the cheese blog

Grass Stains

So, I was in Whole Foods last week picking through their selection and came across something I hadn’t seen before: Grass Stains! How could I pass up a cheese with a name like that?! There wasn’t much information about the producer on the label other than “soft ripened cheese with peppercorns and proprietary (?!?!) herbs.” Well, that was intriguing enough for me. Tonight I had a chance to see what Grass Stains was like.

It’s a cow’s milk cheese with a thick mold rind, which wasn’t a hard rind. Texture was semi-firm, a bit dry and crumbly, but the overwhelming characteristic was chalky and SALTY. This is a very salty cheese. Luckily, I was making a salad and decided to sprinkle a bit over the salad, which included some pears and candied walnuts that had enough sweet to cut the salt and made for an excellent pairing.

Apparently, Grass Stains comes from Hendrick’s Farm and Dairy in Telford, PA. They describe the cheese as follows — “A bloomy rind, soft/crumbly cheese, that is blended with cracked black pepper in its paste and covered with a floral herb blend on its rind. A delicious example of a complex cheese with unique characteristics.” If you go to the web page, there is nothing about this cheese. You need to look at the Google cache. Not sure if this means it’s a limited production. Verdict – Recommended, with something sweet to balance the saltiness.