What's the Deal with Cheese Curds?
If you're a Canadian, chances are you've encountered these little nuggets of squeaky cheese before.
Curds are consistently one of the best selling cheeses at our farm shop and folks come from miles around to get them fresh on Thursday afternoon.
What are they?
Cheese curds are part of the cheesemaking process. After pasteurization, specific bacterial cultures are added to the milk. These cultures acidify the milk by converting lactose (milk sugars) into lactic acid. Rennet is then added to coagulate the milk into a solid mass of curd that is cut into smaller pieces, poured into moulds, and drained. The blocks of drained curd are "milled" into pieces and salted. From here they are packaged and enjoyed as the cheese curds you know and love!
How do you use them?
Curds are most popular on poutine, a signature French-Canadian dish of fries, curds, and gravy. Try it if you haven't. Cheese curds are also often enjoyed straight up as a snack.
What makes them squeaky?
Cheese curds are made up of proteins bound together with calcium. This protein-calcium structure rubs against the enamel on your teeth when you bite, producing a 'squeaking' sound.
Cheese curds are at peak squeak when they're fresh and still warm. This is because the calcium-protein bonds start to break down after only a few days. If your cheese curds aren't as squeaky as they once were, try warming them up a touch (5-10 seconds in the microwave should do it) to re-bond the calcium-protein structures and revive the squeakiness.
Can I find your curds in stores?
The thing about cheese curds is, they're best enjoyed fresh. With a short shelf life of only a week, curds are only sold through our farm shop at this time.
When do you make fresh curd?
We make curd fresh every week on Thursday (come by at 2pm to get them fresh and warm!). We carry curd from each Thursday until we make more the following week.
What's the deal with flavoured curd?
You may have seen us make special flavours of curds now and again. We typically only do this for holidays and long weekends. Some of our most popular flavours on rotation are:
- Hot
- Dill
- Onion & Pepper
If you're looking to get your hand on some, be sure to follow along on social media where we post regular updates!
Best in the West
Again and again, fans rave about our curds for their authentic fresh squeak and awesome grass-fed flavour. Some even say they beat the ones back east...
