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Ever Wonder About the Cheese We Sell?

We go to great lengths to provide the best cheese selection and service around. While this is noteworthy in and of itself, what makes our Cheese Department so special is that we really put our hearts and minds into everything we do. To put it simply, we care! We care about the community in which we live, the farmers we support, the guests who shop here, and every single block, wedge, slice, sample, and package of cheese we prepare by hand.

To provide the absolute best selection, we’re always paying attention to what’s going on in the cheese world and we have fantastic connections with our amazing small, local cheesemakers. In addition to working with small, local distributors who ensure we’re carrying all of the best that this region has to offer, we actually get orders delivered from some of the cheesemakers themselves! (We’re particularly delighted when that happens.) Getting these top-of-the-line cheeses directly from the cheesemakers means we’re getting the best and freshest products available from people we trust. We can count on them to create gorgeous handmade cheeses using processes we know and understand, ingredients that are easily recognizable and natural, and then get them to us directly with no middle man and no long transit times!

Who are some of these amazing local producers? Here’s just a couple…

Argyle Cheese Farm is a 150-yr old dairy farm which uses only their own hormone-free milk to make delicious cheeses and award-winning yogurts. Located a mere 15 minutes from here (can you get any closer?!), you actually can’t find any of their cheeses anywhere else nearby and you certainly won’t be able to get them in any big chain grocery stores. They are truly a local legend and heads up: we will be the first to receive their aged cheeses as soon as they come out of their aging cellars again! To find out more about this amazing cheesemaker, check out their website at http://cheesefarmer.com.

Three Village Cheese Co. from Poland, NY (just 90 miles away!) is a family of artisan cheesemakers who source all of their milk from local farms. Only tiny stores (like us) and restaurants have the honor of carrying their vast array of cheeses inspired by the family’s Polish ancestry. We always look forward to getting their deliveries of flavored havartis, feta, farmer’s cheese, nokkelost, and more while also getting to check in with the cheesemakers themselves. Want to learn more about them? Take a look at their website http://www.threevillagecheese.com/ to see why we think they’re amazing!

So when you stop by our Cheese Department, you can trust that you’re in good hands because of the trust we have in our local cheesemakers. There’s nothing that can beat the quality and freshness of the local products we carry and having such close relationships with the cheesemakers themselves is a rare and very special thing indeed.