Cowslip Creamery is rooted on Lubbers Family Farm, a family-owned sustainable farm in West Michigan. Our creamery makes cheese the old fashioned way, by hand, using fresh milk from the herd of cows on this farm. In keeping with agrarian tradition our cheeses are made only in the summer and only from raw milk provided by the grazing herd of Jersey cows. Clementine, Bella, Pretty Penny and the rest of the ladies spend their summers on green pastures soaking up sunshine and drinking fresh well water.
Cowslip is a flowering herb that trumpets the approach of spring. The ancients embraced the beautiful flower as a harbinger of goodness to come. The cowslip flowers in abundance on our farm every spring and heralds the pasturing of cows and the making of cheese.
Phocas is an extraordinarily approachable cheese with a touch of sweetness, a mild earthy taste, with a hint of floral notes and a beautiful, oh-so-slight piquant finish offering a true terroir. St. Phocas was a second century farmer who raised crops to feed the poor and offered his hospitality to all. When soldiers came to execute him he asked that his body be placed in his gardens that he might feed the soil that fed him so well for so long.
Brighid is a surprisingly mild semi-firm cheese with a rich, creamy paste and a slightly bitter, somewhat nutty aftertaste. The thin line of maritime pine ash, besides offering a nod to the wisdom of the ancients, makes a beautiful, distinctive cheese. Brighid takes its name from the Celtic goddess of fire and the hearth. Ever resourceful, and honoring the gifts available to them, the French country folk used their hearth ashes to protect their partial cheese wheels at the end of the day.
Haybo is a gentle cheese with a creamy paste and an inviting buttery flavor. The slight sour note is the perfect counterpoint to this rich cheese that beautifully showcases the high butterfat of our Jersey milk. Formed in the style of the traditional German butterkase, Haybo melts wonderfully, is great on sandwiches and makes a satisfying snack. This authentic cheese takes its name from a rune meaning gift. Runes are a set of ancient symbols used by the early Germanic peoples to write messages and inscriptions, as charms and for magic. The magic of this cheese is a gift.
Odin is a semi-soft, washed-rind cheese that is aromatic, but approachable. The dense creamy paste features tangy, meaty notes offering a pleasant mouth-feel. Hand smearing the wheels with Solitude, a deep mahogany colored ale crafted by Brewery Vivant, imparts sweet barley notes. Released at two months with a slightly sour interior, this lusty cheese will become stronger as it ages. Odin, believed to be the ruler of Valhalla, the Viking heaven, was also revered as the god of poetry.
