Bianca

Producer

Hawthorne Valley Farm

Country

United States

Region

New York

Size

3 inches diameter, 1 inch high

Weight

6 oz

Website

www.hawthornevalleyfarm.org

Milk

Cow

Treatment

Pasteurised

Classification

Soft

Rennet

Vegetable

Rind

Mold Ripened

Style

Soft-Ripened (Brie-like)

Hawthorne Valley Farm, a Rudolph Steiner community, sits on 400 acres in the small hamlet of Harlemville in New York’s Hudson Valley. As well as making several cheeses, the farm also produces and sells a range of food products including biodynamically-raised meat, fresh and lacto- fermented vegetables, fluid milk, yogurt and fresh baked goods. These are all sold either via their farm store or at their long- established booths at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City and the Inwood Greenmarket. Hawthorne Valley Farm is also most notably an educational center of sustainable, organic and biodynamic farming. The farm’s dairy products are made from the milk of their own biodynamic certified cows. The cows on the farm are mixed breeds of Jersey and Brown Swiss with a few Holsteins. Bianca is one of the range of cheeses produced by Hawthorne Valley and was originally the creation of Abe Madey, the cheesemaker at the farm from 1999 to 2008. Peter Kindel, who took over the cheesemaking operation at Hawthorne Valley from Abe Madey in 2008, has taken the original recipe for Bianca and also introduced a mold- ripened version. Bianca is made from pasteurized, whole milk, in the style of a farmer’s cheese using microbial (vegetarian) rennet. Cheeses are aged for at least one week prior to their release. The texture of Bianca is dense, rich and yielding. Flavors are creamy, buttery and sweet, with distinct tangy notes. In addition to the original and mold-ripened versions of Bianca, it is also available with herbs as well as a smoked version.