SHACKLEFORDS—From creamy to crumbly and everything in between, Virginia’s rich selection of specialty cheeses offers plenty to celebrate.

May is American Cheese Month—honoring the nation’s dairy farmers, cheesemakers, retailers, sellers and chefs working together to bring high-quality cheese to consumers’ tables. The American Cheese Education Foundation is encouraging cheese lovers to support local businesses by purchasing local cheese products.

There were over 1.2 billion pounds of cheese produced nationally in March alone, according to a survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Virginia cheese comes in a wide variety of tastes, textures and aromas—thanks to the state’s robust network of dairy cows, goats and sheep.

“A lot of people don’t realize that you can make any type of cheese with different milk,” noted Joshua Gaul of Cardinal Lane Farm in King and Queen County.

The longtime cheesemaker recently began crafting an array of artisan goat cheeses with milk from his own herd. He channels his love for the craft into his unique cheddar curds, feta, Manchego, mozzarella and eight flavors of chevre—the farm’s signature cheese.

Gaul’s cheesemaking process begins with pasteurizing the goats’ milk, then heating it to a specific temperature to separate the liquids from the solids. After forming his “starter culture,” he uses different techniques to create various cheeses. To make his chevre, he simply adds rennet to the culture, lets it sit overnight, and drains and processes it the next day.

“The chevre is our moneymaker,” he said. “Because of our goat breed and what they’re fed, our chevre comes out really creamy—almost like a cream cheese—and it’s very versatile.”

Gaul’s still-growing herd of 30 Nigerian Dwarf does are “excellent for cheesemaking.” They allow him to extract larger cheese yields from a smaller amount of milk compared to other goat breeds.

“We’ve had a lot of people who don’t like goat cheese end up buying our product after trying it, and that’s really because of our herd,” Gaul added.

The fourth-generation dairy farmers of Harvue Cheese in Clarke County pride themselves on “high-quality cheese from high-quality cows.” The farm’s 300 Holstein cows are milked twice daily, with every 50,000 pounds of milk transformed into about 5,000 pounds of cheese at a partner facility.

The Hardesty family launched its cheese business in 2019 after the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture, Innovation and Rural Sustainability helped the farm secure a USDA Value-Added Producer Grant.

“We decided to focus on cheddar since it gave us the most versatility,” noted Ashley Hardesty. “And the longer it sits, the better it gets.”

She doesn’t touch her cheddar for at least three months to let the flavors develop. Their most popular cheddars are hickory smoked, garlic and chive, jalapeno, and sundried tomato and peppercorn—Hardesty’s personal favorite.
“Some cheeses, you love to eat them with a cracker or something else, but I can enjoy that one by itself,” she remarked.

Cheese lovers can visit the farm for pickup or find Harvue Cheese at a variety of Virginia markets.

Customers can sample and purchase Gaul’s cheeses at the Great Big Greenhouse in Chesterfield County on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Yorktown Market Days on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. His products also can be found at select markets.

Media: Contact Gaul at 610-751-1537 or Hardesty at 540-239-8904.