Delicious Detours

Warning: There are ‘sharp’ turns ahead with well-aged cheddar, chèvre and more waiting for a couple eating their way along Quebec’s Cheesemakers Circuit

By Liz Fleming

My husband, Jamie, and I have never met a cheese we didn’t like, so we knew the Cheesemakers Circuit, an enticing listing of 16 cheesemakers and purveyors stretching through the beautiful backroads of Quebec’s Eastern Townships, was a must-do. For three gloriously self-indulgent days, we explored the route, with each stop providing a deliciously different spin on the ancient practice of cheesemaking.

A SAMPLING OF THE DIVERSE CHEESES IN THE REGION

© DAPHNÉ CARON

History tells us cheese was created by accident when one of our ancestors poured milk into a pouch made from an animal’s stomach – perhaps a bad storage choice, but it had an unexpectedly great outcome. The acids within it curdled the milk and created cheese. Luckily, the talented creators on the Cheesemakers Circuit have taken cheese a long way from those early curdling days.

AS IT AGES, CHEESE DEVELOPS MORE COMPLEX FLAVOURS

Family-owned fromageries are stretched along the Cheesemakers Circuit, including our first stop, Fromagerie La Station, run by the Bolduc brothers – Simon-Pierre, Vincent and Martin. One brother manages their happy cows, allowing some calves to remain with the milk-producing mothers and grazing the whole herd in grassy meadows on the theory that contented cows make sweeter milk. A second brother runs the modern facility where four styles of cheese – Chemin Hatley, Alfred Le Fermier, Comtomme and Raclette de Compton – are created with both raw and thermized organic milk (sanitized with low heat). The third brother manages the three wood lots where more than 5,000 maple trees are tapped to create sweetly sensational maple syrup.

While at Fromagerie La Station, we nibbled on grilled cheese sandwiches in their cozy store/café. Oozing sharp cheddar and served with a jam for dipping (or spreading on the crispy crusts), it is a lunch to die for before we continue our exploration of all things fromage.

A VISIT TO THE STORE AND CAFÉ AT FROMAGERIE LA STATION

© GAËLLE LEROYER

At Domaine de Courval, Lucy Smith and Greg San Giuliani, two former urbanites turned makers of goat cheese, run the quaintly quirky farm. “After years of living and working in Montreal, we wanted a change,” explains Smith. “When we saw a link on Facebook from a couple who wanted to sell their organic goat cheese business in the Eastern Townships, we called, met them, fell in love with the place and decided to buy it.”

But did they know anything about farming, goats or cheesemaking? Nope. The terms of the sale included an invitation to live with the previous owners for a few months of hands-on farm training – something not usually included in your average house purchase.

A few years down the line, the couple are as good at wrangling their ever-expanding goat herd as they are at rearing their small gang of adorable children – all the while making seven varieties of goat cheese. Whether you like the tang of their sea salt version, the lightly herbaceous flavour of the rosemary variety or the spicy sweetness of the habanero maple, you’re bound to find a fave. We did. All of them. Don’t ask me to pick just one.

CHARMING BOUTIQUE AT DOMAINE DE COURVAL

© MATHIEU DUPUIS

Cheese, we discovered, can become a religious passion, as we witnessed at the Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac. Twenty-seven monks work together to create an array of artisanal cheeses while managing an on-site store and tending to more godly responsibilities. On our tour, we roamed the richly tiled hallways of the abbey and tasted cheese in the heart of the sanctuary. It was followed by a shopping spree that netted us not only some excellent old cheddar but also locally made chocolates and jams. It was a truly heavenly visit.

THE ABBAYE DE SAINT-BENOÎT-DU-LAC OFFERS CHEESES MADE BY MONKS

© ABBAYE SAINT-BENOIT-DU-LAC

And speaking of cheddar… At the Fromagerie des Cantons, owner Hugues Ouellet and his cheesemaking family members produce the robust L’Anglais cheddar. I could easily eat it every day for the rest of my life. Aged for up to 10 months, it’s almost sharp enough to slice paper but still creamy on the tongue. I also think the firm El Niño is a winner. It’s one of the spicy bestsellers that has eager buyers lining up out the door. “We’re busy! We make one kind of cheese every day, but we have to make 113 kilos of it,” he noted.

Perhaps our most exciting stop is at Fromagerie Cornes et Sabots, where we met another urban escapee – Jean- François Larche, a Vancouver set designer and his partner, Nicola Cunha, a restaurateur who came from the west coast to the chilly woods of Quebec to farm, raise goats and make cheese from raw goat milk. And on occasion, they also make magic, as they did the afternoon we visited.

GOATS ENJOYING THE GRASS AT FROMAGERIE CORNES ET SABOTS

© FROMAGERIE CORNES ET SABOTS

We’d hoped to see a baby goat, but it was still February and too early in the season for birthing, we learned. Still, we decided to meet the herd anyway. Luckily, we discovered one goat mother who hadn’t got the “it’s too early” memo. In fact, she was already in full birthing mode. While we watched gobsmacked, Larche pulled on arm-length rubber gloves and helped the distressed mama goat with her delivery. He placed the newborn in our arms, wrapped in a blanket, while he tended to the mother.

As we cuddled the adorable baby between us in the chill of the wintry afternoon, we realized that some moments on the Cheesemakers Circuit are meant to be savoured just as much as its cheese.