Goats at Caromont Farm (Photo by John Robinson)
Artisan Cheese Making at Home
Class at Caromont Farm in Esmont
Gail Hobbs-Page lives cheese. Her life’s work is a dairy farm 23 miles south of Charlottesville, in a small pocket of Virginia not unlike Sonoma County, California, yielding lush wines and happy animals that make excellent cheese possible. Caromont is known for having some of the best goat cheeses and cuddliest goats in the country. Learn their ways during a hands-on cheese-making class, a four-hour deep dive on the farm that is next available Nov. 3 and Nov. 9. Hobbs-Page will take visitors on a tour, lead them through a sensory exploration of cheeses and teach guests how to make their own. “The student will leave with not only the groundwork to make good cheeses at home,” Hobbs-Page says, “but also knowledge of cheese vocabulary and sensory knowledge, so that the next time they go to a cheese counter, they will make empowered choices.”
Spanish Cheese Class
With Sara Aducci at Secco Wine Bar
After nearly seven years heading the cheese department at Feast, a cafe and specialty grocery store in Charlottesville, monger Sara Aducci has brought her knowledge back to Richmond. On Oct. 29 at Secco, Aducci will pull from her recent travels guiding Slow Food participants in a study of the cheeses and accompaniments specific to the Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago), a Christian pilgrimage to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Paneer (Photo by Liubomirt via Getty Images)
Paneer Making Class
With Keya Wingfield at Mise en Place
Paneer, that squeaky, spongy Indian cheese, anchors classic recipes like palak paneer and mattar paneer. Candy Valley Cake Co. owner and baker Keya Wingfield, a native of Mumbai, will lead classes at Mise en Place cooking school on Nov. 16 on how to make this nonmelting cheese, with snacks and chai to enjoy along the way. Each guest will leave with a batch of fresh cheese and the skills to make more.
