I've been thinking a lot about community and localism and the new economy lately.  I'm sure that you've noticed more and more empty storefronts in Montclair Village and on Park St.  Every day, the news media pounds the drums of economic gloom and doom, and customers like you ask me "Are you doing okay?," with a great deal of concern in their voice.

We're doing fine here at Farmstead, and thanks for asking.  Business is down a bit, but it's down everywhere, and Carol, the staff and I are truly blessed to have located our shops in Alameda and Montclair Village -  two communities that have been been more than superlative in supporting local, family owned businesses.

I wonder what my community would be like if there were no shoe repair shop and I'd have to drive miles to get a prescription filled or to have my computer repaired.  I shudder when I think of the suburban sprawl that I see in my travels  - chain stores, big boxes and franchise restaurants as far as the eye can see.
 

We're launching a new program soon - Farmstead Wine Picks - a short, informative newsletter highlighting a single wine. 

It could be a new arrival, a screaming great deal, an unusual, interesting, or large format wine, or some info about a wine you might have seen in the shops and wondered what the wine was all about.

Wine club members in good standing will receive their standard discounts; non-members won't.

We'll have the ability to ship these wines to your home or office, or you could just come into the shops and pick them up.

If you'd like to start receiving Farmstead Wine Picks, click and follow the prompts

Cheese of the Week - part one -Pecorino Marzolino Dieci - We've brought in a great new cheese from coastal Tuscany, Pecorino Marzolino Dieci, a semi-soft organic sheep's milk cheese from a small farm called La Parrina  that's been rubbed with Olive Oil and Tomato Sauce!

One of the most beautiful Italian sheep's milk cheeses. The Tuscan ewe, or pecora, enjoy fragrant, green pastures and produce rich milk. Dieci is matured for a few weeks; the rind is rubbed with tomato paste and olive oil.

Looks like a million bucks on a cheese plate - fabulous with a glass of Chianti!

Cheese of the Week - part two - Gran Kinara  - We love full flavored grating-type  cheeses (like Parmigiano Reggiano), and we flipped when we tasted Gran Kinara  - an organic  Piemontese raw milk grating cheese that uses Cardoon thistle to coagulate the milk (rennett),

Mario Fiandino’s family have been mountain shepherds since the 1700s. Back in the day,  they used to coagulate milk with the thistle flower, as it was less costly than animal rennet.

Two years ago Mario and his brother revived this tradition in cheesemaking. They currently have 250 Bruna Alpina cows and also buy some milk from local dairies to make the cheese.

Aged for at least 12 months, Grana Kinara is moister, fruitier and just as yummy as Reggiano - but a few dollars per pound less expensive!  Fuller flavored and not quite as savory as Reggiano, Kinara is made in the same 80 pound wheels as its DOP cousin to the south and has many of the same uses. 

We're launching a new program soon - Farmstead Wine Picks - a short, informative newsletter highlighting a single wine. 

It could be a new arrival, a screaming great deal, an unusual, interesting, or large format wine, or some info about a wine you might have seen in the shops and wondered what the wine was all about.

Wine club members in good standing will receive their standard discounts; non-members won't.

We'll have the ability to ship these wines to your home or office, or you could just come into the shops and pick them up.

If you'd like to start receiving Farmstead Wine Picks, click this link and follow the prompts.

Washed Rind Cheeses - When the weather gets cooler, I turn to washed rind cheeses. Their supple, sometimes oozy and flavorful paste, accompanied by a distinctive stink seems appropriate when there is a chill in the air.  Washed rind?  They're the stinkiest of any cheese you'll find in the shops; they're the ones that make you search your refrigerator for something that's gone bad.

Washed rind cheeses are bathed in a liquid solution-- normally a saltwater brine-- during their aging process (hence the term washed). The practice originated in monastic Medieval times, where there was plenty of wine, beer, and spirits available to those monks who busied themselves with, among other things, cheesemaking. Washing the outside of a cheese not only protected the interior paste by preventing the rind from cracking, but it also produced, they found, cheese with a meaty, more pungent flavor that was a surprisingly welcome replacement for meat during periods of religious fasting.

Washing in a brine or booze solution cultivates the growth of brevibacterium linens (or b. linens), a bacteria unique to washed rinds, that softens the acidity while producing a reddish/orange mold and a distinctive stink. The bacteria itself is smelly, which explains, in short, why the cheese becomes so, as well.

Washed rind cheeses should look moist, and there should be a slightly tacky texture to the rind. Cracking of the rind is probably an  indication of a ripe cheese if the interior is oozing from the cracks, in which case it may be perfectly fine (but should be eaten quickly). Depending on the age of the cheese, the interior should go from semi-soft to  soft and supple, or with some varieties, oozing and unctuous.

Are you looking for a great Châteauneuf du Pâpe Wanna Be for $16.20 per bottle??

As if designed for fall, Michel Gassier's Nostre Pais not only looks autumnal, it is packed full of flavors very much in tune with this time of year. By that I mean big, rich and bold flavors, masses of  ripe damson plum, brambly fruit and a myriad of sweet spices.

This is a wine that if you didn't know any better, you'd swear was a Gigondas or Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe, especially in its long, savory finish!

$18/bottle, $17.10/bottle for six, or only $16.20 per bottle in a 12 pack!!

Shipping?   Pick it up for free, or we can ship for no more than $17/case anywhere in CA!

Very limited!