Made using traditional methods, this rustic, farmstead cheese is spruce wrapped to keep its creamy paste from escaping the rind. Rich in woodsy, vegetal flavors.

Vacherin Mont D’Or is the inspiration for El Bosque, and other cheeses of this style, with evidence of its production dating back to the 13th century. During the colder months, farmers in the Franche-Comté region could not transport their milk to cooperatives that were producing Comté. Those farmers had to simplify cheese making methods to suit their home resources in order to utilize the milk, to make small, soft wheels of cheese. Surrounded by dense forestation, they wrapped the soft curd in spruce bark from local trees that not only held in the paste, but further connected each wheel to the land. It was a practice born out of necessity, but has since become a well-loved technique. Larks Meadow Farms handmakes each wheel of El Bosque using thistle rennet and traditional techniques. Its flavor is unique to the terroir of Rexburg, Idaho, with a salty, vegetal, sheep flavor.

MILK: pasteurized sheep’s milk
TASTING: pudding-like, salty, woodsy, subtle smoke, vegetal
SERVING: cut off the top rind and serve with a spoon
PAIRING: wheat beer, belgian ales, pinot noir, unoaked chardonnay
REGION OF ORIGIN: United States

MADE IN UNITED STATES

Whole unit: about 1 lb