B.C.'s artisan cheesemakers

Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm, Salmon Arm
Gort’s produces certified organic cow cheeses in the Dutch tradition. Along with cow feta, goat feta and a delicious goat gouda, it produces every kind of gouda you could ask for, 18 varieties in all, from mild to aged, plain or smoked, even spiced with jalapenos and habaneros. In 2004 its aged gouda won a gold medal at the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix. www.gortsgoudacheese.bc.ca

Moonstruck Organic Cheese Inc., Salt Spring Island
Moonstruck makes a variety of certified organic cheeses from its herd of purebred Jersey cows. “We’re best known for our blue cheeses,” says cheese-maker Julia Grace. “Try our Blossom’s Blue, which many people compare to a Stilton – it’s a longer-aged, drier cheese with a sweet flavour – and our Beddis Blue, which some say reminds them of a Shropshire blue.”
www.moonstruckcheese.com

Salt Spring Island Cheese Company, Salt Spring Island
Begun by former Toronto gourmand David Wood, Salt Spring Island Cheese is well known for its attractive and delicious Flower Chevre. For a different flavour experience, try its sheep’s-milk Montana cheese or Blue Juliette. 250-653-2300

The Village Cheese Co., Armstrong
“Age-enhancing enzymes, milk by-products and other additives used by the big producers are shortcuts. If you want a truly traditional cheese flavour, you have to do it slower,” says owner Dwight Johnson.
Starting this fall, Village Cheese offers a selection of flavours in a new line of certified organic cheeses. Try the Extra-Aged Cheddar, Pale Ale Beer Cheese, or Suicidally Hot Horseradish cheese, a colby-type cheese with a fine sinus-clearing effect.
www.villagecheese.com

The Farm House Natural Cheeses, Agassiz
From their mixed herd of Guernsey, Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle, George Boyes and Debra Amrein-Boyes make cow’s-milk ­cheeses by hand, as well as a range of goat’s-milk cheeses from their herd of goats. Don’t miss the La Florette, and if you can get your hands on it, a tub of quark or their amazing crème fraîche. www.farmhousecheeses.com

Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, Parksville
After several years in Switzerland, Clarke and Nancy Gourlay returned to B.C. to make

Happy Days Goat Dairy, Salmon Arm
Happy Days offers 10 different goat cheeses, as well as goat’s-milk ice cream and yogurt. Its flagship product is an unripened Okanagan Goat Cheese, which comes plain or with a variety of seasonings: lemon pepper, garlic-parsley, and porcini or chanterelle mushrooms. Two intriguing recipes from its web site: Ostrich Fillet with Goat Cheese, and Swiss Alps Macaroni. www.goatcheese.ca

Poplar Grove Cheese, Penticton
Poplar Grove offers a small but potent list of four cheeses. Its Naramata Bench Blue is warm-weather droopy and addictive; its washed-rind Harvest Moon cheese is, in
the words of cheese-maker and owner
Gitta Sutherland, “big and bold – a serious
cheese for serious cheese lovers.”
www.poplargrovecheese.ca

Natural Pastures Cheese Co., Courtenay
Natural Pastures sells over a dozen cow’s-milk cheeses, as well as a mozzarella made from Asian water buffalo milk. Its Comox Brie won a gold medal at the 2008 World Cheese Championships. “Our cows are fed on pasture, and people are discovering this flavour is different than cheese from cows fed mass-produced feed,” says president Edgar Smith. “People are looking for taste these days: fresh herbs, real cheese-making skill.” www.naturalpastures.com

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