There are some amazing deals out on the shelves right now.
First off, how about P’tit Pyrenees at $9.99/lb? Same producer as P’tit Basque but made with a mix of Sheep and cow milk. Usually $16.99/lb!
Then there’s English Blue Shropshire, also at $9.99/lb. Shropshire is like an orange Blue Stilton, a little mellower and sweeter than the one we carry. Also regularly $16.99/lb.
And we also bought a bunch of cheese that can be classified as shipping mistakes, badly labeled, and not-full-cases. What is there will change almost every day, but look for the sign that says “Good Deal Grotto”. This stuff is super cheap!
We got three more wheels of this seasonal, grass-fed, raw, cow’s milk cheese from Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese Company. That’s it for the season, so get it while you can. This is real farmstead cheese. Sweet like and aged gouda, grassy like the winter California hills.
(For now at least. The dollar has already lost as much as it gained so these prices won’t necesarily last very long)
Because the dollar is stronger against the Euro than at any time in the last couple years, we finally have some relief on European cheese prices. I have personally lowered the price on most of the EU (i.e. not Swiss) cheese over the last couple of weeks including Spanish Manchego, Organic Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Istara Ossau-Iraty, P’tit Basque and many others. We also brought in a French Emmenthal (at $7.99/lb) because the Swiss keeps going up.
Additionally, we have a couple of while-they-last deals:
Fromager D’affinois $9.99/lb
In perfect condition. Oozy and rich.
Claudel French Brie $4.99/lb
Some rinds a little ugly, but paste is perfect, creamy, rich and mild.
If you take your truffles seriously, listen up. Pecorino Moliterno al Tartufo, my friends. One of the few truffle cheeses where the dairy part is as strong and complex as the mushroom part. Yup. The cheese is a big hearty, earthy, sharpish dry sheep. It’s riddled with rich lines of truffle ore. Autumn (such as it is in this temperate zone) is coming and you’ll be wanting some of this, maybe with some honey and Bartlett pears.
…sigh…
Oh, the tragedy of short dates. Bubalis Bubalis Mozzarella and Bocconcini are at the end of their sell-by dates. They’re still great; rich, milky, a little strong, as only buffalo mozzarella can be. So we’ve marked them down from $7.49 and $7.99 each, respectively, to a measly $4.99 for either one. This will please you as much as it would pain me to have to pull them off the shelf tomorrow. So come today. Buy one, go to produce and get the prettiest tomato you can find, drizzle some olive oil on it all, and eat it as soon as possible. It’ll be delightful.
Common misconceptions about buffalo mozzarella include, but are not limited to:
1. Any fresh mozzarella in water is buffalo mozzarella. Nope. Plenty of them are made with cows’ milk too.
2. Aren’t buffalo extinct? The short answer is that bison no longer thunder across the American praries. But this doesn’t come from bison, it comes from bubalis bubalis, the water buffalo!
3. I can get some tomorrow for the same low price. No you can’t. Come today.
. . . and we are sadly all out of the discounted bald Explorateur.  Still some of the yummy Besace du Berger left, though. Snap it up, folks!
 -Andy
If you read the post about the delicious and discounted Besace du Berger and Explorateur and thought, “That sounds great, maybe I’ll get it next week,” listen up: next week is here now, and the cheese is almost gone. We’ve got about two wheels of the rindless Explorateur, and maybe three dozen Besace du Berger, both of which I expect will be gone before you have a chance to smack your lips.
If you’re a parmesan afficionado, we’re selling big (2.5 to 3 pound) vacuum packed slabs of Boni brand Parmigiano Reggiano for $10.99/lb, which is a dollar less than our regular Reg, and about half the price of organic. So if your honey needs a cheesey vehicle, if your homemade minestrone requires hearty rind, or if your meals all seem naked without a blizzard of parmesan, you might consider this.
And just a follow-up on the Pedrozo demo, cheesemaker Tim Pedrozo sampled out the Pedrozo Nothern California Gold yesterday. People were snapping it up, but we have some left and will be offering it on our sample table for a day or two more. Tim’s now one of my favorite cheesemakers. I can still hear his great laugh booming in my ears. Boy, do I love cheesemakers who think I’m funny.
-Jenny Schmenny 6/4/06
