PORT WASHINGTON — Blakesville Creamery, a women-owned and operated farm creamery in Port Washington, has won a 2022 Good Food Award for its Sunny Ridge Semi-Soft Goat Cheese — Blakesville’s first national award since the cheese shop opened in the summer of 2020.
Sunny Ridge is inspired by French St. Nectaire cheese and washed down with Is/Was Brewing Finer Points of Bad Behavior, a sour beer made from Klug Farm Michigan peaches. Washing Sunny Ridge in beer during the first few weeks of the 12- to 15-week aging process helps break down the inside of the cheese, gives the rind a peachy-colored glow and imparts a fruity, slightly effervescent flavor, according to a creamery of Blakesville. Press release.
“A natural ripening process helps to further develop the cheese’s signature texture and flavor, which has been described as ‘crisp, tart and musky with a mineral, fruity funk’ by Saxelby Cheesemongers.” says the press release.
Blakesville Creamery is located on the shores of Lake Michigan, adjacent to the Blakesville Dairy Farm, which cares for over 1,000 goats using sustainable farming practices.
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The Blakesville Creamery team includes Chief Cheesemaker and General Manager Veronica Pedraza, Business Manager Juli Kaufmann and Owner Lynde Uihlein.
Pedraza began her cheesemaking career 14 years ago as an apprentice for Sweet Grass Dairy in Georgia before moving to Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont as the dairy manager. In 2012, she started making her own cheeses at Meadowood Farms in upstate New York, where she won numerous awards. It began development and construction of Blakesville Creamery in 2018 and began making cheese at the newly built production facility in June 2020.
The 10,000 square foot creamery’s state-of-the-art cheese list also includes the popular Fresh Ch vre, Lake Breeze, Lake Effect and Afterglow.
The Good Food Awards are presented to winners in 18 categories and chosen in a blind tasting from thousands of entries before passing a sustainability and social responsibility verification process. The winners hail from 39 states and Washington, DC, chosen in a blind tasting from thousands of entries before going through a sustainability and social responsibility verification process. Almost half of the winners are first-time winners.