In mid-October, our specialty cheese buyer, Rebekah Baker, traveled to Austira to meet with a variety of Austrian producers, cheesemakers, and dairy farmers.  

"We met in Vienna for a full day of tastings and meetings, and I saw everything form processed cheese in the shape of soccer balls to hand-crafted, raw cow's milk cheese made with asparagus" says Rebekah.

Rebekah's trip was then spent visiting cheesemakers and dairy farmers.  Die Kasemacher (their Klassich is a semi-firm aged sheep's milk, carried at Nugget Markets) is actually an old amusement park converted into a cheese-making facility.  All their milk is locally sourced and the emphasis focuses on hand-creafted cheese.

Rebekah's next stop was one of the sheep's milk dairies from which Die Kasemacher sources their milk.  At this small family owned dairy, Rebekah was greeted by three generations of family upon arrival.  

"We were first given a tour, where barnyard cats cavorted about our ankles in the company of some very vocal sheep, demanding food," says Rebekah, "and then we were invited into the house for coffee and pastries baked fresh that morning by the family's grandmother."  

Rebekah's final visit was to the Schlierbach Cistercian Monastery, one of Central Europe's oldeset monasteries, is a stunning hill-top Baroque monastery that houses both a children's school and cheese-making  facilities where a variety of rich, flavorful, organic soft-ripened sheep, cow and goat's milk cheeses are produced. 

"It was a beautiful study in contrast. We woud walk out of a decadent Baroque feast hall into a corridor lined with children's art projects and stuffed animals sitting on windowsills" says Rebekah.

Rebekah looks back on her Austrian cheese tour with a deep appreciation of  the pride and care that's invested in creating Austrian cheeses.

One of Rebekah's many takeaways from her trip? "I look forward to introducing more of these products into the Nugget Markets specialty cheese department, as they become available in the U.S."