I bought this cheese last week at the local farmer’s market. The women who sell it are very sweet and let you try a whole bunch of different ones. I have to confess that once in the summer I tried this, loved it, but was feeling poor and hot (hot as in it was 90*, not as in I felt sexy or anything). So I sheepishly scurried away, as walking it back to my house would have resulted in some melty bacteria-filled cheese, nothing particularly lovely.
But last week when I went to the market there they were and I decided it was high time I put my money where my mouth is. I think it’s really nice and really important to support local growers and local artisans. I really appreciate people who make things with their hands, and I love the idea of keeping them in business. This cheese would not be terribly pricey to one who buys nice cheese a lot, but for me, $17.50 a pound or whatever it was is well outside my usual cheddar-and-mozzarella price range. But I got a nice little quarter-pound of this–Herbs de Provence cheese, made by Beaver Brook Farm in Lyme, CT. It’s a creamy cheese, somewhere, texturally speaking, in between cream cheese and feta, coated with a layer of herbs. It’s divine. Mr. Pea brought home some crusty bread last week so we could eat some; we’ve since put some in scrambled eggs, too, which was just heavenly. I couldn’t necessarily afford this stuff every week, but man, it was worth the few extra bucks!
