The Foodie File: Making Cheese with Ruth, Part 1
Ruth Klahsen, artisan cheese maker of Montforte dairy invited me to make cheese with her last week. I ended up bringing a camera crew with me to capture the event on film (watch for a video on canadianliving.com where you can meet her and her delicious cheese!) and so with the lighting and starting and stopping I didn’t get to be quite as hands-on as I would have liked.
Nonetheless, it was a fantastic day meeting her crew of cheese makers and participating in the process. Ruth has a philosophy that cheese was derived from woman’s work on a farmstead and that it has a rhythm to it, which came from the rhythm of farm life and creating something between other chores and children. She respects that tradition in her process. It was fantastic to see 500 litres of sheep’s milk turned from creamy chalky white goodness to thick warm curds to blocks of beautifully crusted cheese. It is an amazingly simple process that is all about expertise, environment and good ingredients – that is what makes it magic, you don’t do a whole lot to yield something truly spectacular. It’s all in the know-how!
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Oh my word. I’m drooling just looking at this. Love the packaging, too. Where can you purchase the cheese?
Ruth sells every weekend at the St Lawrence market in Toronto and at various farmers markets in the summer. Many Toronto area chefs like Jamie Kennedy are featuring her products as well, he especially likes her Fresco.
Where at the St. Lawrence Market? I’d like to get some… In the north Market?
No, she has a kiosk near Alex Farms at the south end of the south building. Try the Piacere, it is her award winning cheese; it is covered in savoury, rosemary, juniper and chillies.