Search results for "Minnesota"


Statesboro Blue

Statesboro Blue

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This bright flavored blue cheese was created for Gourmet Foods International, "GFI" a large specialty foods provider based in Atlanta. It celebrates Blind Willie McTell, who originally wrote and performed Statesboro Blues, and later made more famous by the Alman Brothers. Statesboro Blue is a 75 day cave-aged blue from cows milk that is beautifully balanced with a pleasant slightly tangy but not too sharp flavor with fruity undertones. I couldn't stop eating this while I was painting it; fortunately GFI sent me a whole wheel! It's especially great with a tart apple for a cheese painter's studio lunch.

Origin: Minnesota

Tags: GFI, Blue, Cow

Price: sold

Summertime Blues

Summertime Blues

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: The kind folks at the Caves of Faribault in Minnesota sent me a half wheel of this incredibly delicious cheese. It's basically their "St Pete's Select" but this blue cheese is infused with beer. The award-winning blue is bathed in various styles of Summit Brewing's craft beer. The natural blue flavors are heightened after weeks of "bathing" in this Minnesota beer giving it an earthy, clean and bight finish. I was struck with the boozy fragrance that the beer created once I unwrapped it. The smell and flavor is fruity almost and absolutely the flavor of summer if I had to label it. This is part of their seasonal varieties , the SummerTime series; there's also the Oktoberfest and the WinterFest series.

Origin: USA, Minnesota

Tags: cow, blue, blue cheese

Price: sold

Jeffs' Select Gouda Wedge

Jeffs' Select Gouda Wedge

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This is the 2016 Best of Show (tied for 3rd) winner from the American Cheese Society annual conference. Essentially, this tied as the third best cheese in North America, ranked above more than 18 Hundred entries. I was fortunate to have received an entire 9 lb wheel of this incredible Gouda! It's SO delicious, nutty and with the most perfect mouth feel of gratifying as perfect fudge. It's especially handsome to paint, with its annatto-rubbed rind that glows ambers and crimson which shines here is in the white ribbon colored background . For more info on this cheese, see my other painting "Jeffs' Select Gouda".

Origin: USA, Wisconsin & Minnesota

Tags: acs 2016 Best of Show, gouda, cow, ACSBOS

Price: sold

Jeffs' Select Gouda

Jeffs' Select Gouda

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This beautiful Gouda is the result of a collaborative effort between two visionary cheese makers named Jeff, Jeff Jirik of the Caves of Faribault and Jeff Wideman of Maple Leaf Cheese; hence the apostrophe after the "s". Jeff Wideman, a master cheesemaker from Wisconsin, is the one who makes the cheese, which is then sent to the Caves of Faribault for aging, in Minnesota. Unlike typical Goudas aged in cold temperatures, this American original is aged in the warm and humid environment of the caves. The result is a full-bodied flavor with classic European nuttiness and a hint of caramel. Its annatto-rubbed rind produces the alluring vibrant red-orange color. Most gouda cheeses are covered in wax or plastic during aging. Instead Jeffs' Select annatto-rubbed rind is allowed to develop its own rind during the aging process and resulting in this gorgeous wheel. I was so fortunate to have received a whole wheel of this beautiful subject, and if you've had some of the best Gouda in the world, you'd understand why this won a Best in Show award at the American Cheese Society 2016 competition. This is an incredibly delicious sweet, caramel-nutty cheese with a firm fudge-like consistency that equates as heaven, in my opinion.

Origin: USA, Wisconsin & Minnesota

Tags: Cow, gouda, best of show

Price: sold

Amablu Blue Cheese

Amablu Blue Cheese

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This was my first Minnesota cheese! It was fun to paint for a new state and when sat down to start this painting, I texted a friend from that part of the country. I asked "what color do you think of when you think of Minnesota?" his answer was another question, but once I explained my task, he replied: "Yellow or white". So there you have it ya. You betcha. Amablu is aged in the oldest and largest cheese-aging caves in the United States, in the Caves of Faribault. These caves and their st.Peter's sandstone walls have been home to aging blue cheeses since the 1930's.

Origin: USA, Minnesota

Tags: Faribault creamery, cow, blue,

Price: sold