When winter comes, you may feel the need to just hole up in a cave. Here at Woodlands, we want you to know that in that cave, you will have access to some mighty fine cheese. Caves and cheese have a long history together. Whether naturally formed or manmade, caves have the perfect humidity and temperature for aging cheese. Just in time for winter, Woodlands has in two new cave aged cheeses.

St Pete's Select Blue.

From the Faribault Dairy Company in Minnesota comes St. Pete's Select Blue, named after the sandstone caves where the cheese is aged. St. Peter sandstone caves go back to the last glacial age, and are made up of beach sand deposit found only in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and northern Missouri. Once used to brew and age beer, the sandstone caves saw its first cheese, called Treasure Cave Blue, produced in the 1930’s. Today Faribault Dairy is the only U.S. producer to cure and age blue cheese exclusively in the St. Peter caves. St. Pete's Select is made from raw milk and has a full flavor, not at all bitter. The texture is firm yet creamy. Perfect on a burger or crumbled in a salad, it also holds its own on a cheese plate.

Wookey Hole English Farmhouse Cheddar

From Ford Farm in Dorset, located on the rugged Jurassic coast where the Ford Farm cows graze on grasses rich in minerals from the sea, this English cheese is aged four months in Dorset then shipped inland to Wookey Hole in Somerset to finish its aging process in its vast network of limestone caves. The Farmhouse Cheddar is clothbound, which allows the cheese to breathe and develop intense flavors as it ages. Unlike most farmhouse cheddars, Wookey Hole Cheddar is pasteurized, and uses vegetarian rennet. The Wookey Hole caves themselves are a major tourist attraction, with around 3000 visitors a day during the summer months.

The Gift of Cheese

During this holiday season we are carrying many unique cheeses that make great gifts for the cheese lover on your list.

In a blue ceramic collectible crock: bring a hostess gift of English blue stilton.

Ford Farm offers their English Farmhouse Cheddar in celebratory mini clothbound or wax-covered rounds.

Fiscalini had three award winning cheddars pre-packaged in a wooden crate.

Vacherin du Jura has wrapped their ultra creamy, seasonal cheese in a lidded wood box.

From Fiscalini comes cheese in festive holiday shapes. Come in and buy a Christmas Tree, Snowman or the famous Holiday Cow, filled with cheddar and covered with wax.

We are also carrying a new cheese knife, made of a revolutionary resin, that cuts through soft cheeses without the cheese sticking to the blade. It also does surprising well on harder cheeses like old Amsterdam.

Thanks for reading Octavio Saez De Ibarra, cheese manager