If you guessed artisan cheeses, you’d be right! And you won’t find them anywhere other than in our stores because award-winning artisan cheesemakers Sue Conley and Peggy Smith of Cowgirl Creamery and Mary Keehn of Cypress Grove developed these two exclusive cheeses to celebrate Whole Foods Market’s Big 3-0. What a cool present!

Cowgirl Creamery’s Buckaroo (named by one of our team members through an internal contest) is a versatile washed-rind cow’s milk cheese minimally aged 60 days and made from organic milk from nearby Straus Family Creamery. Here’s a video where I’m actually helping make the cheese, along with our co-CEO Walter Robb.

Cowgirl Creamery created Buckaroo as a small production organic cheese in a great price range that you could either use in cooking or as a table cheese. Buckaroo is creamy with fruity and savory components and is perfect in a grilled cheese sandwich or over shaved vegetables like this Buckaroo Summer Squash.

Cypress Grove’s Lil’ Ziggy is inspired by ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats, which were pyramidal structures with flat tops designed to provide a holy structure between heaven and earth. A mixed mold, soft-ripened goat’s milk pyramid cheese, Lil’ Ziggy is created from a new proprietary blend of cultures. The cheese is bright and complex with overtones of fresh cream and pairs well with a dark wheat beer or Sauvignon Blanc. Lil’ Ziggy is classic and innovative at the same time. The purpose of the ziggurat is to bring the temple closer to the heavens, and that’s what Cypress Grove hope a a bite of this cheese will do.

We hope you’ll enjoy these 30th birthday presents. And keep an eye out in our stores for more great products from our vendors honoring our 30th.