Sláinte: Irish Cowgirls - Three Award-Winning Cheesemakers

While cow’s milk was the most common source of ‘white meat,’ the milk of goats and sheep is also mentioned in early records. Goat’s milk, now known to be more easily digested than cow’s milk due to its low lactose content, was rightly, though serendipitously, believed to be the best food for children and invalids. Sheep’s milk was considered a luxury, possibly because sheep produce much less milk than cows. 

From these three milks the Irish made many cheeses: tanach, a hard-pressed skim milk cheese; that, a soft cheese made from warm sour milk curds; gruth, a curdy buttermilk cheese; mulchan, a soft buttermilk cheese that was pressed and molded; and milsean, sweet milk curds that were eaten at the end of a banquet or festival feast. A semi-soft cream cheese made from thick sweet cream with a bit of salt and dry mustard was also popular.

Cheese is even mentioned in accounts of Saint Patrick and Saint Brigid, Ireland’s patrons. Patrick is said to have had a cheese maker in his retinue on his missionary travels. Legend tells that Brigid once made enough cheese to feed all the people of Leinster with just a few cups of milk. For that reason she is the patroness of dairy workers. 

Just as Ireland’s farmhouse cheese making experienced a renaissance in the 1970’s, so did America’s ten years later with the founding of the American Cheese Society in 1983. Not surprisingly, three Irish-American women were pioneers of the movement.
In 1993, Peggy Smith and Sue Conley, both veterans of California’s whole food revolution, launched Tomales Bay Foods to promote the products of local dairy farms.

Access to the best organic milk in the region and meeting up with master cheese maker Maureen Cunnie led naturally to their next venture: cheese making under the label Cowgirl Creamery, a title that reflects the indefatigable spirit of women in America’s ‘wild west.’ A converted hay barn soon housed the cheese-making facility, plus a market offering artisan cheeses from all parts of the United States, a boutique featuring natural fabric clothing, an organic produce stand, and a deli serving delicious, wholesome foods. 

In the intervening years, Cowgirl Creamery cheeses have consistently won devoted fans and highest honors at local and national events. Sue and Peggy’s signature Mt. Tam is a smooth, triple-cream cheese with a buttery earthy flavor reminiscent of white mushrooms. Hearty triple-cream Red Hawk, which is washed with a brine solution that tints the rind a sunset red-orange, won Best-In-Show at the American Cheese Society’s Annual Conference in 2003. And each March Sue and Peggy commemorate the arrival of spring and honor their Irish roots with St. Pat, a round of soft, mellow organic milk cheese wrapped in nettle leaves which give the cheese its distinctive pale green rind.

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Nster.com