Oh Cheese

 I am a serious cheese person...you'd think I was more knowledgeable...there is still time left for that.

I try new cheeses all of the time...I like super sharp cheese and I like Blues or Roqueforts. I have been trying to just buy :cru"...RAW cheese. I am avoiding anything processed.

Today, I found a cheese called....

Haut Barry du Lazarac –made from goat milk. To me, it tastes like a mild Parmesan...super tasty but more easily enjoyed. Parmesan by itself is way too intense. I bought just a small wedge for 1.31 euro...perfect to try it...it is not cru though. I've almost been to this area...gorgeous farm country...France is so vast and so beautiful. I love that you can know exactly where everything  you buy comes from.

https://www.fromages-bergersdularzac-aveyron.fr/

This Occitan sheep's milk tomme was born thanks to a few distant borrowings. When a handful of shepherds from Larzac decided to create a cooperative in 1996, they looked at what was being done around them.

A close neighbor, a certain José Bové, made a tomme with Dutch gouda molds, which gave his cheeses rounded edges.

They liked the idea, and they in turn equipped themselves with these molds. As for the recipe, it was a trip to Saint-Jean Pied de Port that allowed them to better understand the subtleties of making sheep's milk tommes, of which the Basque shepherds are recognized experts.

And so the Tomme du Haut Barry was born! As for its name, it is none other than that of the street where the manufacturing workshop was originally located, in La Cavalerie. It means "great barrier": the cheese factory was located right next to the ramparts of the Templar city.