style tommes. Their catalogue only continues to grow, and last year they not only introduced two holiday releases, Holiday Cheer and Truffle Shuffle, but also our summer favorite, a Croatian inspired Grillin’ Cheese that we’ve washed in Dampfwerk’s Barrel Aged Gin. Only a few months ago, Veronica began receiving sheep’s milk from the folks at Ms. J & Co. and is already making two incredible new cheeses, Pecuri in vigne, a leaf-wrapped brebis soaked in Corsican muscat, and Llanes, a large bloomy-rinded sheep’s milk cheese. Veronica always has some experiment in the works (most recently it was an ill-starred goat’s milk torta style cheese) promising more delicious things to come. At the 2022 ACS Conference, Blakesville’s debut in the awards, they took home five!
Blakesville has something for every cheese lover, whether you like goat cheese or not! St. Germain and Linedeline promise to be gentle forays to the word of goat cheese, while for the bonafide capriphiles can exalt in the billy goat funk of Sunny Ridge and Shabby Shoes. Come into the shop this week to taste what makes these cheeses award winning!