Do your holiday shopping in the cheese aisle

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Don’t give boring gifts. Instead, go to your local food store (like the PT Food Co-op or Chimacum Corner Farmstand) and pick up some local cheese.
It’s unconventional, sure. But cheese is the ultimate holiday gift: it displays the splendors of your local area to visiting guests, it delights the taste buds of all people young and old and it shows that you are dedicated to supporting your local farmers.
Place a bow on top of a wheel of local brie, add in some crackers and a local cider, wine or beer and you’ve got the perfect holiday present.
Below is a list of local cheeses that should not be missed. Head over to the Chimacum Corner Farmstand to find all of these beauties, and while you’re there, pick some up for yourself to eat to keep up your strength while wrapping presents.

Mount Townsend “Holiday Cheer”
Mount Townsend Creamery, located in Port Townsend, has come out with a holiday cheese that is made from cow’s milk. Mount Townsend gets their milk from a single herd of 250 cows that live and graze on a family-owned farm in Sequim. Their “Holiday Cheer” soft ripened cheese has been hand washed with Finnriver cider. This gives the cheese an extra layer of flavor.

Mystery Bay Goat Cheese
Mystery Bay Farm is located on Marrowstone Island. The small-scale, family-owned goat farm treats their herd well and it shows in the delicious flavor of the cheese.
“This is the best goat cheese I’ve ever had,” said Jacob Nachel, cheese buyer at the Chimacum Corner Farmstand. “They do an amazing job with the goats in terms of how they’re raised, and have truly hypernatural practises.”
If you don’t know which flavored goat cheese to start with, pick up the rosemary and lemon first. The savory tartness of the cheese is almost dessert-like in flavor and just the right amount of richness to add to a holiday meal.
Be sure to stock up now—Mystery Bay wraps up their cheese-making season at the end of the year so the goats can have a breeding season without disturbance from being milked. They usually run out of stock in January, Nachel said, before they pick up again in the spring.

Black Sheep Creamery
Located in Chehalis, this creamery makes cheese with sheep’s milk. Like Mystery Bay Farm, Black Sheep Creamery raises the sheep themselves and makes the cheese. They offer a range of fresh cheese as well as hard aged cheeses. Try their “Basque” cheese. It’s a hard aged cheese with a smooth texture and a sweet flavor.

Ferndale Farmstead
If you have never tried scamorza, get in your car and go to the Chimacum Corner Farmstand to pick up a chunk of Ferndale Farmstead’s famous scamorza, made in the traditional Italian method. Scamorza is a traditional Italian mozzarella that is hung on ropes to age, a technique used by artisans for hundreds of years, giving it a pear shape. It has a bold, buttery flavor and is great in recipes like lasagna. Ferndale Farmstead creates cheese from their own herd of cows and also sells a delicious fresh mozzarella that is not to miss.

Samish Bay Cheese
Located in Skagit County, Samish Bay Cheese is a certified organic creamery that uses milk from its herd of cows to create artisan cheeses, like its flavored gouda and cheddar. At their farm in Bow, they sell some cheeses that have been aged for 10 years or more. The entire production of their cheeses, from raising cows, milking, making and aging cheese, happens at their farm.