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April 2025: Spring Cheese of the Month

Spring in your step!

This month’s curated selection of cheeses celebrates the new season with bright flavors edible flowers and herbs, and a bit of spice. These cheese are perfect for spring celebrations, from brunch to dinner. Bask in the longer days and warmer sun as you enjoy this cheese selection. Happy spring! Read on for more info.

Baked Lemon Ricotta by Luigi Guffanti in Puglia, Italy

Pasteurized, Cow & Buffalo Milk

From Southern Italy this mixed milk ricotta is perfect for a spring brunch. With bright lemon and sweet honey, it is dense and almost cheesecake-like. Serve with jam as a dessert or on warm toast for a special morning bite!

Alp Blossom by Hofkäserei Kraus in Bavaria, Germany

Raw, Cow’s Milk

This raw Alpine-style cheese is made in Germany. A true tribute to the spring Alps, coated in a combination of dried flower petals, herbs, and spices that grow in the pastures surrounding the dairy. The cheese is full-flavored with herbaceous notes in its center too, plus a beautiful rind!

Calabrian Chile Mozzamini Pearls by Cheese Bits in California

Pasturized, Cow’s Milk

An artisanal snacking cheese resembling a delightful fusion of fresh mozzarella and mild provolone. Like scamorza! This flavor comes with a perfect spicy zing of Calabrian chili peppers. Perfect for a snack, on cheese boards, in pasta salads with grilled chicken or in omelets.

Uncured Bacon & Bourbon Salami by Salt & Twine in Waltham, Massachusetts

For those that have meat as part of the club, you will have Salt & Twine’s small batch salami with bacon and bourbon. A perfect balance of sweet and salty. Salami is slow-aged with generous amounts of bacon and bourbon to give it a rich flavor that pairs well with both sweet and smoky cheeses or bourbon cocktails.

Preserved Lemon Cookies

Good Food Winners in the Shop!

An annual event, The Good Food Awards recognizes, celebrates and empowers food creators that make delicious food with responsible ingredients. They recognizes food crafters who demonstrate outstanding taste and a deep commitment to building a more sustainable and just food system. Jon was able to attend the ceremony, meeting many artisans and tasting so many great bites.

Check out the map in the link above, Colorado producers are often nominated for and win at Good Foods! We are lucky to have such great food and agriculture in this state. Read a bit about the Good Food Winners we have in our shop.

On Tap Pretzel Shortbread Cookies Lafayette, Colorado

Winner of the Snack Category, these pretzel makers also know how to make a great cookie! They're buttery shortbread, mixed with a salty pretzel. The cookies are made from actual ground pretzels, used like flour in their recipe. Try them with ice cream. Shop them here.

Bibamba Jungle Crunch Denver, Colorado

Our friends at Bibamba won in the Chocolate category. Their single-farm cacao sourced directly from their family-owned farm in Cameroon supports sustainable ingredients. This duo combines crunchy plantain chips with a coating of dark chocolate. Shop the chocolate here.

Red Camper's Pueblo Chile Peach Deliciousness Denver, Colorado

We are good friends with the team at Red Camper and we love pairing their preserves and mustarda with our cheese and meat boards. It's no surprise that this Colorado-proud flavor won an award. Roasted green chilies from Pueblo combine with sweet Paonia peaches for the perfect spicy-sweet spoonful. All their produce is sourced from local farms. Read about it here.

Table Mountain Farm's Lavender Vanilla Goat Milk Caramel Longmont, Colorado

We love goat cheese and we now also love goat milk caramel! Winning in the Confections category, this caramel is made with lavender from the farm and fair trade Vanilla Beans steep in fresh goat's milk. Perfect as a dessert sauce or stirred into coffee. While we don't yet have the Lavender flavor in the shop, we do have their Vanilla, Whiskey and Chocolate flavors in the store. Check out Vanilla on our site here.

Bee Squared Apiaries Fennel Pollen Honey Berthound, Colorado

There's honey and then there's good honey. Fennel pollen and Bee Squared Apiaries' award-winning alfalfa/wildflower honey marry to make one of those truly synergistic flavor combinations. The subtle licorice flavor of fennel enhanced by their buttery smooth alfalfa honey is perfect with pork dishes or a gin cocktail. Shop the honey here.

