It seems we’re all getting in touch with the seasonality of our vegetables, thanks to folks like Michael Pollan
A brief excerpt, after a lament about the unavailability of ewe’s milk cheeses this time of year:
If you’d like to finger blame, please look past the sap responsible for sourcing your farmstead picks, and focus instead on Mother Nature’s convention of short-day breeding. While humans and cows follow a lunar cycle of fertility, a ewe’s inner Gaia revolves around the solstice. I think it has something to do with serotonin levels and pituitary glands, but the basic result is that all sheep in our longitudinal neck of the woods can only breed during the shortest days of the year. Here lies some of the pain and the beauty of cheese seasonality.
I haven’t followed the link to see if this is mentioned in the article, but (seeing as I was raised on a hobby farm) I think it’s also worth considering the effect the forage has on milk products such as cheeses. When an animal grazes outside in the summer on fresh grass, clover, etc., the milk they produce is much richer and stronger-tasting than what they produce in the winter when it’s all dry feed such as hay. This influences both the flavour and the colour of the products made from milk, such as butter and cheese, so if you’re looking for deeper, richer, creamier flavour, you’re more likely to get it in products made from summer milk.
I haven’t followed the link to see if this is mentioned in the article, but (seeing as I was raised on a hobby farm) I think it’s also worth considering the effect the forage has on milk products such as cheeses. When an animal grazes outside in the summer on fresh grass, clover, etc., the milk they produce is much richer and stronger-tasting than what they produce in the winter when it’s all dry feed such as hay. This influences both the flavour and the colour of the products made from milk, such as butter and cheese, so if you’re looking for deeper, richer, creamier flavour, you’re more likely to get it in products made from summer milk.
Shawna, yes, the author of the article does address issues like that. It’s so fascinating to me to see how the changes throughout the year — due to forage, due to breeding cycles, due to the way farmers deal with their animals — affect taste… and probably nutrition, as well, in ways I’m only barely aware of.
Shawna, yes, the author of the article does address issues like that. It’s so fascinating to me to see how the changes throughout the year — due to forage, due to breeding cycles, due to the way farmers deal with their animals — affect taste… and probably nutrition, as well, in ways I’m only barely aware of.