Black River Cheese

    Today's cheese factory on the "Great Cheese Factory Tour" was The Black River Cheese Factory.  The Black River Cheese Factory has been in operation since 1901, that is a long time.  The Black River Cheese Factory is just a little jaunt from Picton, Ontario, in a little hamlet called Milford.  The drive was beautiful.  I love Prince Edward County (where both Picton and Milford are situated).  Everything seemed greener.  The air smells cleaner.  It is no wonder that Prince Edward County is such a holiday destination.  Wine making seems to be the new industry there, and what goes better with wine than... CHEESE.

  After two or three little roads led us to The Black River Cheese Factory we arrived at what has to be the cutes cheese factory yet on the tour.  It sits beside a beautiful river.  When I opened the doors it felt homey.  It was not too small, not too big.  It offered a nice variety of different types of cheese.  It's specialty seems to be "mozzarella".  There were so many different varieties of "mozzarella".  They make Dill, Garlic, Horseradish, Hot pepper, and Jalapeno Mozzarella.  They also make an intriguing "maple cheddar", made with real, local maple syrup.  They had a sample of it, I'm not sure if the maple was my favourite.  It might be a two bite decision.  

    Of course we needed to buy cheese curd, which my mom was kind enough to spring for (yah Mom).   Their curd was nice and squeaky, which if you have been reading my "Great Cheese Tour" you would know is very important.  It had just the right amount of salt.  Very nice.  They also had "garlic curd".

    I really liked how they supported their neighbours.  There were so many nice and different foods and items, all local.  Local baking, local preserves, local candy, even local soaps.  It is so nice to see that.

    I think that you know that we tried the samples.  I was quite impressed to see their awards right there for everyone to see.  If you're good at what you do, I think you need to be proud to show your awards.

    It was also nice to see a variety of ready to go gift baskets.  It would be nice to just walk in and buy a nice cheese gift basket.

  I think we all know who had to sample the ice-cream.  Elly had a chocolate soft serve and gave it the thumbs up!  The staff were excedingly nice, which is important to me, and was sadly lacking in majority of the other cheese factories that we visited.  For that they get an A+.

Elly showing off her cheese curd curl.

I really liked the little picnic table beside the factory, beside the river

 ( I can only assume "The Black River").  

blackrivercheese.com

Their website is really colourful and bright and gives some interesting history on the area.

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The Wilton Cheese Factory

     We followed the signs on the 401 that led us to the Wilton Cheese Factory.  It only took a few minutes to get there and we were rewarded with old world beauty.  The cheese factory looked exactly like that, a factory, very unassuming, but quaint.  

    When we walked in through the doors I was surprised by two things.  The first was how tiny it was, and the second was how busy it was.   Try as I might to get a picture of the whole store, I could not because of the constant stream of customers.  It is a hot spot!

    I was also really pleased to see the window that allows people to watch them make cheese.  As I have shared I am a big nerd and I love to learn.  Because of a similar window at the Ivanhoe Cheese Factory, my three year old knows how cheese is made.  Unfortunately they were not making cheese when we went to the factory, but I was still impressed that they had the window.

    Rowan was really excited to see that they sold sausage.  He was all too happy to show the different types of cheese that Wilton sells (my kids are all little hams when they see the camera).  I have to say that they had a really good selection of different types of cheese.  I was a little intrigued by their "Danish Style Cheese".  I was impressed to find out that their cheese contains no preservatives and are naturally coloured using "Annatto Plant".  The cheese is naturally aged in underground coolers in Simcoe, Ontario.  Wilton was originally a farmers co-op, but was purchased in 1970's by a family company.  I prefer to feed my kids that is a pure as I can get it, and this cheese sounds pretty pure.

   Now for the most important part of our visit to Wilton Cheese Factory, their "curd".  Their curd tasted different from any of the other curds that I have tasted yet.  It is salty, sweet, and yet also creamy.  On the first bite I didn't know what I thought.  As I said, they are unlike any other curd that I have thus far tasted.  By the end of the bag, I realized that I really liked the creamy taste to them.  I do believe I could get addicted to those sweet, salty creamy little morsels.

   The Wilton Cheese Factory is small, but don't be fooled by gifts in small packages.  It had a nice variety of preserves and candy.  I liked it's old world type of charm with old milk bottles on display.  If you find yourself on Highway 401 near Kingston, you owe it to yourself to make the trip, it will do your soul some good.

www.wiltoncheese.ca 

So where will the Great Cheese Factory Tour take me next?  

That's for me to know and you to find out!

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Maple Dale Cheese

   I had an really quick errand to run in Belleville today, so today I decided that Maple Dale Cheese was going to be this weeks Cheese factory in the "Great Cheese Factory Tour".  I told Elly we were going to a cheese factory today and she was really excited.  It was funny because our first cheese factory in the "Great Cheese Factory Tour" was Ivanhoe Cheese.  Ivanhoe has a great window where you can watch the cheese makers making cheese.  Elly stood there the entire time that we were there.  I had to pull her away from that window.  Apparently she has good retention for details, because this morning after I told her we were going to a cheese factory she told me "Dey put cheese in a box, then squeeze.  Dat's how you get cheese Mommy."  I am not sure how many adults know how cheese is made, but my three year old does.

   Maple Dale is on highway 37.  It has been family owned since 1987.  Prior to that it was a co-operative.  It's funny, I drive past it all of the time on my way to and from Belleville, and yet I rarely stop there.   When I do stop it is to buy produce at the farmer's truck that parks in the parking lot (they have an amazing selection of beautiful vegetables in the summer).  The store has changed since the last time that I was in there.  I was hesitant to go in I think because the last time I was there the prices seemed really expensive.  This time they seemed more in line with other cheese factories cheese prices.

    I was shocked, and a little excited to discover not just one different type of cheese curd, but FIVE.  The part that I really enjoyed, was there were lots of samples.  I would highly recommend the dill curds (I have a thing for dill).  Maple Dale has a really wide variety of different cheeses.  My personal favourite of theirs is dill and cheddar that they make, I could eat the entire brick by myself...soooo good.

    It is very nice and clean.  They have cheese on one end and gourmet foods on the other.  There was a really nice variety of different foods.  They had some really interesting looking preserves.  I was sorely tempted by their fudge (I also have a real weakness for fudge.  Ask anyone).

Elly insisted that I take her picture.

   Elly my little ham bone has become a real helper on our trips.  She kept shouting "take a picture this", and "take a picture me".  For some reason she feels the need to do these really crazy poses, I'm not sure what gave her that idea.

    If you look to your bottom right, you will see my very favourite type of cheese, dill cheddar.  They also have roasted garlic, and pesto, just to name a few of the many varieties.

    Elly is really enjoying our cheese tours.  I am pretty sure that she has already eaten her weight in cheese curd.  She could not even wait until we had left the parking lot to get into the bag.

    If you find yourself on a trip near Belleville or Tweed, then you should stop by Maple Dale.  They have some really nice variety in their cheeses, and amazing variety in their curds.  

mapledale.com

When I have finished my travels in search of cheese factories I plan to share them with you.  I plan to report a grade for each local cheese factory on several different aspects of their business, so you might want to keep an eye out to see which is our best cheese factory.