Making Cheese in Appalachia: Firefly Farms Reflects on a 20-Year Journey
For founders Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet, building a cheese business in western Maryland has always been about the journey, not the destination
The New American Gin Craze
We are living in the eye of the gin renaissance, a movement fueled by Campari corporate, by midcentury-modern nostalgia, and by a blooming of American craft microdistilling.
FireFly Farms Chèvre and Natural Wine are the Perfect Match
Since its inception, FireFly Farms has been on a mission to make cheese that tastes good, and to do it in a sustainable way.
These Couples Have a Passion for Cheese and Each Other
We asked four cheesemaker couples across the U.S. to share their love stories, including how, where, and when they met.
A Year in Centerfolds: 2022
We’re revisiting our 2022 centerfolds and marveling at the beautiful and delicious cheeses we featured in culture this year.
Perfect Pairings with FireFly Farm’s Cabra LaMancha
What makes a perfect cheese pairing? According to FireFly Farms co-owner, Pablo Solanet, an ideal cheese pairing is made up of flavors that play on one other. “When you have a good pairing the two flavors compliment each other and they blend, they enhance each other. And that’s when you know you have a perfect […]
FireFly Farms Black & Blue + Kimchee: An Inspired Pairing
Founded by partners Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet in 2002, FireFly Farms makes 10 cheeses using fresh goat’s and cow’s milk from family farms within a 30-mile radius of the creamery. All of the cheeses are handmade from just four ingredients: pasteurized milk, bacterial cultures, vegetable rennet, and salt—no additives, preservatives, stabilizers, or GMOs. Having […]
Cheese Plate: Friends in Ferment
Alisha Norris Jones guides us through a microbial pairing wonderland Photographed by Adam Detour | Styled by Kendra Smith As a magazine literally named “culture,” we’d be nowhere without the busiest bodies of the food system: live active cultures. You may recognize the term from your yogurt label, but they’re also in most fermented foods—a […]
Centerfold: Carpenter’s Wheel
Photographed by Nina Gallant | Styled by Kendra Smith The story of Carpenter’s Wheel began in 2009 as an experiment. Following his success with smaller aged cheeses such as Cabra LaMancha and Black & Blue, FireFly Farms co-founder Mike Koch wanted to do more. “I was interested in rounding out the line with a big-format, […]
