Healthy Living Loves Local: 3-Corner Field Farm, Shushan, NY

cheese13-Corner Field Farm is nestled in the Battenkill River Valley at the foothills of the Green Mountains on the border of New York and Vermont.

On 3-Corner Field Farm  Karen Weinberg and Paul Borghard use husbandry practices that allow their sheep & lamb to live in a natural environment eating just the types of grasses and legumes that nature intended. They believe there is an environmental advantage to living “light on the land”, and that it is more humane, as well. One significant result from this type of farming is that food produced in this manner is tastier and healthier.

Their respect for these old-fashioned practices extends to the cheese making room as well. Cheeses produced using traditional practices: using small batches of raw milk, hand cutting and stirring of curd, and aging in a ‘cave-like’ environment, produce some of the world’s most renowned cheeses. Many of these cheeses are made from sheep’s milk because it produces cheese whose texture and taste are incomparable.

Our Saratoga Cheese Department is pleased to be able to offer our guests the cheeses of 3-Corner Field Farm.

FrÃre Fumant – American Cheese Society Winner

A mellow paté with lightly smoky overtones defines this raw sheep’s milk cheese made in the style of “Idiazabal” – a raw sheep’s milk cheese from the Basque region between Spain and France. The name (which translates to “Smoking Brother”) is in honor of Brother David – the monk from the cloistered New Skete order who smokes the cheese.

Battenkill Brebis – American Cheese Society Winner

Every sheep dairy strives to put their signature on the traditional, tomme-style aged cheese for which sheep’s milk is best known. For Karen Weinberg, the tradition starts with raw milk from her grass-fed flock and includes a rind flecked with the natural bacteria from the stone wall of her 1840s “cave” . “Battenkill Brebis” is earthy and grassy when young, and develops a more complex pate’ as it ages.

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Brebis Blanche – American Cheese Society Winner

A fresh, cultured sheep’s milk cheese in several different forms for spreading or slicing. The cheese is tangy with a distinct, earthy character and the slight flavor of fresh grass. In comparison to cream cheese,  Brebis Blanche has half the fat (approx. 20% versus 40%) without sacrificing flavor or texture.

Shushan Snow

Karen’s version of camembert – a mold-ripened cheese from pasteurized milk with the hint of mushrooms. It has a dense inside that becomes gooey, then creamy, as it ages. Wonderful by itself, served with fruit, or in your favorite omelet or pasta recipe.

Please drop by our Cheese Department to support your local Farms and Cheesemakers.