Dec 29, 2020
It’s so delightful to see some farm businesses today take up the best practices for their farms to come up with products of matchless taste and quality. Chefs and consumers have both created a trend for digging out the right mix of ingredients and flavor to serve delicious food every time while also educating themselves on where they come from so that they are accountable to their customers and are ready to give them answers when asked! This should definitely take us to a point of notable understanding that says, flavor and nutrition go hand in hand.
In a fun episode today, meet Mexico City native and award-winning chef Paco Garcia of Con Huevos and farmers Ronnie and Clara Patton of Wildcat Mountain Cheese, a family-owned and operated dairy and farmstead cheese producing farm in East Bernstadt, Kentucky, as we discuss cheese, their farm, the pandemic and how it’s changed the way we buy and sell, and also the processes that go behind making exceptional quality dairy products. Join us as we tour the farm and explore the wide variety of mouth-watering pasteurized cheeses they serve, including Colby, Gouda; a line of Cheddars: white cheddar, traditional cheddar, and garlic pepper cheddar; and fresh cheese curds. While we bring to you this tasty treat of an experience, you couldn’t leave not acknowledging their incredible dedication to the profession!
This episode of the EATYALL Podcast is sponsored by The Dairy Alliance, a nonprofit organization funded by dairy farm families of the Southeast to promote dairy foods and knowledge about the dairy industry.
Sneak-peek:
- Ronnie discusses “third cutting” of hay. Talking of the hay he got clipped, he says that it is the hay “that makes cheese”.
- He says, “I can affect the taste of the cheese more in the field than she can in the plant”, while making us understand the huge importance of properly feeding cattle. We also learn how to feed whey to hogs and parallelly use it as fertilizer.
- Paco says that while a lot of people buy cheese, it really doesn’t amount to any taste for most of them. We also discuss why some are afraid to eat meat or cheese.
- Aged cheese has almost zero lactose.
The cheddar cheese was the first they made at the farm. It has its origins in Somerset, England. - Ronnie shares his experience stirring curds at 2:30 am in the morning for the market opened that day. He shares how they finished working at 4am, made it to the market and happened to sell all of them!
- Know the family’s experience making cheese for 6 years. They sell 7 different kinds of cheese today and offer 14 different flavors!
- Learn the nature of the cheese varieties and how the cheddar cheese gets better with age.
- Clara has her way of naming their cheese- know how she named their community cheese “Victory”.
- Clara and Ronnie talk about the big change in the way people are buying and procuring their foods today, this being the impact of the pandemic, and how it’s created a little bit more demand for their local products and local retail stores.
- Our guests answer some fun and quick questions in EATYALL’s infamous Lightning Round!
Connect with our guests:
Websites:
Chef Paco Garcia- https://www.linkedin.com/in/paco-garc%C3%ADa-911823a5
Ronnie and Clara Patton, farmers at Wildcat Mountain Cheese-
https://wildcatmountaincheese.com
https://www.facebook.com/wildcatmountaincheesellc
https://www.instagram.com/wildcatmountaincheese
https://www.linkedin.com/in/clara-patton-91b4b211a
The Dairy Alliance- https://thedairyalliance.com
Connect with Us:
https://eatyall.com
https://findfamilyfarms.com
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Facebook - https://facebook.com/letseatyall
Twitter - https://twitter.com/letseatyall
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/letseatyall
The EATYALL Podcast is hosted by Andy Chapman, Chief Relationship Officer and founder of EATYALL. EATYALL helps food farmers and artisan food makers connect to chefs and consumers who are looking for better ingredients. EATYALL is the creator and host of EATYALL Chef Camps, an immersive, overnight experience for professional chefs who want to learn more about where their ingredients come from, want to discover new, better ingredients and rejuvenate in a collaborative environment with other like-minded chefs.