Grassfields Cheese

At the heart of West Michigan’s Dutch farming tradition, nestled along the Grand River just south of Coopersville, sits the small village Lamont. From downtown Grand Rapids, it’s a short but slow paced thirty minute drive west on Leonard. Upon arrival, however, one feels that they’ve headed significantly further from the modern city and its expedience. On Lamont’s outskirts, a mile west and another north on the unpaved 60th Ave., Jesse and Betsy Meerman and family raise Holstein, Normandy and Jersey milking cows on their Grassfields farm and make traditional aged Dutch cheeses from their unpasteurized and non-homogenized cow’s milk.

To most of us, cheese is yellow foodstuff processed from milk products and other small print ingredients, chemicals and additives at a distant factory. Not so for Jesse Meerman, the sole cheese maker at Grassfields, for who cheese is an art, business, lifestyle and practical manner in which to utilize his dairy herd’s excess milk.

Since 2002 the Meermans have been selling “cow shares,” a program in which people pay for the boarding of a cow and receive its milk in return, to an ever increasing number of families. Now totaling 9 cows which supply 115 families, Betsy Meerman explains the growing popularity of their raw, unpasteurized milk, saying, “People want to know where their food is coming from.” As we stood outside the milking barn, she stressed how her customers seek authenticity and “real products” which taste better and are better for you. This type of critical consumer mentality, now so chic and trendy in our academic and professional city life, is just ordinary common sense out in farm country.

Past the milking barn and silo is the cheese shop, which also houses the cheese making and storage rooms. Here Jesse met me amidst many of his busy family members, especially babies, to explain his dairy work. Every few days he’ll draw fresh warm cows’ milk directly from the barn into a large, shallow steel vat in the sanitary cheese making room. With tiled floor, stainless tanks, hoses, bottles of iodine sanitizer and an air of sterility, the resemblance to a brewery is strong. Cheese is made from coagulated milk solids so rennet is added to the warm ripening milk to encourage this physical change. Next, various bacteria cultures are gently stirred-in according to the desired cheese style. Milk sugar, called lactose, is converted by both natural and inoculated bacteria into lactic acid or is run off in the residual liquids, making these aged raw milk cheeses perfectly suited for those who suffer from lactose intolerance. After a rest, the curds are scooped with plastic colanders from the clear liquid whey and are then formed into 13 pound wheels. The whey is fed to pigs and the young cheese wheels are then boiled in heavy salt brine which will protect the food from bacteria during the 3 – 6 months spent ageing in the adjacent environmentally controlled room. Meerman currently makes six varieties including Edam, Gouda, Cheddar and the same with various herbs and spices added.

Without succumbing to pasteurization, the Meermans must always be wary of bacterial contamination. Their cows freely roam rotated grass pastures, which is indelible to the operation. When allowed to live and eat in a natural, outdoor environment, free from antibiotics, corn based feed and cramped manure filled living conditions, these healthy and happy ruminants produce healthy and clean milk. The milk from conventionally farmed dairy cows, however, is unsanitary must be pasteurized. Unlike organic and biodynamic farming, modern industrial farming practices go against the nature of cows and must be heated before safely imbibing. Also, at Grassfields, each batch of raw milk and subsequent cheese is tested scientifically for microscopic intruders where as in conventional practices fewer tests are done in the hope that pasteurization will clean it up in the end. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Organic and raw milk farmers will tell you pasteurized cheeses, not raw cheeses, have been culpable in all recent human pathogen mishaps.

Both the raw milk and cheese have additional benefits afforded to them from the lack of physically and chemically damaging heat pasteurization: the naturally occurring enzymes and animal friendly bacteria alive in raw milk create a hostile environment for foreign microbes and potential pathogens. Producing raw milk and raw milk cheese must be done then in accordance with the laws of nature, which are ever present on this organic farm. The Meerman’s cheese making seems a predestined process, one that they are managing stewards of, rather than the sole contributing performers. First the sun, then the grass, the cows and finally the bacteria perform the actual intrinsic, microscopic work from which cheese results.

How’s it taste – exquisite! Creamily textured and strongly aromatic, the complexities easily outshine any store bought pasteurized equivalents; a pure and simple pleasure to enjoy. Like wine, the time spent ageing in a cheese cave hones the product’s attributes, often simplifying over-complexities and rounding out overt flavors and aromas. Eat the cheese warm, never cool, which masks its depth. For me, the real test of cheese is how well it melts, so I tried it with this recipe for Nebraska style Mac & Cheese:

First, gently heat some white wine in a large sauce pan while bringing a gallon of water to boil on another burner. When the pan is warm, slowly layer in thin slices of Edam, Gouda and Lamont Cheddar. (The recipe works especially well with various left over cheese ends and bits.) The sauce may be tempered with a little milk or butter, but the cheese and wine seem to work out fine alone. Add elbow, shells, or your favorite pasta to the water and boil until tender, careful not to overcook. Drain the pasta and combine with cheese sauce in a shallow baking dish. Top with yesterday’s bread crumbs and bake at 300F until the top begins to brown. Serve with pan steamed local broccoli and green beans.

Grassfields cheese is widely available in West Michigan; locations are listed on their website. Meet Jesse and Betsy Meerman in person downtown Grand Rapids at the Guest House September 11th where they will be sampling their cheese along side wine at Siciliano’s Michigan Wine Tasting. Details: www.sicilianosmkt.com and www.grassfieldscheese.com.