Cheesemaker Abigail Connell milks the grass-fed cows of Cedar Hill Farm twice a day.
Photo by: Francine Halvorsen
I was able to try Cedar Hill’s “Meadow” last year at Wooodberry Kitchen in Baltimore. Very good!
I always wonder what motivates people, so I asked Abby – a talented musician, with little time for her baby grand piano these days – what sparked her enthusiasm for this arduous and risky business.
Connell responded by saying that making cheese takes some of the same strengths as making music. “In addition to inspiration, education and hard work are necessary.”
She and her twin sister Cora were initially intrigued, she recalled, by the seemingly endless varieties of tasty cheese that could be made by “plain old milk.”
The dairy barn at the 90-acre dairy farm the Connell family has owned for 20 years. (Photo by Francine Halvorsen)
The dairy barn at the 90-acre dairy farm the Connell family has owned for 20 years. (Photo by Francine Halvorsen)
They began by apprenticing at Bobolink Dairy under the well-known Jonathan White, who for many years has been producing artisanal cheese for the New York-New Jersey area. Bobolink has always been a favorite at New York’s Union Square Market, and Abby and Cora got to hear a lot of feedback from the folks they sold to there.
via Local cheesemaker: Cedar Hill Farm | Baltimore Brew.
“Meadow is a semi-hard cheese with a creamy and open texture due to the unpressed curds and a lemony flavor that varies from sweet and buttery to earthy according to the seasons of the grass.” – Cedar Hill Farm
