Raw Cheese source

[Guest guest]

The following company does not have raw mozzerella, which has been asked

about, but they do have some other *excellent* cheeses at *excellent*

prices. I just use other types of cheese instead of mozzerella on pizza,

etc. most of the time, although sometimes I order mozzerella (not raw)

from FORC (Federation of Ohio River Co-operatives

www.forcwarehouse.com). You can't get catalog info from the website, but

you can get contact info to find out if they serve your area.

O.K, here is the place to order raw cheese from:

Morningland Dairy

(raw organic milk cheese)

(417) 469-3817 (You can call and ask them to send you a price list)

6248 C.R. 2980

Mountain View, MO 65548

I have never asked them about the amount of grass that the cows eat--keep

meaning to when I call in my order sometime. If anyone wants to call and

ask them, go ahead and let us know!

The *most* that I have paid for cheese from Morningland including the UPS

charges is $4 a pound. I always order most of my cheese in the 5#

blocks, I cut it into about 1# chunks, and freeze some of them. Freezing

does change the texture somewhat, but I don't have a problem with it. It

gets a bit crumbly from freezing. If you go through cheese fairly

quickly, you could probably get by with cutting chunks off of the big

chunk to use off of, so you aren't bringing the big chunk out so much and

it will keep better.

Minimum order is 10#. If you place an order of 40# or more, you get a 5%

discount. Your best buy is to get between 40 and 60 or 65 lbs. (I only

do that with a friend or several friends--depending on how much people

want to get at one time.) I think the cutoff weight for UPS packages is

70#, so on the order form they list 60# as the limit per box (with each

new box the shipping starts over, so it doesn't save any money to go into

a second box as far as shipping goes), but that is to give room for the

variation in weights on the pieces of cheese and also to allow for

packaging (which in the summer--or you could request if the weather is

unseasonably warm--includes styrofoam pieces around the sides of the box

with ice packs in the package). There is a handling charge (besides

shipping) in the winter of $2.75 per box, and $4.00 per box in the

summer. Shipments go out on Monday & Tuesday. The order form says that

they appreciate getting orders by the preceding Saturday. They say that

the first two orders are COD, and that after that you can send in the

payment within 14 days. They never asked me to do COD--of course, my

first couple of orders were between 10 and 15#, so they probably figured

I wasn't a real big risk, since I wasn't placing a huge order.

Here are all the varieties of cheese that they sell:

Colby

Hot Pepper Colby

Italian Colby

Garlic Colby

Dill Cheddar

Mild Cheddar

No-Salt Mild Cheddar

Med. Sharp Cheddar

Sharp Cheddar

Washed Curd Cheese (Cheddar Curd washed and pressed--softer and milder)

Goat Cheddar (Ozark Hills Farm--goat cheese not certified organic--but it

is organic, and it may even be certified now, I'm not sure)

The sizes available are 40#, 20#, 10#, 5#, 12-17 oz. reg. pieces, 7-11

oz. small pieces.

All except the goat cheese have prices in the three dollars and something

cents range per pound, and the goat cheese is from $5.35/# for the 40 #,

to 5.50/# for the 5#, and 5.78/# for the small pieces.

The plain colby and the washed curd are the cheapest:

40# 2.95

20# 3.00

10# 3.05

5# 3.10

12-17 oz. 3.30

7-11 oz. 3.38

The other varieties are just a little more.

The lady that answers the phone told me that because it is raw milk

cheese it will continue to age as you keep it (even if it is unopened,

but I guess this would be in the fridge, not the freezer) since the

enzymes are still working. So the cheddar will get stronger. She said

that the colby doesn't age as well, and that you should probably use it

faster.

I have been ordering from this place for several years. One of my

daughters and I love the goat cheese, but the rest of the family doesn't,

so that is something that if you are interested in it you may want to

just get a small piece of at first. That is what I do with any that I am

not sure about--get it is the 12-17 oz. pieces to see if I want to get a

large amount sometime.

To me the flavor of raw milk cheese is stronger than what you get in the

grocery store, so if you like sharp cheddar in grocery store type of

cheese, you may prefer medium cheddar in raw. I had a friend ordering

from Morningland for the first time who was ordering the sharp cheddar,

which I was a bit worried she might find too strong, but she and her

family loved it, so it all depends on individual taste.

Well, I guess that about covers it!

Bonnie in NC

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