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.

Ain’t no cure for the Summertime Blues! Or maybe there is a cure. What about the many blue cheeses available that will make your picnickers do a happy dance? Think sliced blue cheese on burgers — there are some great ones from Wisconsin that are sure to please. From creamy (Buttermilk Blue) to piquant (Salemville Blue), there are a variety of styles and products available to jazz up your summer grilling. Let’s not forget the salad blues, crumbly and delicious — so flavorful you don’t even need a dressing to tie the ingredients together. I even like macaroni and cheese made with creamy Gorgonzola crumbles or a cold elbow macaroni salad with blue. Mmmm…I am hungry now.

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One of my long-time favorite comfort foods is a grilled cheese sandwich. As a child, I loved a New York Cheddar grilled sandwich served with tomato soup. My mother’s recipe was simple — white bread and a couple of slices of a mild New York Cheddar. After all, my mother was from New York and was raised on cheese from the state. If it was a good day, there would be a tasty kosher sour pickle cut in spears to accompany the soup and sandwich medley and from time to time a saltine cracker. Life does not get any better than that…I thought.

Now there are entire books written on the art of the artisan grilled cheese sandwich. I respect and appreciate that there is recognition of the unique attributes cheese can bring to the meal. The sandwich is at the heart of many families’ tables and now there is the “art of the grilled cheese,” maybe even the “Zen of cheese sandwich grilling.” It is an art, not to burn the exterior but yet getting the cheese to melt properly. My mother used to slice the cheese; I do this sometimes but other times I shred cheese off of a piece, and often mix and match cheeses to create a taste sensation. Do you like your cheese crispy as it oozes to the outside of the bread; people are picky about their fries but what about their grilled cheese? What are the right accoutrements? Does butter play a role? Mayonnaise, aioli or mustard? Does the cheese do a “Hans Solo” or are there additional tasty treats on the sandwich? I think these are fundamental questions associated with grilled cheese.

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The People Who Stare at Goat Cheese would be a great title for a movie. Of course, it would star George Clooney and the superstars of the Goat revolution! Who are the superstars and what is the revolution, you might ask. Well, it is the age of Capricorn and the stars of the revolution would be the key cheesemakers of this generation. From California to Vermont the movement surrounding the popularity of cheese produced from goat’s milk has slowly continued to gain support.

Key producers of goat cheeses in the United States include Mary Keehn, Judy Schad, Allison Hooper and let’s not forget Laura Chenel and Jennifer Bice. Many of the producers began by showing goats in competition. Yes, this is an underground scene, secretive with a unique language all its own. If you have ever seen a goat, petted a goat, owned a goat, you know what I mean. The eyes of goats are hypnotic and once you look into them you become possessed.

Possessed with an inquisitive nature, an agile and sure-footed gait and a love for goat’s milk cheese. Soon all cream cheese disappears from your diet, replaced by fresh chevre. On bagels, in soup, on salad, in a wrap, wrapped in bacon, infused with chocolate, the list goes on and on. There is no turning back and the sky is the limit. It is no wonder that goats lived in the White House during the tenure of Abraham Lincoln. Let’s take time to learn a bit about goats.

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With a documented history dating back almost 1,000 years, only cheese made in one area of Northern Italy – the rolling hills and green pastures that comprise Reggio Emilia, Parma, Modena and portions of Bologna and Mantua – can bear the Parmigiano Reggiano name. There the cheese is handcrafted in small batches to meet the high quality standards of Italy’s Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano, who have been preserving the tradition and integrity of the cheese for centuries. Read the rest of this entry »

Updated 02/22/10- Our contest may be over, but there is always time to enjoy some Parmigiano Reggiano. Try the six winning recipes or pick from the thousand-plus contest entries in the comments below.

Parmigiano Reggiano is truly one of the incomparable cheeses of the world. We take extraordinary measures to work with a small group of artisan producers in Italy to hand-select the very best Parmigiano Reggiano. Our chosen wheels are carefully aged for 24 months to bring out the best of Parmigiano Reggiano’s nutty and sweet flavors and creamy and crystalline textures.

And now we want to know what you’ll prepare with this fabulous cheese when you get it home!

As part of our month long celebration of this fabulous cheese, we are holding an online recipe contest to find and share fresh and innovative ways to enjoy real Parmigiano Reggiano every day. Post your best, original recipe in the comment section below for a chance to win a $500 Whole Foods Market shopping spree, a gift basket chock-full of Parm and goodies to pair, and an authentic cheese knife set from Italy. Five runner-ups receive prizes too.

Comments must be submitted to this blog post between February 3 and February 10, 2010.

You may enter more than one recipe in the comments (but you can’t win more than one prize) — just make sure they are your original concoctions!

A panel of Whole Foods Market Team Member judges will select six finalists. Those finalists’ recipes will be prepared and served to a celebrity taste panel at our Austin headquarters in the middle of February to determine the Grand Prize Winner. The recipes will be judged based on flavor profile, culinary appeal and the innovative use of Parmigiano Reggiano. See all Contest Rules.

The finalists’ recipes will be spotlighted in this blog later in February so we can all give them a try!

We’ll share more tasty information about Parmigiano Reggiano and our in-store events throughout February, so check back. But for now, hit the kitchen and get creative! I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Just enter your recipe in the comment section below.

Whole Foods Market’s selects our cheese producers not only for the quality of the product they offer, but because of how they run their businesses. In this video, Mary Keehn, Founder of Cypress Grove Chevre shares information on the history and production secrets behind some of her award-winning goat cheeses.

Rogue Creamery is known for it’s award-winning artisan cheeses such as “Rogue River Blue” that won “Best In Show” at the American Cheese Society’s annual competition in 2009. Learn about the unusual path that co-owners Cary Bryant and David Gremmels traveled to become master cheesemakers.

One of the things I love most about the holidays is celebrating with a variety of foods – and having lots of leftovers when everyone else goes home! And, as you may have guessed, leftover cheese is my favorite. I even plan the type and quantity of cheeses I buy for a gathering to make sure I’ll have exactly what I want for dishes the next day. Here are some of the ways I like to use up those various bits of cheese.

Cranberry Cheddar

Definitely a seasonal favorite. Produced using milk from cows not treated with growth hormones, this cheese is creamy and has nice flavor characteristics. It comes from the Hennings family in Wisconsin. If you have leftovers, you can’t beat it on a grilled turkey sandwich. Just place the cheese on top of slices of turkey and grill. I like it much better than using cranberry sauce because it doesn’t ooze out. The cranberries are contained in the melted cheese and provide that lovely fruit flavor that goes perfectly with turkey leftovers. Read the rest of this entry »

My father’s all time favorite meal was soup. He loved it at lunch and dinner. He had no real favorite – the one he was eating was the one he loved best. Preparing soups makes me think of him and the wonderful memories of the smells of soup permeating the house. Soup can be a simple or complex meal to produce but once it is made, I have a special way of making the recipe your very own: cheese!

There are so many great soups out there – and a lot of excellent soup recipes on our site. Here are a few classic winter soups along with suggestions for my favorite value added ingredient, cheese.

Butternut Squash Soup

I really like the classically fall flavor of butternut squash. Sweet and nutty soups are winners for fighting the chill in the air. I really like creamy and salty flavors with sweet. I dress this soup up with Feta crumbled on top prior to serving. These flavors blend together really well and the texture of the soup and the feta is a perfect combination. Let me know what you think! Read the rest of this entry »