About our Cheese
Made with 100% pure sheep milk and aged a minimum of six months, DANTE has a rich, nutty flavor with a firm and somewhat dry texture. Dante complements pasta, dried fruit and balsamic vinegar as well as medium red wines and semi-sweet white wines.
Made with a blend of sheep milk and cow milk and aged a minimum of six months, MONA develops a very distinctiv e, mild and pleasant taste with a firm and somewhat moist texture. Mona is served well with sweet, Port wine styles.
Made with 100% sheep milk, our Feta develops the rich, tangy flavor of sweet milk with a firm, somewhat crumbly texture. This zesty cheese is a wonderful addition to vegetable and fruit salads. You can use it in just about any recipe that calls for cheese. Add to cooked rice or tomato-based pastas; use it as a topping for baked potatoes or as a filling for omelets; crumble it over tomato sandwiches; or simply serve it as a table cheese along with olives, bread, grilled vegetables, and salami.
Making Dante and Mona Our sheepmilk is produced with meticulous attention to cleanliness, as well as with respect for the environment and the well-being of our animals.
Member farms milk between 100 to 400 sheep seasonally, between February and September. During the spring and summer, the ewes, of the East Friesian or Lacaune breeds, have access to the greenest pastures available. Twice a day, the flocks return to the barns for milking. The milk is collected very gently, while the ewes are eating natural grains, and cooled quickly. The milk is picked up from the farms and used to produce our cheese.
The WSDC is committed to natural and sustainable farms leading to production of the highest quality cheese available. Dante and Mona are seasonally produced cheeses, assuring the unique taste of Wisconsin pastures is expressed in the cheese.
The incredibly rich, flavorful milk produced by our members is the start for what many consider to be the finest cheeses in the world. Sheep milk for our cheese is shipped fresh from our farms to Cedar Grove Cheese in Plain Wisconsin. There, world renowned cheese makers make our cheese in very small batches.
After gentle pasteurization, culture and rennet are added to form curd and the cheese is pressed into wheels that are approximately ten pounds each. Each wheel is then cured, with meticulous attention to humidity and temperature. All wheels are covered with an innovative edible poly coating and further cave aged for at least six months.
We believe our cheese is comparable in quality to the finest imported sheep milk cheeses available yet they are unique cheeses, owing their uncommon taste to the sheep, forages and cheese making tradition of Wisconsin .
Dante and Mona Product Features
• Seasonal production from grazing ewes.
• No production hormones.
• The nutrition of sheep milk is superior to cow milk in terms of protein, calcium and “good” fats.
• No preservatives are used in the cheese. Ingredients are: Milk, culture, rennet, salt.
Making our Feta Sheep milk for our cheese is shipped fresh, throughout the year, from our farms to a world renowned plant in central Wisconsin . There, cheese makers make our Feta by hand, using traditional methods.
After gentle pasteurization, culture and rennet are added to form curd. The cheese is not cooked or pressed but is cured briefly in a brine solution that adds a salty flavor to the sweet taste of the sheep milk. The name “Feta” means “slice” or “wedge” and comes from the way the cheese is cut into blocks before being placed in the salt brine.
We believe our feta is comparable in quality to the finest imported sheep milk feta available. The freshness and uncommon taste derive from the sheep, forages and cheese making tradition of Wisconsin .
Sales InformationAvailable at select retail locations and through several distributors Nationwide or Buy Cheese Now. If you are interested in wholsale purchase or distribution, please contact Paul Haskins at WSDC or email us at: sales@sheepmilk.biz.