Mountain Girl Pickles Pickled Okra Black Hawk, Colorado

With a good crunchy, these okra are a perfectly preserved taste of summer, truly worthy of their Pickle category award. Mountain Girl sources the fresh okra locally and perfectly seasons it for happy hour spreads, Bloody Mary's, salads and more. Shop the pickles here.

Click here to shop all Good Food winners.

Cold Weather Comfort Food: Risotto

Stay cozy by making these warm winter risottos. One features ham and corn and the other an ode to the Alps, using nutty Alpine cheeses. We always make our risotto with Organic Carnaroli Rice from Abruzzo, Italy and Denver Bone Broth for max flavor. 

Ham & Pan-Roasted Corn Risotto

1. Bring stock to a simmer in a medium saucepan
2. In a large cast iron or nonstick pan melt the butter at medium high heat, add the corn and roast stirring frequently until browned (about 12 minutes), add the rice and and stir to coat with butter and cook another 2-3 minutes to toast rice.  Pour in the wine and evaporate off for another minute
3. Cook the Risotto in traditional method, adding 1 cup of stock at a time and stir over medium heat until is is incorporated, then add another cup and repeat.   Continue until rice is fully cooked and has a rich creamy texture.  (If you need additional stock add water to the saucepan when it gets low). This should take a bout 20-25 minutes
4. Turn of the heat and fold in the Parmigiano Reggiano along with 1 Tbsp of butter or Olive Oil, add meat or vegetables if using.  Season to taste with salt and pepper
5. Drizzle with Balsamico for serving

Alpine Cheese Risotto

Ingredients

a few tablespoons Butter or Oil

1 Onion, diced

1 cup Carnaroli Rice

1/4 cup White Wine (optional, you can also increase the broth)

2-3 cups Denver Bone Broth

Salt and Pepper, to taste

1 cup Appenzeller, grated

Optional stir-in's: Sautéed Mushrooms, Gorgonzola

1. Over medium heat, heat the butter or oil in a large sauce pot.
2. Add the onion and saute until transparent.
3. Meanwhile, warm the broth in another saucepan.
4. Add the rice and stir to combine. Toast the rice in the oil for a few minutes.
5. Add the wine and cook until it has evaporated (about 1-2 minutes).  
6. Add the warmed broth a little about a 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently. Keep the temperature low, at a low simmer.
7. Once a 1/2 cup of broth is absorbed, add another until fully cooked, al dente, about 20 minutes.
8. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese. Taste, adjust flavor with salt and pepper.

How to Make Tortellini in Brodo

We recently started carrying imported Italian dried tortellini. They're so good! With some broth and Parmigiano, they make a delicious winter meal... brodo. Here's our go-to recipe for Tortellini in Brodo.

Tortellini in Brodo Recipe

Ingredients

A Quick Guide To Cheddar

• English Cheddar: English or English-style cheddars tend to be more complex with earthy and nutty flavors, versus just sharp. The traditional method of wrapping wheels in cloth and rubbing with lard or "bandaging" then aging in large round wheels is the truest form of cheddar. Neal's Yard Dairy based in London has helped preserve these classic artisan cheeses and helped producers of cheddar and other English territorial cheeses survive and flourish.  We work directly with Neal's Yard to select the very best cheeses seasonally.
• Waxed Cheddars: Many cheddars from areas like Wisconsin, Vermont and Ireland are made in large rectangle blocks and tend to be covered in wax. The wax allows the cheese to be aged for a longer period of time without drying out. Generally, these cheddars are sharper and are either yellow or white in color. They can be aged for as much as 10 years and along with the signature sharpness, they also develop tyrosine crystals for a crunch and a natural sweetness.

•  Quebec Extra Vintage is aged for 7 years! Made in the Canadian province that produces the most cheddars, it it sharp.
• Big Mckinley is an English-Style aged cheddar made in California. It skews more towards the nutty, grassy, crunchy side, almost like a gouda, with a hint of sharp acidity. It is aged for a minimum of 1 year.
• Cabot Clothbound is made in Vermont and is a beige color, typical to the state's style. It is crumbly and nutty, with some tang on the finish.
• Irish Cheddar is of course made from the milk of grazing cows in Ireland. It is the traditional wax block-style, sharp, but not as sharp as the Quebec above. Great for mac and cheese.
• Coming soon to the cheese case - the return of one of our favorites Pitchfork Cheddar and the brand new Cornell Clothbound Cheddar!